Modern Jazz: Bebop (Bop)

• New styles of jazz after 1940: “Modern jazz”

– (jazz before 1940: “Early Jazz”)

• Influences:
– Saxophonists Coleman Hawkins & Lester Young
– Pianists Art Tatum & Nat “King” Cole
– Guitarist Charlie Christian
– Count Basie rhythm section

• Bop pioneers: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk

• Modern jazz: Reaction against swing, or natural evolution from

swing?
 The Demise of Swing:
World War II
• The Draft
– Many jazz musicians were called to war, leaving few at
home
• Band Raiding
– Stealing of band members from other bands
• Transportation
– Gas & Rubber shortages
– Dismantling of the railways
 The Demise of Swing:
World War II
• Midnight Curfews
– Brown-outs
• Amusement Taxes
– 20% at any club that included dancing
• Unwillingness to Travel
– Good musicians did not need to travel, since they
could make a living right where they were
 The Demise of Swing:
Restrictive Musical Formats
• Lack of solo opportunities
– Solos had to be short in Big Band
• Harmonic formulae
– Overworked; same chord progressions used over
and over
• Lack of creativity
– Stereotyped rhythms and rhythm sections
 The Demise of Swing:
Restrictive Musical Formats
• General lack of surprise in any given musical
circumstance; jazz had fallen into a rut
• By the early 1940s, with the exception of a
few, most big bands sounded stylistically alike
 The Demise of Swing:
The Recording Ban
• American Federation of Musicians (the
musicians union) orders a ban on all
instrumental recordings
– Due to increased numbers of recordings on radio
and in jukeboxes
• Unable to record new material, bands begin to
break up
 The Demise of Swing:
Racism
• African American musicians were paid less
than their European American counterparts
• African Americans had to contend with the
most oppressive manifestations of racial
prejudice and segregation
– Ex. Roy Eldridge
 The Demise of Swing:
Racism
• African Americans became disenchanted with
swing music
• Wanted to create their “own” music
– Too difficult, too virtuosic, too “hip” for their
white counterparts
• A true African American ART form
– Not for dancing, but for listening
 Bebop:
Philosophy
• Bebop was ART music, not “entertainment
music”
– Not for dancing, but for listening
– Effectively removed jazz from the mainstream of
pop commercial music
• Bebop musicians considered themselves
artists, not entertainers
 Bebop:
Philosophy
• A conscious attempt on the part of young
African American jazz musicians to improvise
and create a serious music
• Completely an African American invention
• Today, it is listened to, studied, and performed
by all peoples
 Bebop:
Performance Practices:
Differences from Swing:
• Primarily a small group music
– Trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass, & drums
• Designed for improvisation, not elaborate arrangements
• Average tempo faster than swing
• Clarinet was rare; rhythm guitar was rare
• Virtuosic music; very difficult to play
• “Trimmed down” arrangements
– Rarely written, mostly just discussed
– Few introductions, endings, interludes, etc.
– Instead of complex arrangements, bebop utilized complex
“heads” (melodies)
 Bebop:
Performance Practices:
Differences from Swing:
• Improvisations much more complex
• Melodies & harmonies more complex
• Bop tunes & chord progressions had a more
unresolved quality
• Accompaniment rhythms more varied
• Comping more prevalent
• Drummers: more time-keeping in suspended cymbal
• Element of surprise
• More agitated than swing
 Bebop:
Performance Practices
• Usually used a basic format
– 1st Chorus: Head played in unison
– Middle Choruses: Improvised solos
– Trading fours or eights (Opt.)
– Last Chorus: Head in unison

• Gillespie & Parker: “Shaw Nuff” (CD 1, tr. 26)

