7 Bebop

George s Top 10 Be Boppers

1. Coleman Hawkins(November 21, 1904 May 19, 1969) 1. A) Lester Young(August 27, 1909 March 15, 1959) 2. Charlie Christian(July 29, 1916 March 2, 1942) 3. Charlie Parker(August 29, 1920 March 12, 1955) 4. Dizzy Gillespie(October 21, 1917 January 6, 1993) 5. Theolonious Monk(October 10, 1917 February 17, 1982) 6. Bud Powell(September 27, 1924 July 31, 1966) 7. J.J. Johnson(January 22, 1924,- February 4, 2001) 8. Max Roach(January 10, 1924 August 16, 2007 9. Miles Davis(May 26, 1926 September 28, 1991) 10. Sonny Stitt(February 2, 1924, July 22, 1982) 11. Clifford Brown(October 30, 1930 June 26, 1956)

Bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s. It first surfaced in musicians' argot some time during the first two years of American involvement in the Second World War. This style of jazz ultimately became synonymous with modern jazz, as either category reached a certain final maturity in the 1960s.

Characterized by
Fast tempos, or very slow ballads Virtuosity Small groups Head charts Long improvisations melodies were often very intricate lines over existing chord progressions (contrafact) Chord changes were more important than the melody Began as a jam session music, existed for years before it was documented in any way

 Black musicians wanted music that the white cats couldn t play but obviously that changed Music was not for dancing, for listening only Bebop musicians wanted to be respected as intellectuals Some say this era marked the end of popularity of jazz Many of the beboppers used heroin, some believed you had to be high to authentically play bebop Music had advanced chord changes and difficult keys; cutting contests weeded out less able players Legend has it that Louis Armstrong called it music of malice but this has been disputed. Bebop arguably set the stage for jazz improvisers from 1940 to today

Typical Bebop Tune

Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play "Hot House"

Coleman Hawkins

 Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

 The 1939 recording of "Body and Soul" by Coleman Hawkins is an important antecedent of bebop. Hawkins' willingness to stray even briefly from the ordinary resolution of musical themes and his playful jumps to double-time signaled a departure from existing jazz. The recording was popular; but more importantly, from a historical perspective, Hawkins became an inspiration to a younger generation of jazz musicians, most notably Charlie Parker, in Kansas City.

Hawkins-Body And Soul

Lester Young

 Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument, playing with a cool tone and using sophisticated harmonies. He invented or popularized much of the hipster ethos which came to be associated with the music.

Lester Young and Teddy Wilson -"All Of Me"

Ken Burns
Episode 08 12:05-19:36

Charlie Christian

 Charles Henry "Charlie" Christian (July 29, 1916 March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist. Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. His single-string technique combined with amplification helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. John Hammond and George T. Simon called Christian the best improvisational talent of the swing era. Gene Lees writes that "many critics and musicians consider that Christian was one of the founding fathers of bebop, or if not that, at least a precursor to it".

Rose Room
This is an old standard, on which Duke Ellington based his classic In A Mellow Tone . Legend has it that this is the song which Benny Goodman heard Christian play and hired him.

 Oklahoma-raised guitarist Charlie Christian (1916) was more of a bluesman than a jazzman because he started playing solo: bluesmen used the guitar as a lead instrument, jazzmen didn't. From the viewpoint of jazz, Christian's guitar was more like a saxophone than like the guitar that had been traditionally played in jazz (a part of the rhythm section). Charlie Christian improved over the innovations of acoustic guitarists Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang, and perhaps applied to his instrument the lesson of Lester Young. He developed his style in relative isolation in Oklahoma before being discovered (1939) and brought to New York to join Benny Goodman's sextet and band, armed with an electric guitar. Christian was legendary for creating endless series of variations on a theme, during sessions that could last virtually forever, in a manner whose only precedent was pianist Art Tatum. His Solo Flight (march 1941) with the Goodman orchestra seemed the prelude to a new kind of music altogether. Alas, he died in 1942 at 26 of turbercolosis.

Swing To Bop
Recorded Live at Minton s in 1941

Ken Burns
1:07:43-1:10:30

Charlie Parker

 Charles Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 March 12, 1955), famously called Bird or Yardbird,[was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker, is widely considered to have been one of the most influential jazz musicians. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career and the shortened form "Bird" remained Parker's sobriquet for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm" and "Bird of Paradise."

Bird tunes that jazz musicians know include:

Confirmation Anthropology Ornithology Dewey Square Now s The Time Billie s Bounce My Little Suede Shoes Segment

Moose The Mooche

This is a Contrefact on the Gershwin tune, I Got Rhythm , which most jazz musicians call Rhythm Changes .

