It’s characterised by:
- A strong blues and gospel influence (Return to Roots). So use of: ...
- It generally used minor keys/modes
- It was more emotive, raw, hot
- A strong driving rhythm, with a heavy backbeat (so accent on beats 2 & 4), which set up a solid rhythmic groove ...
- Slow & medium tempos
- Simpler, lyrical and more memorable melodies ...
- 12 bar and 32 bar forms using a Head-Solo-Head structure ...
What is hard bop?
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing.
What makes hard bop hard jazz?
Hard bop (not “hard jazz”) was kind of a conscious reaction to the cool genre. Some musicians found that the lack of emphasis on groove and blues vocabulary took it too far from what they wanted in their jazz, so they made an overt gesture to incorporate those things back into their genre.
Is bebop hard to listen to?
Bebop is often fast, hard and can be difficult for many to listen to. While some Jazz works well as background music in a cafe, Bebop is designed to be listened to be an attentive audience who are giving it their full attention. The King of Bebop is Charlie “Bird” Parker.
What caused hard bop to develop?
David Rosenthal sees the development of hard bop as a response to both a decline in bebop and the rise of rhythm and blues: The early fifties saw an extremely dynamic Rhythm and Blues scene take shape....
How would you describe hard bop?
an aggressive, driving, hot style of modern jazz developed by East Coast musicians in the late 1950s as a rejection of the more relaxed, cool style of West Coast jazz.
What is hard bop music?
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing.
Is hard bop cool jazz?
Hard bop was, in part, a reaction to cool jazz. a. Many jazz musicians felt that with cool jazz, the music had become too “classical” in nature, that is, too European (not enough “blues”).
What's the difference between bop and hard bop?
Bebop typically has faster speeds and more unison playing between the melody instruments — usually trumpet and sax. There tends to be some angularity in bebop compositions. Hard bop features a more bluesy sound, often characterized by playing in minor keys.
Why do people call songs a bop?
“Bop” is an online slang term that means “a good song.” People use it in social media posts and text messages to describe a song they strongly enjoyed.
Why is it called bop?
bebop, also called bop, the first kind of modern jazz, which split jazz into two opposing camps in the last half of the 1940s. The word is an onomatopoeic rendering of a staccato two-tone phrase distinctive in this type of music.
What is the hardest jazz?
You don't have to spend years in the jazz community to know which tune fits that role. Whether John Coltrane's “Giant Steps” is the most difficult jazz standard of all time is a matter of opinion, but most would agree that more than any other contender, its name serves as shorthand for improvisation intimidation.
What is the hardest jazz instrument?
The trumpetThe trumpet is probably the hardest instrument to play in jazz, but the rewards of mastering it (and the relative affordability of buying a beginner horn) make it well worth a try!
How hard bop is similar to bebop?
The size and instrumentation of Hard Bop combos was similar to that of its Bebop forbearer: usually two or three horns plus rhythm section. E. One of the most important Hard Bop groups was the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid 1950s.
Is kind of blue hard bop?
Composition. Kind of Blue is based entirely on modality, diverging from Davis's earlier hard bop style of jazz with its complex chord progression and improvisation. The entire album was a series of modal sketches, with each performer given a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style ...
Who is recognized as one of the top hard bop guitarists?
Horace Silver and Art Blakey were prime exponents.
What came after hard bop?
Post-bop refers to a body of music that emerged in the late 1950s and 60s that combined principles of bebop, hard bop, modal jazz, avant-garde and free jazz, but also departed from earlier traditions in jazz.
Who is recognized as one of the top hard bop guitarists?
Horace Silver and Art Blakey were prime exponents.
What type of music was a reaction against bebop?
jazzThe "cool" jazz style has been described as a reaction against the frenzied tempos and angular melodies of bebop. Term used extensively by journalists and record companies in the 1950s.
What were hard bop and funky jazz who contributed?
A later style, known as hard bop, or funky, evolved from and incorporated elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. Horace Silver was the most prominent pianist, composer, and bandleader in this period. Cannonball Adderley and Art Blakey led other hard bop combos.
Hard Bop Characteristics
Hard bop was the dominant genre as Jazz from about 1955 to 1965. It’s characterised by:
Reaction to Cool Jazz
I have a separate lesson on Cool Jazz which discusses this genre in detail. But in short, throughout most of Jazz History there have been two countervailing forces pulling on it.
Rise of Rhythm & Blues
As well as a reaction to Cool Jazz, Hard bop was also heavily influenced by the rise of Rhythm and Blues and Black Popular Music in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Now, the Blues had been around for decades, of course, but it was only in the 1940’s & 1950’s, when it was electrified and amplified, did it become hugely popular.