• Music is instrumental in nature

– Large range of notes
– Rhythmically complex
– Extremely difficult to sing
– Use of “scat singing”
 Bebop:
Performance Practices
• Tune Sources
– The Blues
– Standards
– Contrafacts (new melody overlaid on
familiar/old harmonic structure)
– Originals
 Bebop:
Minton’s Playhouse
• Famous jazz nightclub in New York’s Harlem known
for its role in the incubation of bebop
• In the late 1930s – early 1940s weekly jam sessions
and after-hours playing provided the opportunity for
up-and-coming beboppers to explore new musical
ideas together
– e.g., trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Thelonious
Monk, drummer Kenny Clarke
• Their experiments played an important role in the
development of the bebop style
 Bebop:
Minton’s Playhouse
 Bebop:
52nd Street
• In the 1940’s and 50’s, jazz was performed in
several famous jazz night clubs along 52nd
Street in New York City
– e.g., Birdland, The Three Deuces, The Onyx Club
• Became to be known as the Street of Bop
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Charlie “Yardbird” Parker
(1920-1955)
– Melodic ingenuity
– Extreme improvisational speed
– Innovative harmonic designs
– Unique tone quality
– Beat generation icon
– Respected as uncompromising artist and intellectual, not entertainer
– Early life: Kansas City
– 1939: New York; Jay McShann’s Territory Band (1st recording)
– Morphine & heroine addiction
– Earl Hines’ band; then Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Christian
– Monk: “We wanted a music they couldn’t play.”
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Charlie “Yardbird” Parker
(1920-1955)
– Realized the 12 chromatic tones of the scale
could lead to any key
– Liberated language of simpler jazz soloing
– Influenced by Igor Stravinsky; wanted to create a “Third Stream” of music,
combining jazz and classical elements
– Wanted to perform with strings; 1949 album “Charlie Parker with Strings”
• “Summertime,” “April in Paris,” “If I Should Lose You”
– Several recordings in the late 1940’s; increased addiction
– California period (less heroin, turns to alcohol); time in hospital
– Recording: Charlie Parker, Dial Sessions, Volume 1 (made while drunk)
• “Max Making Wax” (beginning—misses opening bars; solo at 1:15---confusion)
• “Bebop” (beginning—struggles on 2nd 8 bars of solo)
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Charlie Parker (1920-1955)
– Practiced contrafact (playing an original melody
over older/familiar chord changes of a tune)

– Example: “Cherokee” (1943) (Ray Noble)

