Unit 3: Bebop and Beyond Response Essay

The Origins of Bebop

The 1940s marked a juncture in the history of jazz, in which the young generation of musicians sought, in Scott Deveaux’s words, to “revolt”1 against the established sounds of Swing and principles which lay behind them. They believed that their predecessors’ earlier styles did not succeed in expressing attitudes as they were exploited by white mainstream society and so they aimed to go in the opposite direction. Furthermore, they desired to segregate themselves from the white mainstream society to prevent further exploitation of musicians and the sound. Through the process of rejecting the past, the young musicians such as Thelonious Monk, Carmen McRae, Art Blakey, and many more, established bebop as a new style of jazz. The bebop phenomenon was a new sound, but offered a new attitude, too; both were key to its inception. The recollections of bebop by: writers such as LeRoi Jones and Rudi Blesh, Professor Scott DeVeaux and musicians such as Art Blakey, will show the significant attributes which led to the development of bebop, such as the distinct attitudes towards the mainstream society and music industry, and an aim to create a new sound.

The young musicians saw that jazz had become a commercialised machine by the white mainstream society, used for the pure purpose of producing entertainment for a monetary reward. This led to a rebellion by the young musicians who did not want to conform to white exploitation of jazz and to the established sound of jazz. “Bebop is the music of revolt: revolt against big bands, arrangers… Tin Pan Alley – against commercialised music in general. It reasserts the individuality of the jazz musician ….“2 Scott Deveaux presents how bebop primarily developed as a result of the musicians’ distaste towards the jazz industry, and musicians seeking to reinvent the sound to express their individuality. 

The young generation of musicians also sought to prevent further exploitation of jazz musicians by producing very complex arrangements, with Rudi Blesh, a jazz reviewer, perceiving them as “tough”3. Rudi Plesh saw that the younger musicians endeavoured to produce music which can not be imitated, “the idea in the air that a new music might be developed, so complex and difficult that the imitators and exploiters-especially the white ones-could not grab it as they had grabbed the black man’s ragtime…”4 The younger musicians knew that their predecessors had to some extent failed to maintain ownership of their music which led to white musicians imitating their sound and attaining all the fame and glory. Art Blakey, a young drummer at the time shares an example. “They turn around and name Benny Goodman the King of Swing, and he’s playing Fletcher Henderson’s arrangements note for note.”5 The young generation’s attitude towards their predecessors’ failure to find an identity that was not shaped by mainstream audiences and exploited by white mainstream society triggered the innovation of a new sound which would eventually be known as bebop. Rudi Blesh points out that bebop “in its beginnings … had no name.”6 By not bestowing a name on the new sound it prevented imitation, as without a name bebop did not exist as its own definite style. Through the attitudes of the young musicians, they created a new provocative sound which they sought to keep under their ownership. In maintaining this somewhat secretive ownership over bebop, the young musicians showed that they valued the integrity and attitude behind the sound much more than its monetary value. Carmen McRae, a young pianist and vocalist, commented that  “Minton’s … was just a place for cats to jam …”7, which shows that musicians utilized a club for the pure purpose of extracting the attitude behind the sound. 

The prejudice and segregation of African Americans in the 1940s by the white mainstream society provoked the younger musicians to actively isolate themselves. Isolation was achieved through the development of a new sophisticated sound and harmony which came to be known as bebop. The complexity of bebop was created to take jazz away from its mainstream popularity and back to its African American roots. LeRoi Jones believes, “It also put on a more intellectually and psychologically satisfying level the traditional separation and isolation of the black man from America. It was a cult of protection as well as rebellion.”8 Jones expresses how separation between African Americans and white mainstream society has always existed and that the younger generation were not the first to deal with these problems. However, Jones has identified that the creation of bebop was a kind of distinction for the African American society, as it was utilised to self-segregate from the white society, which elevated the prestige of African American culture in comparison to the white society and its mainstream music for African Americans. This correlates with development of bebop, as the young musicians aimed to prevent their exploitation by self-segregating from the mainstream music industry. As a result the origin of bebop can be said to have reflected the aspirations and attitudes of the African American society in the 1940s and vice versa. “We’re going to create something that they can’t steal because they can’t play it.”9 The young Thelonious Monk believed that the musicians would be able to create such a complex harmony that the mainstream music industry could never exploit it, thus creating a self segregated isolation of African American music and culture from the white society.  

