Chapter 11

BEBOP

Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Bebop and Jam Sessions

In the mid-1940s, bebop, or simply bop,
represented a turning away from jazz as a
popular music, part of the mainstream of
American culture, to a music that is
isolated, non-danceable, played by small
combos to a small audience in a virtuosic
style that was difficult to grasp.
There are two ways to view this change:
one labels bebop as revolutionary,
something apart from the jazz that

Bebop and Jam Sessions

(contd)
preceded it; the secondthe view adopted
heresees bebop as evolutionary, part of
the jazz tradition that made it into an art
music and linked to the preceding Swing
Era through the jam session.

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

Swing musicians started work in the evening
and continued to play after their regular gigs
at jam sessions, which were relaxing in their
informality, but work-like in their
competitiveness.
Musicians kept inexperienced players off the
bandstand by playing tunes at ridiculously
fast tempos in unfamiliar keys. Standards
like I Got Rhythm were reharmonized with
difficult chord substitutions. Bebop

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

(contd)
musicians were continually tested,
confronting fast tempos and complicated
harmonies.
Charlie Parker and other beboppers played
jam sessions at Mintons Playhouse on 118th
Street in Manhattan, a venue at the forefront
of experimentation with this new style and its
adventurous challenges.
Drummer Kenny Clarke relates how he
changed drumming while playing a fast tune

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

(contd)
with Teddy Hills band in the 1930s. He
couldnt play every quarter note on the bass
drum, so he started keeping the beat on the
ride cymbal, producing a lighter, more
flexible way of keeping time and leaving the
bass drum available for fills.
When Hills band later collapsed, Minton
offered him the job of running the music at
his playhouse. Hill realized that Clarkes
style of playing might be perfect for a jam

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

(contd)
session. Clarkes combinations of snare and
bass drum accents were called klook-mop.
Klook, as he came to be known, played
unexpected bass drum accents in a
technique known as dropping bombs (this
all took place, after all, during World War II)
that became popular with younger
drummers such as Max Roach and Art
Blakey.

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

(contd)
Soloists played unpredictable melodies (inspired
by Lester Young), often ending with two eighth
notes (be-bop or re-bop), which irritated older
musicians.
Pianists, inspired by Basie, started comping
putting in accompanying chords in unpredictable
places that complemented the drummer. Because
of the new drum technique, guitarists no longer
needed to play four to the bar and instead
comped on the newly popular electric guitar.

Dropping Bombs at Mintons

(contd)
Bassists continued to be timekeepers but
raised the level of virtuosity. Oscar
Pettiford could play swiftly and also take
melodic solos.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

Bebop is characterized by complex,
dissonant harmonies. Although disliked by
many musicians, these harmonies were not
newthey were simply privileged. Art
Tatum, Duke Ellington, and Coleman
Hawkins used complex and dissonant
harmonies, orchestrations, and solo lines,
respectively.
The problem was how to share these
harmonies so that other musicians could

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
use them. Characterized by common use of
the tritone and extended notes of a chord,
this approach made improvising more
difficult. Musicians had to learn to tackle this
music intellectually, not just emotionally.
Racial and economic forces were driving
musicians out of swing. These nonmusical
forces form the basis of the revolutionary
view of bebop. During the Swing Era, black
musicians could not get lucrative jobs

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
playing for radio orchestras, nor could they get
lengthy engagements at the top New York
ballrooms or dance halls, both of which offered
invaluable publicity and a rest from the rigors of
constant touring.
Thus, most black bands were forced onto the
road. Although some of the top bands could travel
in their own railroad cars, most had to travel on
buses and tour the Jim Crow South, where they
were subject to discriminatory practices.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Musicians became bitter and exhausted,
and increasingly left the big bands for jam
sessions. Bebop provided a site where they
could go and explore their music outside
the system.
By the early 1940s, a new jazz based on
chromatic harmonies and an interactive
rhythm section was in place. All that
remained was the arrival of a new kind of
virtuoso soloist.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Charlie Parker (19201955)
1. Parker (Bird) is considered among the best alto
saxophonists in jazz history. He grew up in Kansas City
and received his nickname after he provided a
Yardbird (dinner in the form of a run-over chicken) to
his band mates during a trip to a gig. But the name
Bird also resonated with the sense of taking flight
embodied by Parkers approach to playing--qualities
that include speed, agility, elusiveness, and melodic
beauty.
2. Parker did not show any great gift for music at first and
was humiliated by drummer Jo Jones at a jam session
early on. This spurred him to start practicing

