Billboard : 10/15/1955
Score of 81

Name power, talent and a display-worthy cover tag this as a leader. Getz and Manne are the big names, of course, tho Candoli too has a following. The new star, comparatively, is Levy, whose remarkable jazz performances should win him first-flight recognition in no time. The stuff is modern, always interesting, and it swings powerfully when it’s supposed to. For musicians and for fans, this one is tops. It can be pushed with few reservations.

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Cashbox : 10/29/1955

The Stan Getz Quinet, composed for this session of Getz; Shelly Manne, drums; Leroy Vinnegar, bass; Lou Levy, piano; and Conte Candoli, trumpet; work together as tho they had been a unit for many years, and the results are some excellent jazz waxings. Getz’ faultless tenor saxwork is subtly showcased by the combination, each a star in his own right. The album will fit well into the listening plans of the fan of modern jazz. It swings, has the sound, and the talent that spurs each other on to great performances.

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Army Times
Tom Scanlan : 02/25/1956

Stan Getz is featured on a new 12-inch LP (Norgran MGN 1032) entitled West Coast Jazz although why the album should have this title is not too clear. With Getz are drummer Shelly Manne, pianist Lou Levy, bassman Lou Vinnegar and trumpeter Conte Candoli. The renditions are all cool, as you might expect from a glance at the personnel. Tunes include East of the Sun, Suddenly It’s Spring (taken up in this instance), Night in Tunisia, Summertime and Shine. Summertime is one of the best. Getz has played better, but if you are one of the many cats who dig his approach, you should like this record.

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Playboy Magazine : December, 1956

An old high school buddy of ours, Lou Levy, turns up on piano on a new Norgran release, West Coast Jazz (N-1032). With him is a dedicated band of modern brigands led by Stan Getz, Shelly Manne and Conte Candoli, none of whom need any endorsement from us; they perform as fine as their reputations would lead you to expect.

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Saturday Review
Whitney Balliett : 11/26/1955

An extremely pleasant and unusual – for its limberness and ungloved emotion – modern date made on the West Coast by Getz, C. Candoli, L. Levy, L. Vinnegar, and S. Manne. Getz plays the six standards here as he might have ten years ago – with softness, long unforced lines, and feeling. Candoli and Levy are both satisfying for their complete proficiency. A top-notch record.

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Down Beat : 12/28/1955
Nat Hentoff : 3 stars

This is called West Coast Jazz, because, I suppose, it was recorded in Los Angeles. If there’s any other reason, it eludes me. The participants are Stan Getz, Shelly Manne, Conte Candoli, Lou Levy and bassist Leroy Vinnegar. The only original, Four, is by Miles Davis and was recorded by him on Prestige LP 161. This doesn’t sound like the happiest of sessions. Candoli’s sound is shrill and while his conception is competent he’s not especially stimulating.

Getz’ tone too is not always at its best on this set and hic conception has been more brilliant and more exciting on other sides. Stan’s blowing on these also could hardly be called the most virile of the year. In essence, though his work here is still remarkably fluent and better than most tenors can reach, it’s not up to Getz’ own capabilities. His best track here is Summertime. The rhythm section is all right, but it could swing more and flow more.

Solowise, the best man on this date is pianist Lou Levy who is the chief reason for auditioning the LP. Lou is generally original, swings hard, uses both hands, and communicates real emotion. I’m not sure what David Stone Martin’s cover means, but I like it. Recording quality could be better.

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Liner Notes by Unknown

On a hot July night in 1955 – July 27 to be precise – the Stan Getz Quintet opened a one-week engagement at Zardi’s in Hollywood. Actually, this wasn’t the Stan Getz quintet, if such a thing exists, but rather what the profession terms a “pickup” unit, which is to say a group organized for one date and presumably nothing more.

Getz, nominally the leader, looked about for four really outstanding West Coast jazzmen to fill out his quintet. Finally, he assembled these men – Shelly Manne, drums; Lou Levy, piano; Leroy Vinnegar, bass, and Conte Candoli, trumpet.

After the briefest of rehearsal periods, the quintet was ready. “It was a remarkable thing,” one of them said later. “We all seemed to think alike, musically, from the start.”

This must have been true, for they played together superbly and every topflight jazzman who heard the group that week came away in amazement. Then, about this time, someone had a bright thought: why not set some of these swinging sounds down in more lasting form, on record? This being an altogether reasonable notion, there followed what one of the musicians called “a mighty happy session,” resulting in this “West Coast Jazz” Album.

Thus we have here, headed once more by Getz’s fluid and subtle tenor saxophone, the same quintet that filled the engagement at Zardi’s. All of them could be called exponents of West Coast jazz. Although categorizing in any fashion has its pitfalls, “West Coast Jazz” by definition embraces a thinking in which jazz is played along the lines of chamber music, gentler and yet intricately woven and with emphasis as much on the writing as on the solos.

For its first recording venture into West Coast jazz, the group selected some tried-and-proven standard tunes and the solos by Getz and Candoli on these standards are among their best. Moreover, they receive unusually solid backing from the rhythm section – a threesome that swings lightly but with unwavering firmness. Drummer Manne continues to grow in stature as one of the most significant jazzmen of the coast school. His hard-hitting style merges well with that of pianist Levy, a modernist with a fresh concept, and bassist Vinnegar, whose tone has a singularly pleasant singing quality.

All of this, a prime example of West Coast Jazz makes for a memorable and distinguished album.