Add the magic of Hollywood and later the sound of the Beach Boys' pop and cool West Coast jazz: no wonder the world thought California to be especially blessed.

ECONOMIST: The California dream

At 81, the amiable Mr. Strachwitz, whose family relocated to the U.S. West Coast in 1947, recalls falling first for early jazz when seeing the Louis Armstrong-Billie Holliday film "New Orleans" as a teenager, then hearing everything from hardcore hillbilly to "Harlem Matinee" and the Serbo-Croatian hour on Los Angeles-area radio.

WSJ: Five Decades of Arhoolie Records | By Barry Mazor

Brubeck took California's "West Coast Cool" school and with mathematical intellection removed it even further from the sweaty dance rhythms of jazz gone by: The album's compositions were in tricky, decidedly dance-averse time signatures.

WSJ: Mercurial Charles Mingus | Mingus Ah Um | Masterpiece by Eric Felten