Bebop: Modern New York Jazz Author(S): Peter Rutkoff and William Scott Source: the Kenyon Review, New Series, Vol
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Bebop: Modern New York Jazz Author(s): Peter Rutkoff and William Scott Source: The Kenyon Review, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1996), pp. 91-121 Published by: Kenyon College Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4337359 Accessed: 10/01/2009 22:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=kenyon. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Kenyon College is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Kenyon Review. http://www.jstor.org PETER RUTKOFF WILLIAMSCOlT BEBOP: MODERN NEW YORK JAZZ from NEW YORKMODERN: THE ARTSAND THE CITY O N November 26, 1945, six young African-Americansentered the recordingstudios of radio station WOR in New York.Teddy Reig, artists and repertoireman for Savoy records, had engaged Charlie Parkerand his Beboppersfor the session. Parker'sgroup, the first that he directed,had played togetherfor barelya month,performing at the Spotlight, one of Fifty-secondStreet's many jazz bars, in the eveningsbefore moving to Minton's,a musicians'after-hours club in Harlem.' Savoy paid two hundreddollars for the studio time and Parkerearned threehundred dollars for the four compositions.2The second cut recordedthat day, "Ko-Ko,"whose jagged melody Parkerconstructed over the harmonic structureof anothertune, "Cherokee,"would become Parker'sgreat contribu- tion to the bebop revolution.Energetic, sometimes frantic, and bluesy,bebop's incendiarystyle, pulsing rhythm,and intensity contrastedwith the melodic, linear,and commercialqualities of swing. Yet the innovatorsof bop schooled themselvesin the jazz of the 1930s, and as they pushedswing to its limits they discovereda new music, one which they could begin to call their own. Parker'sgroup began the firsttake of "Ko-Ko"with a tight andfast chase betweenParker's saxophone and Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet;the taut harmonic statementwould become a hallmarkof bebop expression.After the opening eight bars, even as the group maintainedits breakneckspeed, the musicians driftedback, as if by habit,to the originalmelody of "Cherokee"that Parker had been determinedto leave behind.After less than forty secondsParker lowered his mouthpiece,clapped his hands,whistled, and said, "Hey,hey. Hold it."3 Whenthey resumed,they clearlyconformed to Parker'svision. In placeof the danceableand melodicallystraightforward "Cherokee," they playedbebop. The harmoniccomplexity, rhythmic drive, and above all the improvisational 9I 92 THE KENYON REVIEW gestures of "Ko-Ko,"built on Parker's mastery of the blues, distinguished it from its swing predecessor.In the space of a few moments Parker's group grasped the difference between swing and bop, creating a new form of Americanjazz. Miles Davis, then only nineteen, joined fellow trumpetplayer Dizzy Gillespie,bassist Curley Russell, drummer Max Roach,pianist Argonne Thorn- ton, and Parkerin the historic session. Davis, however, found the opening section of "Ko-Ko"so dauntingthat he let Gillespie, who had been playing trumpetprofessionally for almost a decade, play in unison with Parker'salto saxophone.4 Gillespie'sand Parker's opening section burstfrom their instruments with controlledtightness and precision. The staccatonotes pushedforward, each one a sound in its own space, each separatefrom the next. Passingthe theme back and forththe playersresumed for a last measure,and thenpaused. The opening statementof "Ko-Ko"hid the innovativestyle of drummerMax Roach, who, along with KennyClarke, had begunto redefinethe jazz percussion,preferring to keep time with the cymbal,leaving the bass drumfree to accent irregularly. The Parker-Gillespieintroduction only hinted at Parker'sreformulation of modernjazz.5 Davis explained,"Bird was a fast motherfucker."Parker's solo became legendaryfor its intensityand its facility, and remarkablefor its combination of tempo and lyricism.6In two minutes Parkerexplored every aspect of his alto's range.One momentscreeching as Parkerstretched to reachone note from inside the precedingone, anothersoaring melodicallythrough the notes of a chordprogression insinuated by the piano's occasionalremnants of the original tune, Parkerplayed one of the "greatestsolos in the