Many jazz musicians were dissatisfied with the lack of opportunity for improvisation that was a necessity with big bands. These young rebels began congregating after hours and formed combos of one to three instruments plus a rhythm section of piano, bass, drum set, and guitar. The resulting music became known as bebop or bop.

     Two of the most influential bebop artists were Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Through their influence bebop became a virtuoso form of jazz, demanding excellent musical skills and an extensive understanding of harmony. Bebop returned to a focus on solo improvisation, but at a new and higher level of complexity.

     During the late 1940s and early 1950s, bebop continued as the mainstream, but underwent some changes that led to the development of hard bop. Hard bop had a strong blues influence that simplified the harmonies and used a straight-ahead, driving beat.

     Neither bebop nor hard bop was widely appreciated. A number of jazz performers thought that many of the elements in bebop took away from the music. Miles Davis, in collaboration with Gil Evans, put together an ensemble of nine performers who began experimenting with a new, more melodic approach to jazz. The result was an album released in 1949 called Birth of the Cool.

     A number of musicians began taking cool jazz one step further and combining it with elements of classical music. Dave Bruebeck and the Modern Jazz Quartet incorporated rondo forms and fugues in their music. Gunther Schuller even coined the term third stream to indicate classical compositions with a jazz influence. Further experimentation led to a modal approach to jazz and finally to Ornette Coleman and free jazz. Free jazz was collective improvisation with no set structure. It is a very difficult music to listen to.

     The final development in jazz came with fusion, an attempt to merge elements of jazz and rock. Rock groups such as Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears added horn players to their groups. Some jazz musicians--such as Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, who formed Weather Report--combined jazz elements with rock instrumentation. It was once again Miles Davis who was the source of inspiration. In 1969 he released the album Bitches Brew, which set the standard, even rising to number 35 on the Billboard chart.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 

1. Bebop performers developed new tunes from old ones. They would frequently take the chord changes from a well-known, preexisting tune and create a new melody over the chords. Likewise, they would expand the changes by substituting more complex chords. The tune “Ko Ko” was based on a tune called “Cherokee” by Duke Ellington. One of the most frequently used chord changes came from the opening section of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.” This chord sequence became so familiar it became known as “rhythm changes.” The well-known theme to the Flintstones cartoon show is based on these chords.

2. Bebop was not appreciated by a large audience. It wasn’t music for dancing. The angular melodies and lightning-fast rhythms couldn’t be easily absorbed in one hearing. It is hardly surprising that during this time period another style of music became quite popular and began displacing jazz clubs and recordings. That music became known as rock and roll.

3. Bebop remains the highest achievement in the history of jazz. It is a very complex style that requires ultimate virtuosity and a strong foundation in music theory. Many successful musicians from the New Orleans tradition or the big band era couldn’t develop the expertise needed to perform bebop.

FURTHER TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Some very fine movies available that deal with this era and subject matter. Clint Eastwood has produced two very fine works: Bird, a feature film about the life of Charlie Parker, and Straight, No Chaser, a documentary on Thelonius Monk. Finally a feature film called Round Midnight stars the late, great saxophonist Dexter Gordon and deals with a fictional character performing in Paris during the 1950s.

2. It is generally difficult for the average listener to distinguish among the various styles of modern jazz. The differences between bebop and hard bop, or cool jazz and bebop are not always easily discerned.