Hey O - see my reply from 11:35 last evening re West Coast vs Bop. There’s a place for both and fortunately we don’t have to pick one style over the other. "East Coast" (I hadn’t been certain that was a meaningful category name, but since you use it....) definitely seems the grittier of the two. On any given day I might prefer Hard Bop to start, but listen long enough and West Coast, as I said last night, is a nice change of pace.
But talking East Coast, I couldn’t find Pilgrimage as recommended by Frogman. Instead, started listening to Brecker’s Tales from the Hudson River. This is Track 5, African Skies. McCoy Tyner guesting. The entire album is pretty strong. I’ve listened to it all several times since finding it just the other day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCOAvvumyWg&ab_channel=JazzHawkFWIW - One thing I’m learning about my personal taste at this point in time: tend to prefer quartets and quintets to anything smaller. In fact, I can get more specific than that. Start with drums, bass, piano (trio's tolerable if there's a piano) and add one or more other soloists (e.g., woodwind and/or brass).