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Chapter 11 – Bebop

Chapter 11 – Bebop. Bebop is “a most inadequate word” that “throws up its hands in clownish self-deprecation before all the complexity of sound and rhythm and self-assertive passion which it pretends to name.” . According to Ralph Ellison. . .

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Chapter 11 – Bebop

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  1. Chapter 11 – Bebop

  2. Bebop is “a most inadequate word” that “throws up its hands in clownish self-deprecation before all the complexity of sound and rhythm and self-assertive passion which it pretends to name.” According to Ralph Ellison. . .

  3. “In a 1949 interview, the great alto saxophonist Charlie Parker insisted that bebop was a new music, something ‘entirely separate and apart’ from the jazz that had preceded it.” • “Historians today . . . Tend to treat bebop as an evolution from swing. . .” Revolutionary vs. Evolutionary

  4. “. . . we were going to all these different places, ten or twelve places a night. We’d go down to the village to a lot of places, then finish off uptown. . .” (Dizzy Gillespie) • prior to the Bebop Era many jazz fans considered the jam session to represent jazz “in its purest state – an uncorrupted, unmediated, and uncommercial form of musical expression.” (DeVeaux) Bebop and Jam Sessions

  5. playing in sessions discouraged by the musician’s union. • “walking delegates” fined musicians who were playing in public without a contract. • “We’d go in a place and find out if the union man had been there. If he hadn’t been there, we’d cut that one aloose and go someplace where he’d already been and play there. ‘Cause if he’d catch us there, he’d want to fine you. Fifty or a hundred dollars, that was a whole lot of money – and fine the whole band too – but they’d run you out most of the time.” (Gillespie) • “. . . in the fifties the union stepped in and tried to stop us. ‘We don’t want to catch you guys jamming. If there’s five guys working, we want to see five guys on the stand.’ We went through a thing with the musician’s union during a certain period when they tried to stop jamming in the late forties and early fifties. They tried for a period of six months or a year to frighten the guys, but this was the kind of practice that was giving cats experience.” (Carl “Bama” Warwick) Union “Walking Delegates”

  6. Opened in 1938 by saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938 • Minton was the 1st Black delegate to Local 802 of the Musician’s Union. • Hired bandleader Teddy Hill to manage the club in late 1940. • Minton and Hill encouraged jam sessions. • Minton’s was relatively safe due to connections. Minton’s Playhouse

  7. The “house band: • Kenny Clarke – drummer and bandleader • Joe Guy, trumpet • Nick Fenton, bass • Thelonious Monk, piano • Other frequent guests included Charlie Christian (guitar), John “Dizzy” Gillespie (trumpet), and later Charlie Parker (alto saxophone). Jam Sessions at Minton’s

  8. Monroe’s Uptown House • Many of the regulars included Big Band players. • Most of the jam session participants checked out several clubs. • West 52nd Street • In the middle 1940s, the primary venue for bebop. • Musicians were getting paid. • Instrumental music exempt from wartime 30% cabaret tax. Other locations in New York

  9. Musicians Union called for a ban on recording beginning Aug. 1942. • Musicians not paid for jukebox or radio play. • “V Discs” were exempt. • Capitol and Decca signed within a year, but Victor and Columbia held out for another year. • Enabled the rise of several smaller labels. • The beginnings of bebop not documented on recordings. AFM Recording Ban

  10. Focus on individual musicians’ technique and ability to improvise. • Smaller combos (4-5 pieces) more typical (possibly patterned after jam sessions in Kansas City and elsewhere). • Simpler arrangements of songs (intro/melody/solos/melody/ending). • The blues (AAB) and 32-bar standard song form (AABA) were popular. • More complicated harmonies: • Extensions and alterations to chords. • Chord progression increases in complexity. • Tempos faster and/or slower that Swing Era performances. • Disjunct, not easily singable melodies; asymmetrical phrases. General Style Characteristics

  11. Monroe’s Uptown House Many of the regulars included Big Band players. Most of the jam session participants checked out several clubs. West 52nd Street In the middle 1940s, the primary venue for bebop. Musicians were getting paid. Instrumental music exempt from wartime 30% cabaret tax. Other locations in New York

  12. Harmony based on the Western European tradition • Chords built by stacking thirds • Chords extended by adding more pitches • Pitches in a chord might be chromatically altered. Chord Extensions and Alterations

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