Bebop Jazz Influences

The decade of the 1940’s was an important era in the history of jazz. The 1940’s was a transition from traditional jazz into modern jazz. Leading this transition was the introduction of the Bebop period in Jazz. Bebop created controversy in the jazz world for being a contradiction to traditional jazz and was widely disliked by many audiences across America. Despite its controversy, Bebop, also referred to as “Bop,” was one of the most important eras in the history of Jazz. The technical creations by some of Bebop’s greatest musicians influenced future generations of jazz musicians

The birth of Bebop music was built on a similar evolutionary process that has taken over many different art forms since the beginning of human history. There was a yearning for change and a desire to break the binding chains of the standard New Orleans jazz, Dixieland, and Swing music (Aycock, 1997). In the 1940’s Dizzy Gillespie and a legion of young and talented musicians went to war against traditional jazz music and forged a new modern landscape of immense record sales, popularity and fame. The creation of Bebop catered to the would-be gods of jazz, because their talent rose to the top. Musical characteristics of Bebop shifted away from simple melody variations and moved towards intense improvisation and difficult harmonic progressions (Horricks, 1984). There was an air of confidence brewing amongst the young innovators and a sense of pride in maintaining their dominance. Dizzy Gillespie said this about the subject, “There were some who couldn’t blow at all but would take six or seven choruses to prove it. So on afternoons before a session Thelonious Monk and I began to work out some complex variations on chords and the like, and we used them at night to scare away the no-talent guys (Horricks, 1984, p. 30).”

     The music called Jazz was born sometime around 1895 in New Orleans. It combined elements of Ragtime, marching band music and Blues. What made Jazz such a different perspective of traditional music was its act of improvising. There was a widespread use of improvisation often by more than one player at a time. Songwriters would write the music down on a piece of paper, and then the Jazz musicians would try their best to play the music. Usually in a Jazz piece, musicians would use the song as a starting point to improvise around. Jazz musicians would play a familiar song to the audience, and by the time they were done with the piece they would stir up a totally different feeling away from the

Thesis: Although Jazz music was first introduced over 80 years ago, the genre still influences artists and the new music they make to this day.

The standard big band sound of the late 1940s and 1950s was very laid back. Rhythmically, it was normal to play just behind the beat to create this relaxed feel, with a definite emphasis on the "swing" style. Swing music was usually composed of one melody played by one section of the band, and other sections, if playing at all, would play chord hits in different places. The function of the rhythm section is mostly to comp and stay out of the way. These bands usually stayed within either 3/4, 4/4, 2/2, or 2/4 time signatures. Kenton altered this system in many ways to create something fresh and progressive.

Out of the streets of New Orleans, a new form of music arose. This new type of music was not known as African or European, but simply American. It was jazz. In 1900 jazz first developed, but it wasn’t until the

In the middle of the 19th century, Congo Square became a center of musical expression. On these Sunday afternoons, a new form of music was born. Pioneered by those on the bottom of a society full of slavery and segregation, the origin of jazz was less a singular event than an evolving movement. None of those pioneers, however, could have anticipated the future of their developing art form. None could have foreseen that their informal rhythmic gatherings would eventually lead to nationally recognized big bands with more than 20 musicians and celebrity band leaders. The trajectory of jazz history is complex and rich, flowing from style to style and from region to region. Each step along the way from the early brass bands to the bebop bands

Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz

In the 20th century, Jazz was one of the most expressive forms of music around, as it was just starting out and was born in a time where victims of oppression were beginning to stand up and rebel. In comparison to classical music, Jazz is a very new genre of music. It’s evolution is vividly evident in it’s contrast of instrumentation, dynamics, and the introduction of modal jazz which I will discuss later on in this essay. One of the first jazz virtuoso’s that appeared and had a significant influence on jazz, was Sidney Bechet, on clarinet and saxophone.

In the world of Jazz there are known to be only two time periods in jazz: before Charlie Parker and after Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker has become an American icon and extremely important to the world of jazz. He had many successes throughout his life, but I want to find; how did Charlie Parker’s fast pace improvisation solo style effect the creation of bebop? Carlie Parker’s complex harmony and rhythms he integrated into his improvisation solo style laid the groundwork for the creation of a new jazz style known today as bebop.

Consequently, this style has become widely played across the country within the first decades of the 20thcentury. Afterwards, another popular Dixieland band was the Louis Armstrong’s All Stars; however, it should also be accepted that the influences of Armstrong himself were also very strong on the overall jazz music, not only this particular style. The authentic New Orleans’ sound comprises of one instrument, which is the trumpet in majority of cases, that plays a recognizable paraphrase of a melody and/or a variation on it with a “solo” or a “front-line” instrument playing various improvisations across this tune. Such approach resulted in a more polyphonic sound, which also influenced and inspired the new sounds of the big bands or the bebop’s unison

Jazz is consider one of the most influential types of music an America History. Some of the greatest artist in the world have contribute to the success jazz have had not only on America History but throughout the world. This paper will explain the history of jazz, where it all came from and the effect it has had on the America Culture.

The vibrato in the sound of the cool players was slow and sometimes even missing. The beginning sound of the song was more delicate and light rather than the explosive style. If the bebop was reviewed as a “hot” music, then the cool jazz was more controlled and reserved. It was tend to be the classical music and created a relaxed feeling. Unlike Bop, the cool jazz was arranged in advance. While Bop emphasized the improvised solos. Similar to Bop, the phrasing of cool music is not symmetrical. The cool style has more melodic lines compared with Bop which had its focus on one melodic line at a time. But the Cool is not as rich and bold as Bop. The common rhythm of the Cool were polyrhythms and polymeters. More instruments were applied to the Cool, such as horn, flute, oboe, bassoon and tuba, and the Cool groups usually had more

They use off-beats (originally a music term meaning "not following the standard beat."). Jazz is a unique music genre because it uses 3/3(triplets.)

Bebop is a style of jazz that was developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. Bebop was developed during the 1940’s and is one of the most artistic styles of jazz music. The word Bebop focused more of the freedom of creativity rather than rhythmic aspects. The word bebop is an onomatopoeic of a staccato two-tone phrase distinctive in this kind of music. Bebop also gave soloists more room for improvisation. Bebop differs from the composition of the swing era and is characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expand on their role as tempo-keepers. It appeared to sound racing, nervous, erratic, and fragmented. To jazz musicians and music lovers, bebop was a beautiful revolution in the art of jazz.