Jazz Corner: Swing, Bebop and Modern Jazz

If you were strolling down the streets of an American city in the 1930s — unlikely that anyone perusing this was actually there, you would most likely come across at least one dance hall or ‘speakeasy’ playing big band jazz. It would almost invariably be a dance band with a vocalist; patrons would dance and swing to the music from the 12 or 14-piece orchestra all evening and into the wee hours of the morning.

Many of the bands would be those of eminent jazz musicians such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers Tommy and Jimmy, Lionel Hampton, Glen Gray, Chick Webb or even the great Duke Ellington.

The 1930s were lean years for America. In 1929, Wall Street crashed ushering in The Great Depression; fortunes were lost, millionaires became bankrupt, factories closed down, jobs were scarce, and the common person had immense financial woes.

Dance halls, with affordable fares, became popular for folks to gather, dance, socialize and temporarily forget their problems.

In addition, Prohibition was imposed in most states, adding to the misery. Prohibition also created illicit trade in alcohol and a powerful mafia came into being. Think Al Capone. But this is about jazz, not the Mafia!

The dance music of this era — also referred to as the Jazz Age — was jazz, the popular music of the time. Apart from the dance halls, radio stations broadcast the music from the more famous bands. Some exceptional singers emerged from this period. Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and several other great vocalists made their mark in this era.

However, for the musicians themselves, especially the creative jazz players, there was growing frustration as they seldom got space in the band arrangements to solo and express themselves. Also, the bass-dominated swing was getting monotonous and a little repetitive.

A small change of relief from this came in the form of a saxophone-led small band arrangement of Body and Soul. Coleman Hawkins was the sax player in question and his recording of this tune was a big hit at the time; it is still regarded as a pioneering effort from that era of jazz. It was a beginning of sorts, of a new era in jazz.

Around early 1942, a young 21-year-old alto saxophone player, Charlie Parker was experimenting with some new sounds; he was technically brilliant and worked on changes on melodic lines which he then played at a hectic pace in a tight, small group, usually a quartet or quintet.

Thus was born a new sound in jazz called Bebop. The brilliance of Charlie Parker — also called Bird — resulted in the creation of this “new” sound in jazz. It is almost as if he were an inventor who worked away in his lab and, one day emerged with the sound of Bebop.

Bird found an able ally, a kindred spirit almost, in trumpet player John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. Dizzy was able to match the concepts and also the hectic pace of Bird, and Bebop took root in the jazz sound.

This process of Bebop overshadowing Swing was aided by a couple of other factors. One, World War 2 was raging and several musicians were called up for national war duty; they were unavailable to their bands, which consequently struggled for survival. Several of these drafted musicians died in battle. In fact, Glenn Miller and a majority of his band died when their plane was shot down by the Germans in Europe.

Many large bands shrunk as a result. The other factor leading to the decline of the big band was that there was a move by the government to ban interracial dancing! Dance halls had a deserted look.

As the War ended and a positive phase of life began, Bebop gained popularity, especially in New York City where Bird and Dizzy reigned. An 18-year-old Miles Davis left his native town of St. Louis to go to New York. His idols were Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and he wanted to play alongside them. To appease his affluent dad, a dentist, Miles enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Every evening he would be either at Minton’s or at Monroe’s Playhouse in NYC playing with Bird and Diz. These two unique jazz clubs were the greenhouses in which Bebop was nurtured and grew.

At Minton’s, the house pianist was Thelonius Monk. This club became famous for its “cutting sessions”. Soloists would join in with those already playing on the stage. Those who could not keep up with the hectic tempo were thrown out – as in asked to leave. Bebop was survival of the fittest!

The core group of musicians who emerged as pioneers of Bebop were pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, bassist Charles Mingus, drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, and of course Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. Several others joined their ranks in due course. In fact, vocalist Sarah Vaughan used her voice to scat bop lines.

Soon, jazz was functioning at almost three levels. One, the dance bands that were still around with exciting new vocalists two, the New Orleans traditionalists – Louis Armstrong at the helm – were popular and the new sound of Bebop. Although Bebop was based on improvisational solos on melodic lines, it became, essentially a listener’s music. It was not dance music at all. It was followed by only a bunch of hardcore jazz listeners. By the way, that is still the case!

While Bebop had changed the sound of improvised jazz, it was further tweaked into what is called Hardbop, a variation in which melody is dominant. The pioneers of this sound were a young trumpet player, Clifford Brown, pianist Horace Silver and a few others. This variant has had a much longer shelf life and is still popular.

The other stream emerging from a reaction to ‘hot’ Bebop was the ‘cool’ sound, pioneered by Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet and a few others. Miles’ album “Birth of the Cool” is a cornerstone album from that period. “Cool jazz” was also called West Coast Jazz because of its laid-back approach to the music.

Interestingly, the common terms “hot” and “cool” used in contemporary lingo are from this era of jazz!

Bird died at the young age of 34 but he had made his impact. Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis were responsible for adding some interesting dimensions to the jazz juggernaut.

Dizzy had a Cuban percussion player, Chano Pozo in his band and introduced the Cuban or Latin sound to jazz. He also mentored several musicians such as Jon Faddis and Cuban trumpet player Arturo Sandoval.

After his Cool phase, Miles went on to make the “Modal” sound his own. His album, Kind of Blue from this period is the largest-selling jazz album ever. Later Miles ventured into electronic sounds and fusion.

Why don’t we save the next part of this story for next month’s Jazz Corner?

Sunil Sampat is a jazz critic and Contributing Editor of Rolling Stone India. Write to Sunil at jazzwala@gmail.com