historyof jazz."7Based on a combinationof multiple key signaturescoexisting in a single, unified, yet, improvisedand finally linear melodic statement,Parker's work in "Ko- Ko" pushedmodern jazz towardatonality. As he careenedthrough the song's complex "labyrinth,"Parker created a "showpiece"and a masterpiece.8 As Parkerworked his way throughthe recording,his playing became both more complex and more lyrical. He moved his alto up and down the pathwaysof each phrase,creating a fluiditythat unitedharmonic and rhythmic experimentation.In contrastto the hard-edgedopening and closing sections of "Ko-Ko,"Parker and Gillespie, with close and tightly controlledmusical punches,first in unison,then in solo and once againin unison,played a swirl of almostpure abstraction. The atmosphericsof "Ko-Ko,"its color andmovement, its design and mood, becameits content.Yet, despiteParker's ferocious speed and virtuosity,the roots of "Ko-Ko"lay in the blues, reachingback to the "tragicaccent" reminiscent of Bessie Smith.9 In contrast,in the midstof an inventiveriff, as his alto movedin andout of an almostperceptively recognized melodic figure,Parker disclosed the tune of "Teafor Two"imbedded in the patternof his musicalideas. That remnant served as pun andevidence, a displayof a realitythat Parker's invention had displaced, PETERRUTKOFF and WILLIAMSCOYT 93 a reminderthat a representationalworld lay just beyondhis music'sabstraction. In the fall of 1945, CharlesParker, age twenty-six,broke into a parallelrealm of musicalabstraction. Framed by the chordalharmonic structure of "Cherokee," Parker'scomposition "Ko-Ko" centered on new jazz ideas. The suggestionof "Teafor Two," however, attractedattention and demandedexplanation. Jazz musicians,Parker included, had played this commercialsnippet for a decade as they elaboratedthe harmonicstructure of "Cherokee."Parker acknowledged the song's short, but importanthistory, and revealedthe extent to which the apparentsudden revolution of bebop was simultaneouslya painstakingprocess of musical innovation.It also implied a social world beyondjazz. Previously Parker and other African-Americanmusicians played and composedjazz only to have white musiciansclaim creditand financialrewards throughthe processof "covering."With bebop, Parker and his groupcreated a form of jazz they regardedas uncoverable.In "Ko-Ko,"Parker used the pasted scrapof "Teafor Two"to tauntthe white dominatedmusic business."Ko-Ko" had begun, here, with laughter,moved to derision,and culminatedin anger. Parkersought to sabotageTin Pan Alley with his virtuosoperformance and inimical composition. The shortphrase from popularmusic's most easily recognizedtune also served as an ironic allusion to a shift in the politics of the music business. Frommid-1942 to 1944 a ban on recordinghad left jazz performerswithout a mass audience.Denied access to recordingand radio,jazz musiciansscratched out livings, playing in small clubs and for each other. The emergence of bebop was, in part, a consequence of the commercialexile of jazz during World WarII. The curious quotation of "Ko-Ko"reminded audiences and promotersthat things had changed. Parkerleft standingonly a fragmentof jazz's past. In revolutionizingthe form of modem jazz, Parkerand others threatenedto revolutionizethe business of jazz, liberatingit from commer- cial entertainmentand establishingit as art, controlledand defined neither by popular-tastecommercial producers,but by its artists, most of whom were black. Parkerclosed "Ko-Ko"with the structureit opened with, the pushing trumpet-altorestatement of the "Cherokee"-derivedtheme. He broughtthe tune back to its immediatehistorical roots, acknowledgingits jazz heritage. Long considereda "mystery"session, the Savoy recordingof "Ko-Ko," which Gillespie regardedas "just perfect, man," revealed how innovatively challengingthe musiciansjudged the piece. Davis, still in awe of Parker, knew that he couldn'thandle the opening section, and he realizedthat Parker knew it as well. "I wasn't ready for the tempo,"he said, "it's the damndest introductionI ever heardin my life."10Bebop's requirementof extraordinary virtuosity,both tempo and technique,represented yet anotherbarrier against expropriation.That Gillespie slipped into the pianist'sslot later,feeding Parker the harmonicoutlines of his solo, testifiedto his musicianship.Parker's genius