Named for the seminal 1950 Miles Davis recording that popularized the understated inventiveness of cool jazz, "Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury" at the Addison Gallery of American Art captures California's midcentury style, from art and architecture to jazz.

Pictured, a jazz lounge, perhaps the most awkwardly conspicuous element of the installation at the ornate Addison, has been outfitted with plastic modular chairs and boasts a grid of album covers.

Read Cate McQuaid's art review (Globe, Feb. 29)