Jazz Notes VII

We had left the Swing Era behind in a not so pleasant world. Yes, the World War II was over, leaving many wounds and scars all around the world. I always wondered where would the world be right now if there wasn't a war after all... Impossible to answer. 
Yes, the USA was victorious against its enemies in the war, but it had lost its opportunity to become a more racially integrated country with the decline of the Swing Era. I have never understood the hypocrisy of asking African-American people to fight for liberty and democracy, especially against Fascism, that they never enjoyed at home. Too much politics, yep, but can you separate art from politics? Don't think so!

Bebop:

The Great Charlie "Bird" Parker (1920-1955)

Anyhow let's come back to our chronological jazz style posts. In 1945, the Swing Era was almost over, the world was trying to lick it's wounds with the ending of the war. So were the jazz musicians... Especially the African-American musicians were very much frustrated about the increasing racism, inequality in wages and touring problems. On the other hand, Swing music never enabled the musicians to express their freedom and desire for experimenting and innovating. I guess the majority of the African-American musicians who especially had become virtuoso on their instruments were feeling like that. Most probably these musicians were being forced to suppress their improvisation skills in exchange for a steady job and salary and most importantly hope for status which would never come.

And that's how Bebop evolved in the early to mid 1940s. But as most of the jazz historians also point out, was it an evolution or a revolution? I guess we can say that both arguments are true. Keep in mind that some of the same historians further claim that real jazz has started with Bebop.

It was an evolution if you think the chronological timeline of jazz styles and the changing climate of the USA since 1890s, from African work songs to Ragtime, from Blues to Dixieland and Swing. It was equally a revolution due to the fact that Bebop was nothing like its predecessors, it was a sudden and drastic change in musical formation (however we must keep in mind that even it is a revolutionary form it was never a reaction against Swing).

Wikipedia defines Bebop like this: "Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, which features songs characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody."

Sounds like an evolution and a revolution to me...

In Bebop, there is a vast amount of stylistic changes compared to previous jazz forms:

1. Especially compared to Swing, the instrumentation was rather limited. Generally a Bebop band consisted of two horns (a trumpet and a saxophone) plus the rhythm section (piano, bass and drums). We can also see bands as small as a trio (piano,bass and drums) and as big as a septet (multiple horns, guitar and the usual rhythm section)
2. Solo and much longer improvisation is a key element and the solos are almost never repeated and resolved
3. The tempos used in Bebop are generally much faster than the earlier jazz forms
4. Drumming is very different, shift to cymbals for time keeping is introduced
5. Adherence to written music and arrangements is very minimal
6. The chord progressions and melodies are much more complex
7. Largely developed in jam sessions, more informal and in small clubs without much rehearsing
8. Requires top virtuosity, artistry to play and a deep knowledge of jazz harmony
9. Singing is very minimal and mostly performed as scat and also improvised

"Shaw 'Nuff" by Gillespie and Parker, one of the earliest and best examples of Bebop

We can also say that with Bebop, jazz started to be an art music rather than popular entertainment or dance music. I believe this was the breaking point of jazz in history. I believe it is purely an art music created by African-Americans (with exceptions of course) who wanted to create their own music. It was a good reflection of the situation of the colored people: complex and difficult, with a blues reference with the desire of experimenting and looking for new directions. It was totally opposite of mainstream.

Bebop, the first definitive form of modern jazz, was dramatically less popular than the classical jazz forms. It was a style that did not allow dancing nor singing in way masses wanted. When compared to swing, it was not a show for entertainment nor had a visual appeal; therefore did not attract the people who wanted to enjoy themselves. As it is still the case today, human voice and singing makes most music more listenable and appealing.
It is also a fact that majority of the music listeners prefer uncomplicated music; meaning predictable themes, songs they can at least hum to or tap with the beats. Bebop did not offer any of these.
Furthermore sound wise, it grew more and more abstract than all its predecessors. The average listener was not able to catch the melody of the song played even with the well known pieces. The improvised lines and the fast chordal changes were challenging as well.

Masses have always neglected to understand instrumental jazz as a language per se and turned their backs to this wonderfully crafted art form. This is probably why jazz started to become alienated from the public and docked somewhere only the real enthusiasts could reach to. And from there jazz was no more America's popular music.

However there were obviously successful (i.e.commercially) bebop bands too, such as Stan Getz (maybe more cool jazz but still), George Shearing and Modern Jazz Quartet (note that Getz was famous mostly for his compositions that contained vocal).

If you ask me (the jazz historians agree with me on this one😉) only three names that created Bebop, I would say on alto & tenor sax, Charlie Parker (Bird); on the piano, Thelonious Monk and on the trumpet, Dizzy Gillespie. These three were the originators of what we call today "modern jazz". Please note anything before Bebop is considered as "classical jazz". They had analyzed well the styles of the most innovative figures of classical jazz such as Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Art Tatum, Charlie Christian, Roy Eldridge and Count Basie. 

"Salt Peanuts" by Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker

"Bloomdido" by Parker, Monk & Gillespie

Key figures of the Bebop jazz scene were:

• Trumpet:
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Fats Navarro
• Miles Davis
• Clark Terry
• Saxophone:
• Charlie Parker
• Dexter Gordon
• Sonny Rollins
• Stan Getz
• Piano:
• Thelonious Monk
• Bud Powell
• Oscar Peterson
• George Shearing
• Ahmad Jamal
• Bass:
• Ray Brown
• Oscar Pettiford
• Charles Mingus
• Drums:
• Max Roach
• Kenny Clarke
• Roy Haynes

"Ko-Ko" by Charlie Parker, another fine example of Bebop

So this is Bebop in a nutshell. When I reviewed the post before publishing, it sounded like it had more of a criticizing tone about Bebop, which was never  and could never be my intention in the first place.
But that's what Bebop is; always complex, unresolved and different. An evolution of the past to revolutionize the future. Don't forget, after Bebop nothing in jazz was the way it used to be!

Nb: Some information you may use in a quiz show.

• Why was Charlie Parker called "Bird" (Yardbird)?
• Some say that he liked to eat chicken all the time (even there is a story that he wanted to take home and cook a chicken that they hit with a car). Another story says that he used to practice in the local park and the neighbours nick named him the "yardbird".
• Who threw a cymbal to him?
• It was the drummer Jo Jones who threw a cymbal at the teenage Parker, after he made a mistake in a tune by losing the beat.
• Where does the word "Bebop" come from?
• Some say from the scat singing where "be" and "bop" syllables are mostly used
• Others say it is from Charlie Christian's and/or Dizzy Gillespie's hummings