Bebop, Cool, Hard, Free
Short Description
Bebop...
Description
BEBOP 1940’S - MID 1950’S
Bebop Characteristics
Performance aspects differing from swing
Small combos (3 - 6 members) Faster tempos than swing band tempos Clarinet and rhythm guitar rarely used in bebop Higher instrumental proficiency Bebop became the 1st style of jazz that was not used for dancing
Bebop musicians
Disassociated from their own audience, their own employers, non-jazz musicians, and even from other jazz musicians
Trying to raise the level of jazz from dance music to a chamber art form
Status of jazz performer - from entertainer to artist
Drug’s effect on bebop musicians
Bebop Characteristics
The shift to bebop
“Minton’s playhouse - the hippest jazz club in NY
The first jazz style that was not used for dancing
Bebop was not enthusiastically accepted by the jazz community at the time of its emergence
The origins of bebop - hard to determine
The word "bebop" is usually stated to be nonsense syllables
Bebop did not have the same large audience enjoyed by the swing bands
Jazz, in general, despite of its popularity was not viewed as an art form by the general public
Bebop was the era from which the majority of our jazz giants emerged
Bebop Characteristics
Bebop Compositional Aspects
Complex melodies
Large melodic intervals
Abrupt changes in melodic direction
Highly syncopated, rhythmically quick and unpredictable
Original melodies commonly based on popular song chord progressions
Blues form used often
Bebop arranging
Melodies in unison (trumpet and sax together) Usually improvised lines
Standard format 1 chorus melody, improvisations, and 1 chorus melody again for end of the tune Faster tempos – not danceable
Charlie Parker
Alto saxophonist
Called “Yardbird” or simply “Bird”
Credited as THE originator of bebop
1943 - NY, central figure of group of musicians including Dizzy, Monk and Clark Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Parker's sound - dry with slow vibrato, the opposite of all favorite that time
Improvising concept
constructed solos on upper structure chords
syncopated accents on particular notes
double time feel even in ballads
influenced all the great players from then on: Coltrane, Powell, Stitt and Gillespie
Parker also became an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat generation, personifying the conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual, rather than just a popular entertainer.
Suggested Viewing “Bird”
Dizzy Gillespie
Trumpet player
Called “Dizzy”
Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.
He was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz “Manteca” – the first Latin Jazz tune
Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz.
In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop, which was originally regarded as threatening and frightening music by many listeners raised on older styles of jazz.
He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.
Influenced: M. Davis, R. Rodney, F Navarro, K. Dorham, T. Jones
Dizzy Gillespie on The Muppet Show Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong - Umbrella Man
Bebop Pianists
Bud Powell
Classically trained pianist
Created the model of bebop piano
Approach derived from Tatum with bop phrasing of Parker and Gillespie
Modern comping--two or three note chords
Thelonious Monk
Piano-composer, co-founder of bebop, approach derived from Waller-stride piano playing and Ellington's percussive comping
Improvisation style: avoided the difficulties of finger dexterity
Technical virtuosity (rapid scales, arpeggios) was not characteristic
Compositions--difficult chords, symmetry, unique logic, shifting accents
Bebop Musicians
Kenny Clarke - drums
House-drummer at Minton’s Playhouse w/ Gillespie, Monk, C. Christian, B. Powell
4/4 pulse from bass drums to ride cymbal
Bass drum and snare--independent background accents
Oscar Pettiford - bass
Bass-cello-bandleader, first bassist to apply virtuosity of Blanton within bebop context
Co-leader with Dizzy, worked with Ellington
Bebop Musicians
Oscar Peterson – piano
Style derived from Tatum and Powell
Extraordinary technique
Max Roach – drums
House-band at Monroe’s Uptown House with Bird & Diz
Developed K. Clarke's style into bebop
Modern Jazz Quartet
John Lewis-piano-arranger-composer
Milt Jackson-vibraphone; warm bluesy melodic lines w/ slow vibrato
Bebop Musicians
J.J. Johnson - Trombonist-composer
Paved the path for trombonist in the bop style
Active composer, particularly for TV and movies in the 70’s
Sonny Stitt - alto-tenor sax, "Lone Wolf”
Recording over 100 records
The greatest disciple of Charlie Parker
Sonny Rollins - tenor sax
One of the last still living legends of jazz;
Still performs very actively throughout the world
Clifford Brown – trumpet
An influential and highly rated musician
Considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players
Cool Jazz & Third Stream
Cool Jazz
Cool Jazz markedly different from the complexities of bebop
Relaxed tempos, subtle instrumental colors Expanded ensembles “Chamber ensembles”-performing in more intimate setting Intricate arrangements and innovative forms Little or no vibrato New meters were added like 5/4, 9/4 (Odd, Irregular meters)
Typical symphonic instruments
String instruments -violin, viola, cello
Woodwinds - flute, oboe, French horn
Flugelhorn - like trumpet, a darker, more mellow sound
Miles Davis
Trumpet player, Composer/arranger
Innovative band leader
Leading personality among the giants of jazz
He was not destined to be known only for his contribution to the development of cool jazz but rather he was an innovative force in the evolution of jazz
Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006.
Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century
Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s.
He played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jazz records.
He was partially responsible for the development of modal jazz, and jazz fusion arose from his work with other musicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Belongs to the great tradition of jazz trumpeters that started with Buddy Bolden and ran through Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie
He was never considered to have the highest level of technical ability.
His greatest achievement as a musician, however, was to move beyond being regarded as a distinctive and influential stylist on his own instrument and to shape whole styles and ways of making music through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important jazz musicians of the second half of the Twentieth Century made their names.
Miles Davis
Important in the development of improvisational techniques incorporating modes rather than the standard chord changes
Davis’s tone is straight with very little vibrato, long tones…epitomized the cool attitude
Many critics consider his album “Birth of the Cool” as the beginning of the “Cool Jazz”
Always searching for new, fresh, exciting ways to play his music
Befriended Jimi Hendrix and were going to record an album together – Hendrix died…
Of all the stylistic periods contributed to or initiated by Davis, it was the cool period which he is most connected
Gil Evans
Arranger, composer, pianist, and bandleader
His arrangements made use of string instrument as as well as nontraditional jazz instruments
Influenced by Duke Ellington
The music of Cool Jazz was much associated with Gil Evans
His contribution to Cool Jazz was as important as Davis's.
Gil Evans
Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond
Dave Brubeck – piano
Much of his music employs unusual time signatures (“Odd meters”).
His long-time musical partner, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, wrote the Dave Brubeck Quartet's most famous piece, "Take Five", which is in 5/4 time and has endured as a jazz classic. Brubeck experimented with time signatures through much of his career, recording "Pick Up Sticks" in 6/4, "Unsquare Dance" in 7/4, and "Blue Rondo à la Turk" in 9/8.
In 1954 he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, the second jazz musician to be so honored (the first was Louis Armstrong).
Paul Desmond – alto sax
Known to have possessed an idiosyncratic wit, he was one of the most popular musicians to come out of the West Coast's "cool jazz" scene.
Cool Jazz Performers
Modern Jazz Quartet
Piano, Vibraphone, Bass, Drums
Gerry Mulligan-baritone sax
“Line For Lyons” - Classic example in the Cool Jazz repertoire
Stan Getz – sax
With Astrud Gilberto – “The Girl from Ipanema”
Chet Baker – trumpet/flugelhorn
Specializing in relaxed, even melancholy music`
West Coast Jazz
Late 1940’s-cool style on the West Coast
“Lighthouse at Hermosa Beach”-center of activities
Competition between East Coast and West Cost Cool Jazz
Most of West Coast musicians - white, associated with Swing band tradition
Most of East Coast musicians - African American, associated with the bebop style
West Coast musicians working in Hollywood studio orchestras
Influences of Western European classical music
Third Stream
Combines elements of Jazz and 20 Century art music
Extension of the cool compositional style
Gunther Schuller
One of the key figures in contemporary classical music.
Schuller coined the term “third stream” in a lecture
Thus describing a style that is a synthesis of classical music and jazz
Third Stream
In 1981, Schuller offered a list of "What Third Stream is not”:
It is not jazz with strings.
It is not jazz played on “classical” instruments.
It is not classical music played by jazz players.
It is not inserting a bit of Ravel or Schoenberg between be-bop changes—nor the reverse.
It is not a fugue played by jazz players.
Third Stream
From Jazz:
Language, gestures, improvisation, and rhythmic drive
From Classical:
Instrumentation (orchestra, string quartet, etc.), forms (fugue, suite, concerto, etc.), and compositional techniques
Hard Bop (Funky, Gospel Jazz)
Characteristics
Hard (more driving)
Bop (return to the elements of the bop style)
Funky (rhythmic feeling)
Gospel Jazz (funky + elements of early Gospel music)
Characteristics
The Hard Bop style was more improvisational and emotionally based
Used highly rhythmical melodies and less complex harmonies
Happy sound, lacked tension and frustration
Bop elements which were generally simplified
Borrowed elements from African American church music
Cool jazz and Hard bop
Cool Jazz
European compositional techniques
Often called “West Coast jazz” - centered in California
Hard bop/Funky
Adopted the truly American, and oral idioms found in gospel and blues
Centered in New York
Art Blakey
One of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming.
Formed a group called the “Jazz Messengers”
Blakey’s name became synonymous with hard drive and pulsating excitement Art Blakey
Art Blakey
Along with pianist Horace Silver formed a group called the “Jazz Messengers”
Over more than 30 years his band the Jazz Messengers included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz.
Blakey's group is equivalent only to those of Miles Davis in this regard.
His brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was, and remains, profoundly influential on mainstream jazz.
Horace Silver
Pianist, composer
Known for his distinctive humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering contributions to hard bop.
His quintet served as a model for small jazz groups during the 1950s – 1960s
Trained many young players
Excellent composer and arranger Horace Silver
Charles Mingus
Bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader
Influenced by Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Negro gospel music, Mexican folk music
Had a strong approach to composition and performance
Excellent bass soloist Charlie Mingus
Bill Evans
One of the most famous and influential American jazz pianists of the 20th century
His use of impressionist harmony, his inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and his syncopated and polyrhythmic melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists
His works continue to influence pianists, guitarists, composers, and interpreters of jazz music around the world.
Moved to the head of the jazz community when asked to join the Miles Davis group in “Kind of Blue” album
Created a new sound for the piano that took the traditional chords and reshaped them with his own trademark “voicings”
During his lifetime, Evans was honored with seven Grammy Awards and nominations.
In 1994, he was posthumously honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bill Evans
Free Form Avant-Garde
Free Jazz - Characteristics
There is no universally accepted definition of Free Jazz, and any proposed definition is complicated by many musicians in other styles drawing on free jazz, or free jazz sometimes blending with other genres.
Free Jazz uses jazz idioms but generally considerably less compositional material than in most earlier styles
Typically this kind of music is played by small groups of musicians.
Free jazz normally retains a general pulsation and often swings but without regular meter, and often with frequent accelerando (gradually speeding up the tempo) and ritardando (gradually slowing down the tempo), giving an impression of the rhythm moving in waves.
Rhythm is more freely variable but has not disappeared entirely.
It is also fairly common for free jazz songs to use an "open vamp" of one chord for solos
Consciously breaking away from the established tradition
Melody of the tune - often absent
Rhythm – would not likely remain the same throughout the performance
Improvisations - not based on a harmony of a popular tune
“The more freedom allowed, the more discipline necessary”
Ornette Coleman
Saxophonist
One of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
1st known leader of the jazz avant-garde
One of the most controversial free jazz players
He initiated a controversy of strong, opposing opinions from many of the other established jazz leaders, including Miles Davis & Charles Mingus
1st player to move all the way into harmonic freedom
Approached the harmonic freedom through improvisation
Had an extensive background in blues bands
Ornette Coleman was honored with a Grammy award for lifetime achievement (2007)
Pulitzer Prize for music (2007)
Ornette Coleman
Cecil Taylor
Pianist
Extremely controversial, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the inventors of free jazz.
Attended the New England Conservatory of Music
His music is a fusion of classical compositional practices and jazz improvisations and can be heard as either classical or jazz
His music is some of the most challenging in jazz, characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing exceedingly complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. At first listen, his dense and percussive music can be difficult to absorb. His piano technique has often been likened to drums and percussion rather than to any other pianists.
Cecil Taylor
John Coltrane
Saxophonist (tenor/soprano)
Massive influence on jazz, both mainstream and avant-garde One of the most dominant influences on post-1960 jazz saxophonists and has inspired an entire generation of jazz musicians.
Played with Miles Davis
Produced a large, dark, lush sound from his instrument
Known for his long improvisations (sometimes 40 minutes in length)
Throughout his career Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension that would color his legacy. His conception of expression in jazz became increasingly mystical, Gnostic and cathartic.
Awards
Coltrane received a posthumous Special Citation from the Pulitzer Prize Board (2007) for his "masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.”
Posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1992)
John Coltrane Saint John Coltrane
Chicago Style of Free Jazz
Art Ensemble of Chicago
An avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s
AEC explore world-based modern jazz music.
Notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed "little instruments" in addition to the traditional jazz lineup • “Little instruments" can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including found objects).
The group also uses costumes and face paint in performance. These characteristics combine to make the ensemble's performances as much a visual spectacle as an aural one, with each musician playing from behind a large array of drums, bells, gongs, and other instruments. When playing in Europe in 1969, the group were using more than 500 instruments.
Chicago Style of Free Jazz
Sun Ra & Sun Ra Arkestra (a deliberate re-spelling of "orchestra")
Pianist, composer, arranger, synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions and performances
Quite a controversial jazz figure
Known by several names throughout his career, including Le Sonra and Sonny Lee • Denied his connection with birth name, saying "That's an imaginary person, never existed … Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.” • He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the sun). Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona of "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of afro-futurism as he preached "awareness" and peace above all.
He experimented with electronic instruments
1st composer in Chicago to employ techniques of collective improvisation in big-band compositions
His music touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing music, from bebop to free jazz
He was also a pioneer of electronic music, space music, and free improvisation, and was one of the first musicians, regardless of genre, to make extensive use of electronic keyboards.
Free Jazz Controversy
Free jazz performers - considered the most radical musicians since the bebop era
It remains less commercially popular than most other forms of jazz.
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