"Variously called rebop, bebop, or simply bop, the new approach was forged by restlessly innovative musicians who had grown dissatisfied with big-band swing, a dance-oriented style that required a predictable rhythmic groove, a sonic blend that favored tight section playing over improvised soloing, and an atmosphere of unfettered joy and gleaming optimism. Heralded as âmodern jazz,â the new music favored small combos playing an opening melodic theme (the âheadâ) that introduced a set of chords, followed by a succession of solos in which players improvised new versions of the theme with agile, quicksilver runs through the governing chord progression, free to enrich the harmonic texture with substitute and extended chords. The tunes were played at blistering tempos. Drummers accented the soloistsâ fractured, serpentine phrasings with abstract, almost ironic, snare drum riffs andâin place of the martial four-to-the-floor style of swing drummingâthe deft dropping of bass drum âbombsâ in odd corners of the meter. Freed from an obligation to accommodate dancers, these musicians now emphasized technical virtuosity and creative ingenuity. Modern jazz was a listening music, and many of its players insisted on being seen as artists rather than as entertainers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
' (September 15, 2021)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bebop
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Bebop
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Bebop â
Related Quotes
"For guitar players who are studying jazz, taking the next step in jazz improvisation can mean incorporating the distiâŚ"
"If Chicago jazz epitomised the devil-may-care mood of the 1920s, it also looked forward to the â30s: Chicago stars suâŚ"
"Jazz in the late 1940s moved away from big band jazz and morphed into a new expressive form that reflected social devâŚ"
"Most of the music in the swing era was not improvised and instead written down, but hundreds of jazz improvisers wereâŚ"
"The phrase âturnaroundâ is used to describe the last two or fours bars of the blues sequence."
"What made [jazz guitarist Joe Pass] so unique and great was his chord-melody style playing combined with fingerpickinâŚ"
"The urge to move away from the over-familiar chord progressions of bop led Charles Mingus and Miles Davis to develop âŚ"
"Jazz music forces us guitarists to learn our fretboards. There is no getting around it. In all of its harmonic compleâŚ"
"Prior to the advent of electrical amplification, the role of the guitar in jazz was strictly that of a chorded rhythmâŚ"
"For guitar players who are studying jazz, taking the next step in jazz improvisation can mean incorporating the distiâŚ"