Get Jazzed! Bebop, often referred to simply as “bop,” was the first A one-stop guide to all things from Da Capo modern, major post- style to emerge in jazz. Jazz 101 Through considered revolutionary and starting at its Learn the different styles and periods of jazz from Traditional to inception, it is now regarded as one of the fundamental, Fusion and everything in between. classic genres of jazz. Bebop was developed in the early and mid-1940s by such legendary musicians as ; ; Traditional , and Max Roach. These boppers made The concept of traditional jazz first emerged in the 1930s as harmonic elaborations on the contributions of important jazz writers attempted to distinguish the New Orleans jazz, swing era figures like and Lester which dated back to the turn of the century from the music of Young, and embarked on a new and more rapid style of the swing era that followed on its heels. improvisation that compressed more ideas into less space, In the 1940s there was a major rival of New Orleans jazz, and made far greater use of altered chords than earlier jazz. and the music of Joe “King” Oliver and , as Through some big bands explored bop, smaller groups well as surviving pioneers like Bunk Johnson, was recorded such as quintets were usually preferred. Bebop performances and celebrated by more contemporary artists such as Lu were highly syncopated and explored polyrythmns to an Watters and Turk Murphy. The term “” was used unprecedented degree. Melodies were given erratic contours, to describe the many groups of white musicians revisiting resulting in somewhat agitated sounding performances that traditional jazz, as well as the recording of some Chicago- many found jarring. based traditionalists of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Eddie A huge debate erupted between those who felt the new Condon and Bud Freeman. Today, the phrase “traditional music was a long-awaited breakthrough, and those who jazz” is also employed to describe such early and influential feared that bop injected elitism into jazz and alienate a vast styles as , boogie woogie, and Harlem stride piano, majority of its listening audience. Both viewpoints have all of which made important contributions to the evolution of merit, but the profound and enduring impact of bebop on jazz. jazz history in undeniable.

Big Band & Swing Cool During the era, which spanned roughly a decade The phrase “” is often used as an umbrella term to from 1935 to 1945, jazz music was at the very forefront describe various subdued and understated styles of modern of popular culture in the United States. Ensembles of at jazz that emerged in the . As a rule, these approaches least ten or more musicians, usually featuring a saxophone forsook much of the frenetic approach widely associated section, a brass section consisting of trumpets and with bebop. trombones, and a rhythm section comprise of piano, guitar, Cool saxophonists such as and bass and drums, were the most popular musical outfits in the embraced the relaxed, melodic approach to improvisation country. employed by . Cool trumpeters such as Shorty The big bands played in a variety of styles. Dance bands Rogers and were more concerned with spare that specialized in ballad arrangements with little emphasis lyricism than their bop-influenced colleagues. and on jazz or improvisations, such as those led by Guy were among the most influential cool jazz Lombardo and Wayne King, were referred to as “sweet arrangers. bands.” Bands which embraced more hard-driving rhythms The phrase “” was coined to describe a and featured the improvisations of stellar soloists, such as significant subgenre of the cool school, namely the modern those led by , and Count jazz styles emanating from California from the late 1940s Basie, were dubbed “swing” or “hot” bands. through the early 1960s, as exemplified by the work of Bud While a conclusive definition of has proved Shank, , and many others. Cool elusive, it is generally agreed that swing is a rhythmic jazz is sometimes unfairly derided as devoid of emotion, phenomenon in which a musician manipulates the pulse and It is in fact technically daunting music that is often quite beat of an up- performance, creating musical patterns beautiful, and as demanding of a musician’s concentration of tension and release that often invoke a sense of excitement and commitment as any modern genre of jazz. in the listener. After World War II, new post-war economic realities and Mainstream the rise of popular vocalists helped contribute to a significant decline in big band popularity. The genre continues to this The term “mainstream” was coined by jazz authority day, however, and has grown to embrace bop, fusion, and Stanley Dance in the 1950s in an effort to describe what many other post-swing developments in the history of jazz. was at that time the work of contemporary musicians who discovered the foundation for their inspiration and efforts in the music and approach of the swing era as it was developed used to refer to a combination of jazz with rock and soul in the 1930s and 1940s. It was meant to differentiate their influences, a hybrid style that became enormously popular in work from the newly emerging schools of modern jazz, such the late 1960s and early 1970s, a period when avant-garde as bebop. experimentation had alienated many jazz listeners. Also Labels like “big band music” and “swing” had already frequently referred to as “jazz-rock,” this movement was managed to attract a nostalgic glow about them, lessening given a huge boost by several albums in the late their usefulness in describing the relevance of more recent 1960s, notably “Witches Brew” (1969). recordings. The boundaries encompassed by the term Many of Davis’s sidemen from this period, including Tony “” have gradually broadened over the years Williams, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea, went on to (today some elements of bebop and post-bop, for example, form popular fusion outfits of their own. are widely considered mainstream) and today it is employed In most fusion or jazz-rock, the traditional unamplified more liberally, although such esoteric developments as the acoustic sounds of the instruments are eschewed in favor avant-garde and fusion styles would still be considered to lie of synthesizers, electric keyboards and guitars, and heavily outside its scope. rock-influenced drumming techniques. Improvisation tends to take a back seat to catchy rhythmic vamps and elementary chord progressions, and though some Avant-Garde purists may cringe, the music helped open the door for the The term “avant-garde” and “” are often used contemporary phenomenon of . interchangeably, an unfortunate circumstance that has led to a number of misconceptions. When free jazz first emerged Source: www.jazzonline.com in the 1960s, it was an avant-garde movement. Musicians like Ornette Coleman, who felt constrained by the standard conventions of bop, forged a new style of improvisation with a number of variable factors that were not based on any predetermined, underlying harmonic structure. Free jazz is best represented by the work of such musicians as Coleman, Albert Ayler, and . By contrast, the various avant-garde jazz communities of the 1970s and 1980s disdained the label “free jazz,” because much of their music emphasizes composition and is highly organized. Avante-garde jazz has many regional schools that meld elements of free jazz with third-stream innovations and ethnic music. Prominent avant-garde musicians include Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell and Sun Ra.

Fusion Through elements of jazz combine easily with a wide variety of musical styles, the term “fusion” is generally

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