Before the bebop appeared as the most outstanding type of jazz, swing was the leading jazz style. The swing as the modern dance music palatable to the public. Bebop that meantime emerged within the same beliefs that swing evolved from eventually sounded quite distinct from its predecessor, even in its initial stages. Bebop had the principal influence on each style that emerged from it. It influenced the improvisation, organization structure, and harmony known in jazz for years. At the same time, the famous musicians of the bebop period are still considered excellent jazz musicians to ever take the spotlight. The paper discusses the main stage of the bebop development, its division into styles, as well as its impact on the US culture.
Bebop emerged as soon as the young jazz musicians evolved the artistic potentiality of jazz along with the successful, dance-determined swing. The primary type of jazz was built around small combos in contrast to the general principles of the swing period. In that regard, numerous musicians who followed the bebop movement left swing bands to play bebop. Due to that fact, emphasizing individual musicians as soloists was one of bebop leading features. The musicians originally played together at the opening and end of a musical piece as they began the principal theme.
There is one more determining characteristics of bebop its solos that were technically directing and emphasizing a high frequency of notes and a high tempo. In addition to this, the bebop usually illustrated complex forms that replaced periodically. At the same time, chords were usually modified from their usual types, and notes were extracted and combined while generating dissonances, which seemed unfamiliar to the audience. In comparison to the comparatively simple music of swing, the rise in complexity as well as the musical choice was a very important move that occurred in very distinct sounding music that had a significantly higher focus upon improvisation technical ability, and distinctive performance.
At the same time, bebop was not supposed to be used for dancing; it implied that musicians played at high-speed tempos. Most of the musicians examined difficult forms, intricate syncopation, changed chords, elongated harmonies, minor replacements, and multiple tones. Bebop groups applied rhythmic parts to extend their participation. Whereas the common group of the swing period included people aged nearly fourteen performing in an aggregate based style, the typical bebop band consisted of small combo including the piano, double, saxophone, trumpet, piano, and drums. Instead of playing the heavily organized music, bebop players originally played the melody of a song with the continuo of the cadence section accompanied by a part in which each of the players performed a solo and then reverted to the melody at the end of the song.
The jazz leaders and the new forms of music became part of everyday life. Until nowadays, they and their music remain an essential part of the American culture. As a result, the innovative concepts of bebop emerged and split into two distinct types. They are well known as cool and hard bop (Dicaire 3). In that regard, cool jazz was considered to be the primary West Coast form that indicated the swinging rhythms and glorious melodies of the swing period coupled with bob’s rushing harmonies. Cool jazz is considered to be a style of contemporary jazz music that emerged in the United States of America after World War II. Indeed, it is featured by comfortable tempos and moderate tone in contradiction to the firm and intricate bebop. Usually, it applies precise forms and includes components of the classical music. In particular, the genre created a number of post-war jazz characteristics applying a more depressed approach than that observed within the different contemporaneous jazz phrases. The best cool jazz and hard bop performers were alumni of the famous bop schools such as Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis (Dicaire 3).
At the same time, hard bob was a harder, bluesier version of bebop that concentrated on darker and unhappier issues. ard bebop is the subgenre of the jazz music. Numerous journalists as well as record companies started applying the definition in the middle 1950s. They attempted to describe a direction of jazz music that included influences from the swing and blues, in particular in piano and saxophone playing. In addition to this, the hard bebop is related to the “funky hard bop” (Yanow 89). It is characterized with the rollicking, harmonic sensation linked with the musical form. Such well-known performers as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were recognized as leaders of the new tendency. Although, bebop was not a lasting subgenre of the jazz style. Due to that fact, until the late 1940s, bebop was generally recognized as the initial style of jazz. However, along with rising popularity, there were a number of negative aspects (Yanow 40). For instance, with the release of numerous musical records, more performers studied how to play the new style of jazz. Thus, the innovative qualities that characterized bebop in its initial years disappeared.
The bebop style of jazz is a significant discovery in American popular music in the twentieth century. This period is referred to as the end of the musical and harmonic experiments of youthful African-American jazz performers. In the beginning, new style caused controversy due to its unorthodox character (Tick and Beaudoin 90). However, soon it obtained general recognition as the foundation of contemporary jazz style. Until nowadays, it still impacts the jazz musicians. The process of its production was solidly rooted in New York City while the African-American jazz performers denied some social practices that restricted their possibilities. At the point of its inception, bebop faced a lack of the mainstream recognition and possibilities to generate records to promote the style. Moreover, it was accompanied with the lack of funds for the musicians who played in the bebop style as there was a risk to face an end of bebop before it evolved further (Dicaire 89). Thus, despite swings fame among the public, bebop served as the basis for the diversity of jazz that resulted from it. Despite the overall development, bebops professional and melodic difficulty, the styles character continued to be well-known for numerous years after bebop period as jazz leading style that had come and left.
To conclude, the revolution in the bebop style was an impressive period in jazz development despite the numerous critics who evaluated the music. The bebop style served as the subgenre of jazz that followed despite its exceptionally short lifespan. It was the principal style for approximately four years. Nevertheless, it influenced concepts such as the improvisation and melody which were the foundation for the emergence of other musical styles. Taking into consideration the challenges that bebop encountered in its initial years, it is astonishing that the style evolved enough to have such an outstanding impact on the following jazz performers.
