improvement on be-bop's definition?
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Topic: improvement on be-bop's definition?
Posted By: Sean Trane
Subject: improvement on be-bop's definition?
Date Posted: 20 Nov 2011 at 2:16am
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just a thought, to explain the background of its birth... just a few random thoughts about a thread in Prog Ears ------------------ but small-ensemble jazz (including bop) wasn't as much of an intentional
stylistic shift as it was simple wartime expediency. Chronic manpower shortages for EVERYTHING meant the big band leaders were having a really hard time finding qualified musicians for their groups. Prolly hard to financially keep a 16-man unit going, as well, iirc lots of clubs had to close down because they weren't getting enough customer traffic. So they had to downsize their groups, and that led to a pretty swift search for music that sounded good with only a few players. The "trad" jazz quartet/quintet format was the result. "Piano jazz" was another --------------------------------- There was a wartime cabaret tax on venues that offered singing and/or dancing;
instrumental music was exempt. So, club-owners downsized to listening rooms with
small groups, which proved more lucrative....
--------------------- Musical changes happen all the time because of economic or social circumstance, but are they part of the definition of that music. I've been listening
to a lot of early West Coast stuff this week (because of this thread, I'm so
suggestible), and I think evaluating Lee Konitz and Art Pepper as making a
different kind of music than Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie is really a
matter of social criteria and not musical. Cool Jazz came out after Bebop, and
it was mostly white guys, but separating Cool from Bebop is drawing a
distinction without a difference. ------------------------- I had always read and heard that a lot of the musicians in big bands felt
hemmed in by the format, and couldn't wait to jam with a few musical buddies in
after hours sessions where they could stretch out and show off their
improvisational chops. At the same time, Gillespie and Parker in particular were
experimenting with more complex chordal patterns than could be used in
traditional big band formats, and this combination of factors led to bebop. Is
this just an urban myth? --------------------- but those other circumstances you quote were real world factors that conditioned
the emergence of the new, small group music. While it's true that many musicians
felt musically "hemmed in" by the big band format, many of the younger black
players weren't so much opposed to the big bands' musical practices but rather
resented their second-class status in the big band "business", which rewarded
the white bands/musicians over black bands/musicians. Hence, they forged an
alternative practice that granted them at least a measure of both aesthetic and
professional autonomy. Taken together all of these factors, aesthetic and
practical, encouraged the emergence of the small group.... ------------- my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicted musicians to crazy ones.... 
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Replies:
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: 21 Nov 2011 at 4:33am
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Geeeeezzzzz guys, not everybody at once, uh???
 ------------- my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicted musicians to crazy ones....
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