• Play 1st: Duke Ellington Orchestra, “Cherokee”
• Play 2nd: Sarah Vaughan, “Cherokee”
• Charlie Parker, “Koko” (based on chord changes of “Cherokee”)
– “Billie’s Bounce” (1945)
– Be Bop
– ”Groovin’ High (1947)
– “Confirmation” (1953)
– Parker laughing at Coleman Hawkins
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
– Lightning-fast virtuosity;
– Incredible range & agility
– Influences were Armstrong & Roy Eldridge
– Bop big band
– Several original compositions
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
– b. South Carolina; moved to Philadelphia
– Worked with Cab Calloway (fired)
– Freelanced with Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman,
Ella Fitzgerald
– Member of Earl Hines’ band; helps form bebop
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)
– “Be-bop” (1963) (Solo at 2:00) (reunion album from 1945
recording)
– “Groovin’ High” (1947) (Solo at 3:00)
– “Things to Come” (1946) CD 1, tr. 27
– “A Night in Tunisia” (Solo at 1:10)
– “Hot House” (1951)
– “Sonny Side Up”
– “For Musicians Only”
– “Salt Peanuts” (1970s performance) (Solo 4:18 in)
 Bebop:
The Latin Influence
• Latin music has made an enormous impact on
jazz composition and performance
• Trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie and
percussionist Tito Puente were two of the first
responsible for fusing jazz with Latin music
– Gillespie explains epiphany of “Manteca”
– “Manteca” (1947)
– “Cubano Bop” (1947)
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Thelonious Monk (1917-1982)
– Eccentric chord progressions
– Eclectic piano style: stride, horn-like
– Rhythmic virtuosity
– “Misterioso” (1948)
– “Rhythm-n-ing” (1965) (Solo 3:35 in)
– “Straight, No Chaser” (1967)
– “’Round Midnight”
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Composers:
– Tadd Cameron
Modern Jazz Quartet
– John Lewis
• Modern Jazz Quartet: Milt Jackson
– “Django” (1960) (LP 10, tr. 4)
• Bass: Charles Mingus
– “Hora Decubitus” (1963) (LP 10, tr. 5)
• Drums: Kenny Clarke & Max Roach
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Piano:
– Bud Powell
• Scant harmony in left hand
• “Tempus Fugit” (aka “Tempus Fugue It”)
– Al Haig
– George Shearing
• Smooth, polished sound (“polite bop” or “white bop”)
• Sophisticated harmonies in left hand
• “Locked hands” style of Milt Buckner
• “Conception”
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Piano:
– Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
• Extreme virtuosity
• Orchestral ballads; lush and Impressionistic
• Greatest of all bop pianists
• Be-bop: “Tonight” (from “West Side Story”)
– “I Got Rhythm” (1951)
• Ballad style: “I Can’t Get Started With You”
• Blues: “C Jam Blues”
• “Cakewalk” (6:00 in)
• Live in Vienna (2004) (1:15:42 in)
• Watch this interview with Dick Cavett.
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Trumpet: Miles Davis (Ch. 12)
• Trombone: J.J. Johnson
• Tenor Saxophone:
– Dexter Gordon & Sonny Stitt
– Stan Getz—incorporated bossa nova into jazz
• Live from California (1983)
 Bebop:
Musicians
• Big Bands: Woody Herman & the Thundering
Herd
– “Wild Party”
• Singers: Sarah Vaughan
– “Whatever Lola Wants” (1954)
– “Misty” (1964)
– “Body and Soul” (released 1978) CD 1, tr. 31
 Bebop:
Top Names in Bop
• Trumpet: Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis
• Piano: Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Oscar
Peterson
• Saxophone: Charlie Parker, Stan Getz &
Dexter Gordon
• Drummer: Max Roach and Kenny Clarke
 Bebop:
Popularity and Unpopularity:
• Popular: • Unpopular?
– Even though not all – Resembled art music
could follow bop, they – Chamber music
loved it anyway – Appealed only to the elite
– Artists like Charlie – Removed from “popular”
Parker died in obscurity jazz
(outside realm of bop); – Not all could follow it
Goodman was a
– Not as popular as swing
household name; but
Parker contributed more – Not as visual as swing (no
to jazz dancers, few singers)
 Bebop:
Popularity and Unpopularity:
• Popular: • Unpopular?
– Became more popular – Melodies difficult to
throughout history and follow
development of jazz: – Not danceable:
cool, hard bob, free, etc. • Too fast
– Easily commercially • Beat wasn’t simple
packaged • Dancers want to know
melody before dancing
– Not easily packaged
commercially
 Cultural Implications
• Geographical
– Bebop was centered in NYC
• Cultural
– Racism and segregation were rampant
• Had to stay at separate hotels from their white counterparts; stay in black
rooming houses or on the bus
• Had to eat in separate restaurants; often not allowed to eat in the places they
performed
• Required to use separate bathrooms and water fountains
• Often required to sit in the back of city buses

– Lynchings of the 1930s & 1940s

• Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit
 Cultural Implications
• Bebop reflected the culture of the time; growing out
of the desire of African Americans to have their own
music
• Like the African American experience, bebop:
– Was difficult
– Alluded to the blues
– Explored new directions and uncharted territory
– Was separate from mainstream America
 Cultural Implications

