Jack Webb & Pete Kelly

It's difficult to picture Jack Webb making an easy listening record or enjoying some cool jazz. The actor played a granite-faced police sergeant named Joe Friday on the television drama series Dragnet during the 1950s, and that is the lasting image that comes to mind at the mention of his name. How could the man who portrayed the rigidly controlled cop, and who spoke in a stern monotone, ever be cool enough for jazz? As hard to believe as it may be, Webb definitely knew cool jazz and he did, indeed, record several albums. The genre remained one of his lifelong passions. During...