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Bebop

A new attitude to music or natural evolution?

Dizzy Gillespie: ³It was just modern music, wewould call it. We wouldn't call it anything, really,

just music.´

Thelonious Monk: ³Bebop wasn't developed in anydeliberate way.´

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Stimuli

Despite what Dizzy Gillespie and TheloniousMonk have said implying a natural cause-less

evolution, there were contributing factors that ledto the development and progression of jazz to

bebop.

One such influence was the economic crisis of late 1920s and 1930s, especially the Wall Street

crash of October 1929.

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The 1929 Wall Street Crash & other

socio-politic stimuliAftermath

12 million out of work

12,000 made redundant daily

20,000 companies bankrupt

1929 ± 1932: 5,000 banksbankrupt

1930: ± 25% unemployed

1940 ± 50% unemployed

Effect on music

Jazz ³almost became anantidote to depression´

Also in other areas of popular culture, jazz becameincreasingly sociallyacceptable to the average American.

e.g. when America entersWWII in 1942, swing wasplayed on the radio tomotivate troops.

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Jelly Roll Morton and the unification

of Jazz

Jelly Roll Morton has credited himself as inventing jazz in 1902.

Some credit must be given to him for the pooling of manydifferent jazz styles into one style, which progressed to bebop.The pooling was made possibl by his extensive touring -

starting 1907 - and interaction with players of different cities.

Originally from New Orleans, his touring led to his settling inChicago in 1922(/1923?), moving to New York City in 1928 andto Washington, D.C. in 1935.

They style and instrumentation of Big Band can be linked toartists including as Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich and Morton. Itwas this style that would evolve into bebop.

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Etymology & Scat

It is possible that the word ³bebop´ came from the matching of an (often) improvised melody with random syllables. DizzyGillespie suggests that the random syllables were initially usedwhen singers forgot their words.

Scat can be traced to early New Orleans jazz (most famouslyLouis Armstrong's Heebie Jeebies).

Also, Sk id-Dat-De-Dat .

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Pre-bop

Bebop Short sax motifs Stride as bass line

Use of tuba as bass

instrument

Underpinning piano chords

Drummer maintaining a beat

throughout the piece

Symmetrical phrases

³Big Band´

Longer sax melodies ³Walking bass´

Use of double bass as bass

line

³Comping´

Less bass drum used:

instead of on beats 1 and 3,

with a snare drum note on

beats 2 and 4, snare would

give accented (rim)shotswhen appropriate

Asymmetrical phrases

Smaller bands (Big Bands

too expensive´)

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New role of the rhythm section

Drummers expanded on their previous role as time keepers.The standard beat of bass drum on (crotchet) beats 1 and 3, asnare drum tap on beats 2 and 4 and a steady swung quaver pulse.

Virtuosic artists such as Buddy Rich show the evolution of thedrummer's role from swing through big band to bebop. Piece:Y a Gotta Try.

The replacement of a tuba player with a double bass player took away a lot of the weight of the bass notes in a piece. Thisand the tend to walking bass instead of stride changed the roleof the bass in creating harmonies in music.

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Natural evolution

The logical next step in jazz.

Swing was not disbanded.

Competition meant that only

the best players could thrive,for they could be the mostinventive.

Art Tatum's harmonicsubstitutions ± chromaticdissonances.

Unpredictable phrase lengths

e.g. Sw ing to Bop ± CharlieChristian. Good example of a³head´ - an unpredictablemelody, which continued.

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Suppression of music

Musicians leaving their BigBand gigs would go to³underground cafes´ or other locations where they could

jam. The music became more

personal and less of aspectacle for others to watch.

The public would not typically

be exposed to these sessions,for free gigs were banned byMU.

Relatively few recordings of these sessions exist. Partiallybecause they could spanhours ± tales exist of leaving

a club in the early hours of the morning and returningmany hours later to findmusicians still improvisingaround the same tune.

Key locations includeMinton's Playhouse.

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Minton's Playhouse

Minton's Playhouse, Harlem

Musicians' post-Concertrelaxation and improvisationlocation

Regarded by many as thebirthplace of manyinnovations that defineBebop

Now on the U.S. Register of Historic Places

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Minton's Playhouse's House Pianist

Thelonious Monk

Encouraged competition andchallenged players to expandon their style.

Partially responsible for theintroduction of moredissonant harmonie. (Piece:E pistrophy ). E.g. Dinah(Tak e 2) is full of accented

major 7ths.

His almost-percussiveapproach to playing could beseen as an introduction tocomping.

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Exclusivity of Bebop

Thelonious Monk would challenge newcomers by playing oldstandards (e.g. I got Rhythm) in difficult keys to differentiatebetween those who could and those who could not keep up.

Miles Davis: ³That was Minton's. You had to put up or shut up,

there was no in between.´

Charlie Parker is said to have proved himself in Kansas City bylearning Lester Young's Lady Be Good tenor saxophone solo.This brings the centrality of improvisation to jazz into question.

Bebop's roots can be traced to an undergound elitist movement,that gradually become known and accepted.

The musicians remembered for this evolution have even beencalled ³radical modernists´.

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