Bebop Music In Jazz Music

The decade of the 1940’s was an important era in the history of jazz. The 1940’s was a transition from traditional jazz into modern jazz. Leading this transition was the introduction of the Bebop period in Jazz. Bebop created controversy in the jazz world for being a contradiction to traditional jazz and was widely disliked by many audiences across America. Despite its controversy, Bebop, also referred to as “Bop,” was one of the most important eras in the history of Jazz. The technical creations by some of Bebop’s greatest musicians influenced future generations of jazz musicians

Bebop Jazz is the subgenre of jazz that has its origins during the early to mid - 1940’s in the United States. Bebop Jazz is characterized by its instrumental expertise, complex chord progressions that change rapidly, a naturally fast tempo, a diverse amount of key changes, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, and the use of many scales and infrequent connections to the melody. Bebop Jazz is one of the many major foundations responsible for shaping and creating the modern jazz present today.

John M. Reilly supports this when he states "Building upon a restatement of Afro-American music, bebop became an

One of the most tactlessly forgotten musicians of that time is a man that went by the name of Dizzy Gillespie. John Birks Gillespie, known to most as Dizzy Gillespie, stood as one of the most imaginative artists in the history of jazz. He rose to fame during the bebop period of the jazz culture, taking place in the 1940s and 50s. One can even say that this type of fast-tempoed music came into being because of Dizzy Gillespie and his fellow musicians, Charlie Parker and Theolonius Monk. When Dizzy was born in South Carolina, no one expected they were looking at someone who would form a new style of jazz.

To support himself Charlie washed dishes at a local food joint, where he met Buddy Fleet, who was the one who tutored Charlie in playing the saxophone. Charlie would then return to Kansas City due to the death of his father and stayed home for about a half a year while playing in a small band there. Then in late 1939 Charlie joined back up with McShann and moved back to Harlem, where Charlie would meet Dizzie Gillespie. Gillespie would join Charlie and would start to work together and develop a new form of jazz. While Charlie was experimenting with a number of different chords in a jam session he discovered a new approach to improvisation. These new chord progressions and the ever emerging sounds of Harlem, bebop was born.

On the other hand, Blues were basically from work songs of African Americans slaves at the time. “It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country, or, to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives”(pp.17), said Jones and Baraka. In Jazz – A History, Frank Tirro wisely analyzes and explains the relationship between the unique background and

Armstrong was the first artists to endorse improvised jazz of inventive solos over the prior art music that followed ensemble art form. Through the innovation of solo music, he was able to make sure the relaxed phrasing in jazz that replaced the staccato style of the twenties. Moreover, Armstrong's inventive style was the basis for the Swing Era that is commonly evidenced in different jazz art genres including the bebop and cool jazz (Brothers 88). Suggestible, the improvisation was the basis for the

In the 20th century, Jazz was one of the most expressive forms of music around, as it was just starting out and was born in a time where victims of oppression were beginning to stand up and rebel. In comparison to classical music, Jazz is a very new genre of music. It’s evolution is vividly evident in it’s contrast of instrumentation, dynamics, and the introduction of modal jazz which I will discuss later on in this essay. One of the first jazz virtuoso’s that appeared and had a significant influence on jazz, was Sidney Bechet, on clarinet and saxophone.

The composers and the musicians of the bebop jazz improvised some rhythmic patterns in the basic beat and around each section of the music.

He played Bebop, a type of jazz music that was radical and

Jazz music can be likened to a progressive work of art. Throughout its history, Jazz music theory and techniques are continuously advancing and reforming as musicians pursue their interests by seeking new methods of expression. Jazz evolution is perpetual, and can take the form of incorporation of new techniques, adoption of more intricate harmonies and rhythms, or establishment of more elaborate melodies (Gioia). The early 1940s saw an increase in the number of Jazz modernists. As swing music declined in popularity due to various effects of the Second World War, Jazz branched into two very contrasting musical styles. The first of these new and unique styles of Jazz, called Bebop emerged in the 1940s, and was the product of numerous jam sessions in back rooms and after-hours clubs. The movement that unfolded in the later 1940’s and 50’s, called Cool (sometimes referred to as West Coast Jazz) came as a response to Bebop’s later demise. Even though Bebop and Cool stemmed from the big band music of the swing era, their differences are apparent. From its conception, to its musicians, to its audiences, Bebop and Cool came into the Jazz timeline for different reasons. Nevertheless the two musical movements ultimately left a long-lasting and distinctive influence on Jazz music, which is still manifested in Jazz music today.

Music such as jazz was commonly used mediums where African American musicians sought fame and fortune. Many influential artists took to the stage in clubs such as the Cotton club. Notorious gangster Owney Madden took over as the owner, where he used the club’s popularity as a platform to sell his alcohol in the face of prohibition. It came to be known as a hub for alcohol, drugs, marijuana, and interracial sex. Despite being a white-only establishment, this Harlem nightclub lent itself to some of the greatest African American performers of all time. It was the first time in history in which white and black people had interacted in a non hostile environment. Jazz became the “in” music of the time. The new genre looked at an instrument as a

Cool Jazz has a slow tempo. Since it is a softer type of music it 's tone is soft and melodic. The beats per measure is very low. The performers of cool jazz try to keep the dynamics low and soft so that it kept its tempo and tune. Even though it originated from bebop it is much longer. The soft tones causes cool jazz to be played in clubs such as an intimate club.

“Walkin”, was a swaggering blues piece informed by the extended harmonies of bebop was a shift from cool jazz and announced the arrival of hard bop (Sales, 1992:171). Hard bop was the evolvement and development from bop during the 1950s and 1960s, often regarded as a reaction to the restraint and intellectualism of cool jazz (Kingman, 1990:389).

Mobley would use two distinct yet related theme and place them in two parts, this created a concept for motif development. To understand this framework, it seems useful to trace back the origin to the blues. The blues tradition exhibited early characteristics of the concept of motifs in jazz. From rural blues to hard bop, the blues form exhibited notable flexibility while still retaining its basic AAB1 structure. (Alper 2005, p.2). The most common form of blues, namely the twelve bar blues, exhibited the basic idea of tension and release through the use of motif building. In particular, the form of AAB allows the singer or the instrumentalist to use their A melodic line in both the tonic and subdominant chords. This allows the building of tension through motif repetition, with the B line as a point of resolution with the accompaniment of V-I cadence. This practice remains the foundation of blues playing today (p.4). Hard bop, despite being the successor of earlier bebop, displayed the idea of bringing the rhythmic attributes of blues back to the front.(