BEBOP Evolution & Revolution 1940s Flashcards
1
Q
Late 1930s
A
- Jazz survived depression
- Now being transformed by dramatic social forces
- Mixed in unprecedented destruction & prosperity
- AA worried about future of mankind
- Tension between nostalgia and innovation of music intensified and led to creation of complex new styles of music. i.e bebop
2
Q
Big Bands
A
- Declined
- White majority craved dreamy singers aka crooners ie Frank Sinatra
- wartime rationing of gas and rubber
- record manufacturing slowed by shortage of shellac
- big bands were a reminder of the era of struggle
3
Q
Jazz Wars Moldy figs vs. Modernists
A
- Declining fortune of swing precipitated sense of crisis
- Was jazz dead?
4
Q
Moldy Figs
A
- Conservatives
- Advocated for return to authentic New Orleans style
5
Q
Modernist
A
- Wanted new music to represent hypermodernism post-war America
- A new style to set apart from New Orleans style and swing
6
Q
Bunk Johnson
A
- Cornet player, living link to older authentic N.O tradition
- Prominent around 1900s
- Began receiving national recognition through recordings and live performances in 1940s
- “Down by the riverside “
7
Q
New jazz
A
- The desire to form a new modern jazz was centered in NY, initially in Harlem, and came from younger generations of African Americans
- Jam sessions informal and afterhours held in nightclubs and (mintons playhouse) apartments
- improv fast tempos, quick thinking soloist , raised standard for acceptable improv
8
Q
Bebop
A
- Mode of musical self-expression
- Modern jazz
- Rejected swings core conventions
- Bebopers serious rejecting the smiling and joking audience-pleasing manner
- varied fashion individual looks, played undanceable music
- Secret ghetto art form
- 1948 - Bebop resigned as most esteemed jazz artistry
9
Q
Bebop Vs Swing
A
- swing for dance, bebop for listening
- swing communal celebration, bebop private conventions one on one experience
- swing attempted social integration, bebop rejected assimilation
- swing reflected optimism; new deal, bebop reflected post-war anxiety, pessimism, race problems
- swing market commodity, bebop was wary of selling out
- swing white, bebop black
- swing popular, bebop hip
10
Q
Bebop Viewed
A
As a music
- rooted melodies, harmonies, instrumental techniques, a natural evolution from swing
- radical self consciences brake w/tradition, a revolution against big band swing
As culture
- business response to professional music-making and economic structures of the music industry; blks not acknowledged
- political response to social conditions of African Americans; swing a theft of blk music did not express emotional life of African Americans post-war
11
Q
The music
A
- Bebop was loose improvisatory format
- rapid tempo & irregular phrasing
- drummers shifted to keep time on a cymbal
- piano punctuation , flexible rhythm
- Bass continued walking style
12
Q
Latin Jazz
A
- created hybrid style, features from Afro-latin music into bebop
- 1940s Afro-Cuban musicians , rhythm practices
13
Q
Charlie Parker
A
- Alto saxophonist, key figure in bebop era
- Born Kansas city , work w/semi professionals then drop out of school to become jazz musician in 1935
- 1940 joined big bands accompanied Dizzy Gillespie- a modernist
- Joined jam sessions in mintons playhouse
- Addicted to tobacco drugs alcohol died in 1955 34yrs old
- Improvised sax solos: perfectly constructed masterpiece- became the standard
14
Q
Dizzie Gillespie
A
- Trumpeter, the intellectual force behind bebop
- played w/big bands , wrote and composed 1939
- rebelled against stifling atmosphere and freelanced in NY beginning 1941
- turned jazz sessions into small bebop combo 1944
- Advocate for latin jazz
- Photogeni, witty , sense of humor, personification of HIp
15
Q
Bud Powell
A
- Father of bebop piano, master of up-tempo playing
- reduced use of left hand , occasional stabs to punctuate
- speedy melodic phrases w/right hand