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Charlie Parker (19201955) (contd)
seriously for a summer in the Ozarks. His model was
Lester Young, whose solos he memorized. By the time
he returned to Kansas City, he was described as
playing like Lester Young, only twice as fast.
3.He joined the well-known territory band lead by Jay
McShann. He also started using alcohol, pills, and, after a
car accident, morphine. Eventually he started using heroin.
4.His solo playing seemed to be both bluesy and modern,
enlivening traditional blues progressions with modern
harmonic substitutions and rapid-fire solos. At the same
time, he could blend into a big-band reed section when
needed.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Charlie Parker (19201955) (contd)
5.Although he could play well while on heroin, his constant
movement from band to band taxed the patience of most
bandleaders. In New York, Parker had a readily available
drug supply and jam sessions to play. It was through these
sessions that he found a network of musicians who shared
his approach to advanced music. One such was
trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.

Dizzy Gillespie (19171993)

1.Dizzy was as much a virtuoso as Parker and also the
intellectual force behind bebop. If Parker was the Pied
Piper, Gillespie was the master craftsman.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Dizzy Gillespie (19171993) (contd)
2.Originally from Cheraw, South Carolina, he was self-taught
on the trumpet and had unusual technique. He earned a
music scholarship to attend Laurinburg Institute in North
Carolina, where he studied trumpet and piano. He first heard
jazz on the radio, including players like Roy Eldridge. He left
to play jazz in Philadelphia, then in New York. He was an
excellent soloist and reader.
3.By 1939, he was at the top of the heap, playing with Cab
Calloway; he also wrote arrangements and composed for
the band. However, Gillespie chafed against the staid
atmosphere of the band, and a misunderstanding with
Calloway resulted in his termination in 1941. For the next

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
Dizzy Gillespie (19171993) (contd)
several years he freelanced around New York, which
included playing in the small-combo jam sessions that
gave birth to bebop.
4.Gillespie became the center of gravity for bebop. He was
generous to other musicians, showing them the harmonic
and rhythmic features of the new music.
5.He adapted dissonant chords to his compositions such
as Salt Peanuts, which was based on a bop drum lick,
thus introducing his humorous side to the music. Another
of his compositions, A Night in Tunisia, illustrates his
deepening fascination with Latin music.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
On 52nd Street
1. Gillespie first met Parker when they both played in the
Earl Hines big band in 1942. Gillespie admired Parkers
fluidity and Parker, Gillespies sound and harmonic
knowledge. In 1944 they played together again in former
Hines vocalist Billy Ekstines band. Gillespies
arrangements for this band made it the first big band to
embrace bebop. Even so, bebop never became widely
popular, owing to the complexity of the music and the
pervasive racism in America at that time, which made it
impossible for a black musician to be taken seriously in
the mainstream. By the end of 1944, Parker and Gillespie
turned to the jam-sessionstyle small ensemble.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Nobody Plays Those Changes

(contd)
On 52nd Street (contd)
2.The words bebop and rebop were already in place
by the time Gillespie brought his quintet to 52nd Street.
This band played composed heads that were
rhythmically disjointed and confusing to many listeners.

Bird on Record
The first bebop recordings date from 1945 and
were made mostly by small independent labels.
For record companies, this was a low-cost way
to get into the business because bebop
musicians regularly created new melodies over
old chord progressions.
Ko-Ko
1. This piece is based on the chord progression of Ray
Nobles 1938 piece Cherokee, which was recorded in
1939 by Charlie Barnett and Count Basie. It has a 64-bar
form (twice the 32-bar A A B A form), with a difficult bridge.

Bird on Record (contd)

Ko-Ko (contd)
Parker practiced this piece as a teenager, and it became
his showpiece with the Jay McShann band. When the band
came to New York to play the Savoy Ballroom, which had a
broadcast wire setup, Parker let loose with a long solo in
this piece that amazed everyone who heard it.
2.In 1945, Cherokee became Ko-Ko, recorded for Savoy
Records. The owner of the label would not tolerate a
copyrighted melody, so they left the Cherokee melody out.
The pianist was supposed to be Bud Powell, but he didnt
show, so for this piece it is probably Gillespie on piano, except
when he is playing trumpet. The other pianist was Argonne
Thornton (later Sadik Hakim).