Confirmation
Considered a test piece for jazz musicians

Charlie Parker
Born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Kansas City, Missouri Showed no talent as a child, but around 1936, began practicing 15 hours a day, taking challenging tunes through every key Made recording debut with Jay McShann s territory band in 1938 Developed a heroin addiction from taking morphine after a car accident

 According to an interview Parker gave in the 1950s, one night in 1939, he was playing "Cherokee" in a jam session with guitarist William 'Biddy' Fleet when he hit upon a method for developing his solos that enabled him to play what he had been hearing in his head for some time, by connecting harmony using the diminished relationship of dominants. Still with McShann's orchestra, Parker at this time realized that the twelve tones of the chromatic scale can lead melodically to any key, breaking some of the confines of simpler jazz soloing. Early in its development, this new type of jazz was rejected by many of the established, traditional jazz musicians who disdained their younger counterparts with comments like Eddie Condon's putdown: "They flat their fifths, we drink ours."The beboppers, in response, called these traditionalists "moldy figs". However, some musicians, such as Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman, were more positive about its development, and participated in jam sessions and recording dates in the new approach with its adherents.

Ken Burns Episode 7

Beginning to 26:07

Dizzy Gillespie

 John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie; October 21, 1917 January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer. Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione. Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote that "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time.

Gillespie-Salt Peanuts 1947

Dizzy Gillespie Big Band was popular This give us a great example of Gillespie s showmanship but also his musicianship: He was regarded as a great teacher who would never hesitate to sit at the piano and show musicians the chords to a song.

Manteca 1959
Gillespie was a pioneer in Latin Jazz and Brazillian Jazz. Chega De Saudade( No More Blues) 1963 From New Wave One Note Samba

Theolonious Monk

 Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser" and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, which is particularly remarkable as Ellington composed over 1,000 songs while Monk wrote about 70

 His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are consistent with Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. This was not a style universally appreciated; poet and jazz critic Philip Larkin dismissed Monk as 'the elephant on the keyboard'.

 Monk's manner was idiosyncratic. Visually, he was renowned for his distinctive style in suits, hats and sunglasses. He was also noted for the fact that at times, while the other musicians in the band continued playing, he would stop, stand up from the keyboard and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. He is one[7] of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the cover of Time (the other four being Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Brubeck) as of 2010

 'Round Midnight Epistrophy Evidence

Regarding Bebop
The beboppers' attitude was summed up in a famous quotation attributed to Monk by Mary Lou Williams: "We wanted a music that they couldn't play" "they" being the (white) bandleaders who had taken over and profited from swing music.

Monk tunes played by Jazzers

Blue Monk Epistrophy Bemsha Swing Round Midnight Off Minor Reflections Rhythm-n-ing Evidence Well, You Needn t

Bud Powell

 Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell (September 27, 1924 July 31, 1966) was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk. Along with Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Powell was a key player in the history of bebop, and his virtuosity as a pianist led many to call him "the Charlie Parker of the piano"

Original Tunes by Bud Powell

Parisian Thoroughfare Un Poco Loco Oblivion

J.J. Johnson

 J. J. Johnson (born James Louis Johnson; January 22, 1924, Indianapolis, Indiana February 4, 2001) was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson. Johnson was one of the first trombonists to embrace bebop music. He has long been regarded as one of the leading trombonists of the post-swing era, exerting a pervasive influence on other jazz musicians.

 Blue Trombone

Max Roach

Joy Spring-with Clifford Brown Freedom Day with Abbey Lincoln Max Roach with Booker Little Great Drum Solo Interview with Max Roach

Miles Davis

 Miles Davis was a student a Juilliard, but was more interested in finding Charlie Parker to learn how to play jazz Parker took Davis under his wing and Davis replaced Dizzy Gillespie Davis would try to write down the chord changes on napkins when he would go and hear the bebop musicians

 Miles Davis with Charlie Parker "Night In Tunisia"

Sonny Stitt

 Edward "Sonny" Stitt (February 2, 1924, Boston, Massachusetts July 22, 1982, Washington, D.C.) was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. He was also one of the best-documented saxophonists of his generation, recording over 100 albums in his lifetime. He was nicknamed the "Lone Wolf" by jazz critic Dan Morgenstern in tribute to his relentless touring and his devotion to jazz. He is considered the greatest disciple of Charlie ParkerAlthough his playing was at first heavily inspired by Charlie Parker and Lester Young, Stitt eventually developed his own style, one which influenced John Coltrane. Stitt was especially effective with blues and with ballad pieces such as "Skylark".

 Cherokee Bill Cosby's Sonny Stitt Story

Clifford Brown

 Clifford Brown (October 30, 1930 June 26, 1956), aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings. Nonetheless, he had a considerable influence on later jazz trumpet players, including Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Valery Ponomarev, Wynton Marsalis, and many others.

 The clean-living Brown has been cited as perhaps breaking the influence of heroin on the jazz world, a model established by Charlie Parker. Clifford stayed away from drugs and was not fond of alcohol. In June 1956, Brown and Richie Powell were being driven from Philadelphia to Chicago by Powell's wife Nancy for the band's next appearance. While driving on a rainy night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, west of Bedford, she lost control of the car and it went off the road. All three were killed in the resulting crash. Brown is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery, in Wilmington, Delaware.

 Clifford Brown-Max Roach" Joy Spring "I Come From Jamaica "Walkin"

Ken Burns
Episode 09 29:30-34:50