Blue and cool is the mood as we spin the dial back to the 1950s — a decade of chrome, tailfins, Cold War tension, Beat poetry, and late-night cigarette smoke curling toward the ceiling of a dimly lit club. Beneath the middle class culture of the day, there was a restless heartbeat of jazz. This was the era when bebop matured into cool, hard bop caught fire, and modal explorations began reshaping the language of improvisation. Artists like Miles Davis refined understatement into revolution, John Coltrane stretched harmony toward spiritual searching, Thelonious Monk bent notes and expectations alike, and Ella Fitzgerald turned the human voice into a virtuosic instrument. Jazz in the ’50s wasn’t background music — it was conversation, protest, poetry, and possibility. Dave’s selected some important landmarks and deep tracks that take you into those dusty digital bins of jazz and improvisation this morning on Deeper Roots.

No.
1	Artist	Title	Album	Buy
2	George Shearing Quintet Feat. Nancy Wilson	Lullaby Of Birdland	The Swingin's Mutual!
3	Charlie Parker	Blues For Alice	Confirmation: The Best Of The Verve Years
4	Charlie Parker	Au Privave	Confirmation: The Best Of The Verve Years
5	Horace Silver & The Jazz Messengers	Doodlin'	Ken Burns Jazz [Disc 4]
6	Sal Salvador	Round Trip	Capitol Jazz 50th Anniversary Collection [Disc 3]
7	The Modern Jazz Quartet	Django	Django
8	Chet Baker	My Funny Valentine	Closer Than A Kiss: Crooner Classics
9	Erroll Garner Trio	Misty	Your Hit Parade – 1954
10	Clifford Brown & Max Roach	I Get A Kick Out Of You	Ken Burns Jazz [Disc 4]
11	Sonny Rollins	St. Thomas	Saxophone Colossus
12	Sonny Rollins	Oleo	Prestige Profiles Bonus
13	Eddie Heywood	Soft Summer Breeze	Great Instrumental Hits Of The 50s-80s (10 Songs)
14	Thelonious Monk	Nice Work If You Can Get It	The Original Jazz Masters Series – Vol. 4 [Disc 5]
15	Count Basie	Li'l Darlin'	Ken Burns Jazz: Count Basie
16	Lee Morgan	I Remember Clifford	Side Man
17	John Coltrane	Blue Train	Blue Train
18	Cannonball Adderley	Dancing In The Dark	Somethin' Else
19	Johnny Hodges	Satin Doll	Blues A Plenty
20	Miles Davis	Blue in Green	Kind of Blue
21	Charles Mingus	Goodbye Pork Pie Hat	Mingus Ah Um