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Bird on Record (contd)

Embraceable You
1. This Gershwin piece was recorded in 1948, but Parker
avoids the melody. Instead he plays a popular 1939
melody, A Table in the Corner, recorded by Artie
Shaw. After Parkers impressive solo, a young Miles
Davis takes the next solo.

Nows the Time

1. Parker considered bebop to be a collision of New York
progressive music with midwestern blues. Blues
during the 1940s had many faces, including swingband blues and Mississippi Delta blues electrified by
the likes of Muddy Waters. Parkers contribution was

Music 11-3

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Bird on Record (contd)

Nows the Time (contd)
to add the chromatic harmonies of modern jazz and a
fluid sense of rhythm to the vocal nuances of the blues.
2.This piece is a Parker composition built on one riff. It was
used later for a rock and roll hit called The Huckle-Buck
and was covered by many pop musicians. Parker didnt
earn royalties because the owner of Savoy Records
retained the copyright.
3.This recording was made for a major label (Verve), so the
sound is much better than in other Parker recordings.
Consequently, rhythm-section nuances are more easily
heard.

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Birds Last Flight

The Parker-Gillespie partnership ended in 1946
when the band went to Los Angeles and met
with an indifferent response. Gillespie took the
band back to New York, but Bird cashed in his
ticket to get money for his heroin habit. He
stayed in California for a year, taking drugs,
and when the heroin supply ended, he turned
to alcohol and barbiturates.
It was in this state, during 1947, that Parker
made some recordings for Dial Records

Birds Last Flight (contd)

showcasing his playing at its worst. Later that
night he was found in his hotel lobby wearing
only his socks. He was arrested and
committed to the state hospital for six months.
Free from drugs, he returned to New York,
only to resume his habit.
With the help of Norman Granz, Parker found
some commercial success with Mercury
Records, where he recorded with strings. But
his drug addiction made him unreliable and

Birds Last Flight (contd)

wore him down. After his death in 1955 at
just thirty-four, the coroner estimated his
age to be fifty-three.

The Elder Statesman

Gillespie disdained drugs and showed how
bebop could act as a foundation for the
professional jazz musician.
Upon returning from California in 1946, he
started a big band using bebop
arrangements. When not playing trumpet,
he took his cue from his former boss, Cab
Calloway, who balanced art with wit and
sillinessa mix that could broaden the
audience for bop.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The Elder Statesman (contd)

As bop declined in the 1950s, Gillespie
remained drug-free and generous. He kept
his big band active for years, while nurturing
the careers of many young jazz musicians.
He traveled overseas for the U.S.
government with his band, while openly
criticizing the state of American race
relations.
He eventually became a jazz celebrity, even
as his chops weakened in his later years.

The Elder Statesman (contd)

He continued to explore music and
became an elder statesman of jazz. He
died in 1993.
Voices
1.This vignette in the textbook contains a long quote
from African American writer Amiri Baraka about the
meaning of bebop to him and his generation: a new
aesthetic leading to a new sense of purpose.

The Bebop Generation

An entire generation of young musicians started
playing bop. Some, like trumpeter Fats Navarro,
thought that drugs and the ability to play the
music were connected, so they started to take
heroinand ultimately died from it. If they did
not die from substance abuse, many were
frequently jailed for drug possession, thus
having their careers interrupted all the same.
Other players such as Sonny Stitt would go on
to equal the musical virtuosity of Parker.

The Bebop Generation (contd)

Tenor saxophonists, filtered through
Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, kept
pace with the new music. These included
Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, and Illinois
Jacquet.
J. J. Johnson on trombone, Serge Chaloff
and Leo Parker on baritone saxophone, and
Milt Jackson on vibraharp are examples of
musicians who applied bebop practices on
other instruments.