• Many jazz musicians, in their struggle to deal

with oppression and related issues, became
addicted to drugs, particularly heroin; many, in
fact, met their demise due to drug abuse.
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Cool Jazz • Hard Bop
– Tone color: light – Dark
– Tone ‘weight’: light – Dark
– Tone texture: soft – Raw
– Melody: simple – Complex
– Overall character: relaxed – Fiery
– Influences: swing & bop
– Sax styles: Lee Konitz – Bop
– Trumpet styles: Miles – Charlie Parker
Davis – Dizzy Gillespie (& Davis)
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Cool jazz: much indistinguishable from bop
– Simpler
– Softer
– Smoother
– More written arrangements (vs.head arrangements)
– Contrapuntal melodies (melody against melody)
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Cool jazz: California jazz (discuss label)
• Lenny Tristano (piano) & Lee Konitz (alto sax)
– Tristano: style a combination of Art Tatum and
Lester Young
– “locked hands” style of Milt Buckner
– Music of J.S. Bach
– Clean 8ths & 16ths; classical (Baroque) influence
– “No Figs” CD 2, tr. 1
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Lee Konitz
– Lighter, airier sound (compared to Parker)
– More legato lines, less syncopation than Parker
– More of a ‘cool’ sound
– “My Lady” (CD 2, tr. 2)
– “My Melancholy Baby”
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Miles Davis
• Birth of the Cool (Miles Davis Nonet)
– Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan (bari sax), John Lewis
(piano), Max Roach (drums)
– “Boplicity” LP 9, tr. 1
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• West Coast Style
• Big Bands
– Stan Kenton
• “Artistry in Rhythm”
• “Tampico”
• Orchestral sound; many styles, mostly “cool”
• Jazz education (college jazz bands)
• “A Trumpet” (CD 2, tr. 3)
– Woody Herman
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Other Cool Jazz Musicians/Groups:
• Gerry Mulligan (bari sax)
– “Walking Shoes” (1956)
– “Moonlight in Vermont” (1959)
– Jazzfestival Bern (1990)
• Stan Getz (tenor sax)
– “The Girl from Ipanema” (1964)
• Chet Baker (trumpet)
– “Almost Blue”
 Ch. 10 & 11: Cool Jazz & Hard
Bop
• Other Cool Jazz Musicians/Groups:
• Dave Brubeck (d. 12/5/12) (D.B. Quartet)
– “Take Five” (1961) (3+2)
– Blue Rondo alla Turk (c. 1959) (2+2+3)
• Modern Jazz Quartet (John Lewis, piano; Milt
Jackson, vibes; Percy Heath (bass); Connie Kay
(drums)
– “Django” (1988)
– (Also: Miles Davis, “Blue in Green” (1959) JCD, tr. 64
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Definitions/types:
– Continuation of bop
• “Kiss and Run” (CD 2, tr. 6)
– “Funky” or “”Soul” jazz
• “Senor Blues” (CD 2, tr. 5)
• “Jive Samba,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”
– Hard-driving bob-related jazz
• “The Egyptian”
– Other unique approaches related to bop
• Herbie Hancock, “Maiden Voyage” (CD 2, 8)
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Elements of Hard Bop:
– Volume generally louder (often miked)
– Tone color: rich, dark, and raspy
– Rhythm: heavier, harder (hence the term), and
hard-driving
– “Hard bop” = “funky jazz” = “post-bop” (all terms
used interchangeably)
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Musicians:
• Piano:
– Horace Silver
• “Song for My Father” (solo at 2:30)
• “Senor Blues”
• Trumpet:
– Clifford Brown
• “I’ll remember April” (solo at 2:00)
• “Cherokee” (solo at 1:15)
– Freddie Hubbard: “Maiden Voyage” (CD 2, tr. 8)
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Musicians:
– Drums: Art Blakey & Max Roach
– Blakey’s Jazz Messengers: “Cranky Spanky” (CD
2, tr. 7)
– Saxophone:
• Cannonball Adderley (alto)
– “Flamenco Sketches” (CD 2, tr. 9)
• Sonny Rollins (tenor)—tremendous improviser;
unpredictable; eccentric tone quality
– “Kiss and Run” (CD 2, tr. 6)
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Musicians:
– Drums: Art Blakey (1919-1990)
– Pioneering hard bop drummer

--Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (formed 1954): “Cranky

Spanky” (CD 2, tr. 7)
“Down Under” (LP, “Mosaic”)
“Arabia” (LP, “Mosaic”)
“I Remember Clifford” (1958 recording)
“Blues March” (1959 recording)
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Musicians:
• Guitar: Wes Montgomery
• Bass: Paul Chambers & Sam Jones
 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Big Bands:
• Maynard Ferguson
– “Chameleon”
• Gerald Wilson
• Thad Jones (Detroit): “Cherry Juice”

(For kicks: Arturo Sandoval screaming trumpet)

 Ch. 11: Hard Bop
• Summary:
– *Hard bop evolved from bop in the 1950’s, mainly
from East Coast and Midwest Musicians
– Simpler; darker and heavier tone qualities; hard
driving, unrelenting swing rhythm
– Funky jazz (subcategory of hard bop): bluesy
inflections of pitch; gospelish harmonies
– Drummers: louder and more intrusive
 Ch. 12: Miles Davis
• Biography:
– Early years in New York (Ch. Parker) (1944-48)
• Juilliard School of Music
• Recordings/arguments with Parker
– Birth of the Cool (1948-9)
• Royal Roost
• Racism
• Recordings (1949-50)
– “Blue Period” (1950-54)
• Paris/Drugs/Detroit/Depression/Baker’s Keyboard Lounge story
 Ch. 12: Miles Davis
• Biography:
– 1st Quintet & Sextet (1955-58) (John Coltrane)
• Newport Jazz Festival
• Recordings w/ Prestige: Round About Midnight,
Relaxin’/Steamin’/Workin’/Cookin’ with the Miles Davis
Quintet
– Sextet: +Bill Evans
– (1958-1964)
– 1958: Milestones—interest in modal improvisation
– *Kind of Blue (1959)—modal jazz
 Ch. 12: Miles Davis
• Biography:
– 1958: Milestones—interest in modal improvisation
• “Dr. Jackle”
– *Kind of Blue (1959)—modal jazz
• Documentary
• Rolling Stone’s #12 all-time 500 greatest albums
 Ch. 12: Miles Davis
• Biography:
– 1964-68: Second Quintet (Herbie Hancock)
• Seven more albums
– 1968-75: Electric Bop/Cool
• Influences: Sly & the Family Stone, James Brown, Jimi
Hendrix; Karlheinz Stockhausen; multi-tracking & tape
loop (& other experiments)
• “Bitches Brew” (1970)
 Ch. 13: John Coltrane
• Hard bop & free jazz pioneer
• “Giant Steps”
• “Ascension”
 Exam 3 Study Guide
• Exam 3 will consist of 25 multiple choice questions (2
points ea.), an unknown excerpt (5 points) and 5
paragraphs/essays (9 points ea.)
• You should know:
– The conditions that brought about bop; why did bop
evolve?
– Elements of bop; how did it differ from swing?
– Performance practices of bop
– Differences between bop and cool jazz and hard bop
 Exam 3 Study Guide
• You should know:
– Who were the pioneers of bop?
– Who were the major musicians (by instrument)?
– Who were the pioneers of Latin (i.e. Afro-Cuban) bop?
– How was bop popular/unpopular?
– Who were the major cool jazz musicians/groups?
– Who were the major hard bop musicians/groups?
– What was the significance of Stan Kenton?
– What was the significance of Davis’ “Milestones” and
“Kind of Blue”?
 Exam 3 Study Guide
• I will ask you to write thorough paragraphs on the
following possible topics:
– The conditions that brought about bop; why/how did bop evolve?
– Elements of bop; how did it differ from swing?
– Performance practices of bop
– Differences between bop and cool jazz and hard bop
– How was bop popular/unpopular?
– What contributions did Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and
John Coltrane make for the development of modern
jazz?