It was mostly small indie labels that issued bebop recordings in the early days, but as this new music gained credence and popularity as the 40s became the 50s, bigger companies began to get involved during what is bebop’s Golden Age.īut by then, bebop, like all music forms, was evolving and changing. (The latter, though initially deemed a bebopper, quickly established his own unique style that defied easy categorization.) The interest in bebop and “modern jazz” among young jazz musicians grew rapidly, and soon Parker and Gillespie were at the forefront of a jazz revolution in whose vanguard were trumpeters Miles Davis and Fats Navarro, saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt and James Moody, and pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Parker and Gillespie recorded together separately and with singer Billy Eckstine’s Orchestra, which helped incubate bebop in the mid-40s. A jazz revolutionĪ recording ban by the US musicians’ union between 19 (they were striking to get a better royalty rate from the recording companies) meant that the birth pangs of bebop were initially not well documented on record, but when the ban was lifted, the floodgates opened.
Musicians the likes of Parker and Gillespie considered themselves artists rather than entertainers, and sought to distance themselves from black music’s showbiz traditions. Jazz was no longer carefree, happy-faced, radio-friendly music functioning as an escapist soundtrack, but had become something deeper and almost visceral. But the elitist, self-conscious artiness, and cerebral aspect of what is bebop alienated many listeners. Indeed, bebop, with its improvisatory ethos and demand for virtuosity, insisted upon being perceived as an art form. As it wasn’t danceable – it was usually played too fast for that – those who had enjoyed swing jazz found it of little interest and too intellectual. It proved to be a profoundly influential recording for aspiring saxophonists.īut bebop – or “rebop,” as it was also known for a time – wasn’t to everyone’s taste. It’s worth noting that tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins anticipated the improv aspect of bebop when he recorded the song “Body & Soul” in 1939, in which he briefly stated the main melody before embarking on a long improvisation that bore little resemblance to the main theme. This meant that soloists really had to be sharp-witted, well-prepared, and know their scales inside out, especially when the chord changes came thick and fast (as was the norm with bebop).
In the hands of bebop musicians, jazz became more blues-oriented and riff-based too and because Parker and Gillespie were able to marry their supreme technical ability with their knowledge of advanced music theory, what resulted was a new type of jazz defined by extended solos and whose harmonic language was denser and richer than ever before. In bebop, though, the rhythmic emphasis was switched from the bass drum to the more subtle hi-hat and ride cymbal, which allowed greater rhythmic fluidity (drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach were the chief instigators of this new approach). Bebop, as the revolutionary new style and sound eventually came to be known (the origin of the word “bebop” partly stems from a nonsensical word used in improvised scat singing) grew as both an offshoot of and reaction to big band swing music, which was dominated by propulsive dance rhythms.
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