Bud Powell (19241966)

Part of a musical family, he knew classical
music but learned about jazz by hanging out at
Mintons Playhouse, where Monk spotted his
talenta recognition that Powell never forgot.
After dropping out of high school, Powell joined
Cootie Williamss band. While touring with
Ellington during this period, he was badly
beaten by police in Philadelphia, leaving him
with crippling headaches. This started a
protracted bout of psychiatric treatments, which

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Bud Powell (19241966)

(contd)
included incarceration, medication, and
electroshock treatments that affected his
memory. Powell also had a weakness for
alcohol.
Stylistically, he laid the foundation for all bebop
pianists to follow. His left hand played chords
while his right hand improvised lines rivaling
those of Parker and Gillespie. Sometimes he
would play block-chord style, where the
melody is supported by rich chords; at other

Bud Powell (19241966)

(contd)
times he might play a stride-piano style
scattered with Tatum-like runs. He also
pioneered the piano trio format.
Tempus Fugue-It
1.Recorded in 1949. Powell had just emerged from a
sanitarium and would return shortly after this recording. He
seems surprisingly in control, given the circumstances.
This side was recorded by a young Norman Granz for his
Clef Records.
2.Accompanied by Ray Brown (bass) and Max Roach
(drums), he recorded at a variety of tempos. This piece

Bud Powell (19241966)

(contd)
Tempus Fugue-It (contd)
suggests Powells familiarity with Baroque music. It is
a 32-bar A A B A form, with the bridge more active
harmonically than the relatively static A sections. This
recording illustrates the intensity of Powells playing.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Jazz in Los Angeles: Central

Avenue
Bebop was played on the West Coast as
well. The West Coast had a long history of
jazz. New Orleans musicians recorded there
as early as 1922.
Rivaling New Yorks 52nd Street, Central
Avenue was the center for African American
life in Los Angeles. It was also the hub of
local entertainment, which included modern
jazz by around 1945, with Coleman
Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee,

Jazz in Los Angeles: Central

Avenue (contd)
and the Charlie Parker quintet. Soon,
young Californians like Dexter Gordon were
playing bebop.

Dexter Gordon (19231990)

He came from a middle-class home with a
jazz-loving father who was a doctor to jazz
musicians such as Lionel Hampton and Duke
Ellington. Dr. Gordon took Dexter to big-band
shows on a regular basis.
Dexter studied clarinet and then saxophone
in high school. He saw Coleman Hawkins as
a master, but he was initially inspired by
Lester Young. He studied music theory with
Gillespie, and a later encounter with Parker

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Dexter Gordon (19231990)

(contd)
molded him into a young disciple of bebop.
His style combined a relaxed mode of
playing (after Young) with rhythmic
intricacies (after Parker).
Long Tall Dexter
1.This song features many of the so-called bebop
generations most talented figures: it is built off of a singular
riff and strategically introduces a bit of unexpected
dissonance. Interaction of the group typifies the atmosphere
of a jam session as Dexter methodically builds to a climax
over seven choruses in an intense virtuosic display.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Dexter Gordon (19231990)

(contd)
During the 1950s, Gordon alternated
playing and prison, but the 1960s saw him
return to form, recording for Blue Note. He
spent much of his time in Europe, where
black musicians felt less prejudice.
He returned to New York and a successful
career in 1976. He recorded for Columbia,
acted in films, and took on the role of elder
statesman.

Aftermath: Bebop and Pop

For a brief time in the 1940s, bebop was
marketed as a popular music, while swing
began to fade. It was represented both as
modern and as a comic novelty. Dizzy Gillespie
reinforced the latter image through language
and look, as did other jazz musicians.
It failed as pop music, but musicians saw it as a
musical system that became the foundation of
the jazz musicians identitya model that
remains central to this day.

Aftermath: Bebop and Pop

(contd)
To build an audience for the music, it was
presented as a jam session, only in public.
Norman Granz was central to this
transformation.

Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP)

Norman Granz (19182001) grew up in Los
Angeles. Like John Hammond, he developed
an interest in jazz that was both musical and
political. His first concerts were interracial
and were held at a classical music venue,
Philharmonic Hall in Los Angeles. They were
soon banned because, according to
management, there was a threat of violence.
According to Granz, the ban stemmed from
the interracial audiences.

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Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP)

(contd)
Though he soon took the concerts on the road,
he kept the location-specific name of the group.
Granz featured performers from various styles,
including swing, bop, and nascent rhythm and
blues.
He encouraged the competitive nature of the
jam session, which critics hated but audiences
loved: the young audiences hollered and
stomped their feet during concerts.

Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP)

(contd)
He profited greatly from these concerts. He
insisted that his bands and the audiences
be integrated, and took a special interest in
Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson.

Music 11-12

Copyright 2015 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Though musicians continued to learn the

bebop style, many new stylistic directions
based on different aesthetics and racial
politics were already starting to appear after
the 1940s.

http://digital.wwnorton.com/jazz2

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