The young musicians have clearly shown that their attitudes have driven the development of bebop, but at the same time the young musicians also aspired to produce a new sound as they were tired of the old arrangements as remarked by Rudi Blesh. “The young men felt that all of the improvisational possibilities on the old basic triads had been worked out. Further struggle with them would only be stirring of cold broth.”10 Rudi Blesh believes that the young musicians have reached their limit of jazz at the time and required new arrangements and harmonies to satisfy their “improvisational possibilities”11. The young musicians decided to create new harmonies and freedom of accent by developing upon the song book of tradition. “The “new” chords -long ago explored by Chopin and later, Debussy-were extended, or augmented, chords that ran on up from the fifth degree of the ordinary triad, and beyond the accustomed seventh, to the ninth, eleventh, and even thirteenth degrees.”12 Blesh represents how the young musicians similar to the classical composers were compelled to develop upon the traditional structure of music. However, by maintaining the roots of the traditional ideas, the young generation wanted to show that they are able to take the popular tunes of Tin Pan Alley and create something new and more sophisticated out of it. “Working on the triads of an old standard “I Got Rhythm”…”13 An example of this can be heard when comparing the pieces Cherokee (Ex.1, 00:00-00:16)14 and Ko-Ko (Ex.2, 00:00-00:16)15. Cherokee was a major recording by Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra, a popular jazz orchestra during the Swing era. Ko-Ko, recorded by young Charlie Parker has the same chord progression as Cherokee but has a quicker tempo and more sophisticated harmony resembling the bebop style.  The difference in the two pieces shows how the young musicians developed bebop for the pure purpose of retaliation against the established sound. They did not seek to create something completely unique and original, but instead wanted to show that they could break all the laws of jazz and reinvent the old popular tunes in their own image. 

The development of bebop could be attributed to the specific attitudes of the young musicians in the 1940s. Their attitudes were a reaction towards the exploitation of jazz by white mainstream society. These reactions lead to them trying to create: sounds which could not be imitated, sounds which are very sophisticated, and sounds that would elevate jazz to a higher artistic plane. However, the young musicians also pursued a new sound and harmony irregardless of the attitudes they held. The overdetermined impact of needing a new sound and the need to express the attitudes could each have individually led to bebop. On the other hand, the role of the attitude has always been present in jazz, and should be considered as a foundation upon which jazz develops with bebop being an example of this development. “Negro music is essentially the expression of an attitude, or a collection of attitudes, about the world, and only secondarily an attitude about the way music is made.”16 Amiri Baraka, previously known as LeRoi Jones, expresses that the attitude is the main cornerstone behind jazz and that the creation of a sound plays second fiddle to the attitude behind it. 

Footnotes

  1. Scott DeVeaux, “Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography,” Black American Literature Forum 25, no. 3 (1991), pp. 525-60
  2.  Ibid.
  3. Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), p. 532
  4. Ibid.
  5. Art Blakey, From Jazz Spoken Here (1976),  cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), p. 210
  6. Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, p. 530
  7. Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, p. 530
  8. Bop, From Blues People (1963) by Leroi Jones, cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), p. 871
  9. Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, p. 532
  10. Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, p. 531
  11. Ibid.
  12. Ibid.
  13. Ibid.
  14. Charlie Barnet & his Orchestra, Cherokee. Written by Ray Noble. THE 1939 HITS ARCHIVE, 00:00-00:16
  15.  Charlie Parker’s Re-boppers, Ko-Ko. Recorded in 1945, 00:00-00:16
  16. Amiri Baraka, [LeRoi Jones], “Jazz and the White Critic,” Keeping Time:  Readings in Jazz History, ed. Robert Walser (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 257. [Originally published in DownBeat 1963]

Bibliography

Scott DeVeaux, “Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography,” Black American  Literature Forum 25, no. 3 (1991), pp. 525-60

Flying Home, From Combo: U.S.A (1971), by Rudi Blesh, cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), pp. 516-36

Art Blakey, From Jazz Spoken Here (1976),  cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), pp. 205-14

Bop, From Blues People (1963) by Leroi Jones, cited in Reading Jazz, ed. Robert Gottlieb (New York: Vintage Books, 1996),  pp. 870-884

Charlie Barnet & his Orchestra, Cherokee. Written by Ray Noble. THE 1939 HITS ARCHIVE, 00:00-00:16

Charlie Parker’s Re-boppers, Ko-Ko. Recorded in 1945, 00:00-00:16 

 Amiri Baraka, [LeRoi Jones], “Jazz and the White Critic,” Keeping Time:  Readings in Jazz History, ed. Robert Walser (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 255-61. [Originally published in DownBeat 1963] 

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