Bebop is a style of jazz music that originated during the 1940’s. At that time, a number of young American musicians began experimenting with more complicated chord patterns and melodic ideas in a combo (small group) setting. These musicians included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, and drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach. The style they developed became known as bebop, or bop.
Most bop musicians had an exceptional technique. They played long, dazzling phrases with many notes, difficult intervals, unexpected breaks, and unusual turns in melodic direction. On slower tunes, they displayed a keen ear for subtle changes of harmony. Only extremely skilled musicians could play bebop well, and only sophisticated listeners, at first, appreciated it.
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In bebop performances, musicians usually played an intricate melody, followed with long periods of solo improvisation, and restated the theme at the end. The bassist presented the basic beat for the group by plucking a steady, moving bass line. The drummer elaborated the beat with sticks or brushes on cymbals, snare drum, and tom-tom. The bass drum was reserved for unexpected accents called “bombs.” The pianist inserted complex chords at irregular intervals to suggest, rather than state, the complete harmonies of the piece.
Bebop was followed in the 1950’s by hard bop, or funky, jazz. This form emphasized some of the traditional values of jazz derived from gospel and blues, including rhythmic drive, uninhibited tone and volume, and freedom from restricting arrangements. The hard bop leaders were drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver. Blakey led a combo called the Jazz Messengers from the mid-1950’s until his death in 1990. The Jazz Messengers served as a training ground for many of the greatest soloists in jazz history. Max Roach and trumpeter Clifford Brown were co-leaders of another outstanding hard bop combo.
