Hard bop characteristics

History of Jazz © Scott Walton, Jason Robinson 8-Week Online Week 5: 1950s: Cool Jazz and Hard Bop Topics: The Emergence of “Post-Bop” Styles Cool Jazz The “White Genealogy” in Jazz The Musicalization of the “West Coast” Hard Bop: New Grooves for the East Coast Race, Place, and the Making of Jazz in California Miles Davis: The First Quintet People Pieces to Know Miles Davis Jeru Dave Brubeck Take Five Chet Baker Everything Happens to Me Stan Getz and João Gilberto Só Danço Samba Art Blakey Moanin' Charles Mingus Better Git Hit in Your Soul Clifford Brown and Sonny Rollins Powell’s Prances Miles Davis So What Bill Evans Witchcraft 1 Important Terms post-bop, shapeshifter cool jazz, West Coast jazz, white genealogy hard bop, modal jazz, modalism stop time, odd meters, double-time, backbeat, trading fours The Emergence of “Post-Bop” Styles The term “post-bop,” in its most general sense, identifies a variety of styles that emerged in jazz after the 1940s. During the 1950s, two of the key styles grouped under this banner pointed to new and distinctly different directions in jazz: cool jazz and hard bop. These styles build on the developments that occurred during bebop, and add to them by incorporating new ideas about groove, melody, harmony, and racial identity. Chronologically and historically, post-bop identifies a period that comes “after” bebop. Philosophically, however, the term has much to say about the nature of jazz after the 1940s. Many jazz musicians that emerged in the 1950s and the decades that have followed, have been heavily influenced by the melodic, harmonic, and virtuosic innovations of bebop. Instead of being true “beboppers,” these musicians are using those developments in novel ways that combine the innovations of the 1940s with new modern ideas. Post-bop styles have always been about this kind of synthesis. Cool Jazz One of the first post-bop styles to emerge was so-called “cool jazz,” a name given to the music for its new sense of tone and phrasing, and a new attitude that elevated the hip posturing of bebop to a new level of “coolness.” It’s also with cool jazz that we witness the full-scale emergence of a new type of public figure in jazz – the jazz superstar. This is trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991), who still today, decades after his death, is still a household name in America and around the world. Miles (he is commonly known by his first name only) was more than a superstar: he was one of a few “shapeshifters” in jazz that were Miles Davis in the 40s extremely influential in ushering in new leading directions. Like the tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, Miles would be responsible for catalyzing several important shifts in jazz. He would become well-known for a certain style of playing, and then almost overnight he’d offer an entirely new approach, and would then become well-known for that new style. 2 Miles was born into a black middle class family in St. Louis. After developing into a budding jazz trumpeter in the St. Louis scene, Miles moved to New York in 1944 (at the age of 18), ostensibly to study music at the Juilliard School, which remains one of the premiere music conservatories in the world. I say “ostensibly” here because, in reality, he was receiving an alternate education in the burgeoning bebop clubs of Harlem and Midtown Manhattan during the night, while attending classes during the day. Eventually he dropped out of Juilliard, where he found the understanding of African American music largely problematic. By this time, however, he had begun to make an impression in the bebop scene. In fact, he launched his career played and recording in a group with Charlie Parker, from 1944 to 1947. From the outset, Miles’ approach to bebop differed from that of other prominent bop trumpeters like Dizzy Gillespie. Miles crafted an understated style. Rather than play a lot of notes – common in the styles of Parker and Gillespie – Miles played fewer notes, crafting a style that was marked by melodic understatement. He only played the “necessary” notes. There was a kind of economy in his playing that resembled the earlier styles of someone like saxophonist Lester Young. As a result, he sounded markedly different from many of his elders and contemporaries in the bebop scene. For this exact reason, he stood out, attracting the attention of Charlie Parker. Imagine seeing the group live in concert: Parker takes a Gil Evans & Miles Davis rip-roaring bebop solo and then Miles takes a solo that radically contrasts with Parker,