To Return Bebop to Melody
Before bebop there was Swing, which was melodic, danceable, and popular music. Bebop turned Jazz into art music – with angular and difficult melodies, fast tempos, complex harmonies and fast chord changes. Bebop was complex and un-danceable, and therefore unpopular.
Hard Bop
Like so many genres of Jazz, Miles Davis was partially responsible for creating Hard bop with his 1954 recordings – Walkin’ and Blue & Boogie. But the quintessential Hard bop band was really The Jazz Messengers.
Soul Jazz
Some people further divided Hard bop into a subgenre called Soul Jazz – which, as the name implied, was influenced by soul music. It is characterised by:
What is hard bop music?
List of hard bop musicians. Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music . Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing.
When did hard bop become popular?
The hard bop style enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Even now, hard bop performers and elements of the music remain popular in jazz.
What was the first song to be recorded in the early days of hard bop?
A key recording in the early development of hard bop was Silver's composition " The Preacher ", which was considered "old-timey" or "corny", such that Blue Note head Alfred Lion was hesitant to record the song. However, the song became a successful hit.
When was hard bop first invented?
Hard bop first developed in the mid-1950s, and is generally seen as originating with the Jazz Messengers, a quartet led by pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey. Some saw hard bop as a response to cool jazz and West Coast jazz.
Who invented hard bop?
According to Nat Hentoff in his 1957 liner notes for the Art Blakey Columbia LP entitled Hard Bop, the phrase was originated by music critic and pianist John Mehegan, jazz reviewer of the New York Herald Tribune at that time. Hard bop first developed in the mid-1950s, and is generally seen as originating with the Jazz Messengers, a quartet led by pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey. Some saw hard bop as a response to cool jazz and West Coast jazz. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill explain, "the hard bop school... saw the new instrumentation and compositional devices used by cool musicians as gimmicks rather than valid developments of the jazz tradition." However, Shelly Manne suggested that cool jazz and hard bop simply reflected their respective geographic environments: the relaxed cool jazz style reflected a more relaxed lifestyle in California, while driving bop typified the New York scene. Some writers, such as James Lincoln Collier, suggest that the style was an attempt to recapture jazz as a form of African American expression. Whether or not this was the intent, many musicians quickly adopted the style, regardless of race.
Who wrote the book Hard Bop?
David H. Rosenthal contends in his book Hard Bop that the genre is, to a large degree, the natural creation of a generation of African-American musicians who grew up at a time when bop and rhythm and blues were the dominant forms of black American music.
What was the music of the early fifties called?
The early fifties saw an extremely dynamic Rhythm and Blues scene take shape.... This music, and not cool jazz, was what chronologically separated bebop and hard bop in ghettos. Young jazz musicians, of course, enjoyed and listened to these R & B sounds which, among other things, began the amalgam of blues and gospel that would later be dubbed ' soul music .' And it is in this vigorously creative black pop music, at a time when bebop seemed to have lost both its direction and its audience, that some of hard bop's roots may be found. : 24
What was the most obvious change that came with this new musical style?
One of the most obvious changes that came with this new musical style was its renewed focus on singable melodies. This was a divergence from bebop music of the time; typically consisting of much more complex melodies.
Is music made in a vacuum?
Nothing is made in a vacuum, and the same is true of music . Every new era of music is influenced in some shape or form by the people creating it, and by the societal issues of the times; hard bop just so happens to have been taking place during one of the most turbulent and important time spans of American history.
What is hard bop?
Hard bop is an extension of bebop. The term “hard bop,” which emerged in the 1950s, was used to describe the new take on jazz that incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues. Hard bop is generally recognized to have originated with the Jazz Messengers, a quartet led by pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey.
What is the meaning of hard bop?
David Rosenthal sees the development of hard bop as a response to both a decline in bebop and the rise of rhythm and blues.
What did David Rosenthal see in the development of hard bop?
David Rosenthal sees the development of hard bop as a response to both a decline in bebop and the rise of rhythm and blues. According to Rosenthal, “The early fifties saw an extremely dynamic rhythm-and-blues scene take shape. This music, and not cool jazz, was what chronologically separated bebop and hard bop in ghettos.
Who was the first black pop artist to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival?
And it is in this vigorously creative black pop music, at a time when bebop seemed to have lost both its direction and its audience, that some of hard bop’s roots may be found.” 2. Miles Davis, who had performed the title track of his album Walkin’ at the inaugural Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, would form the Miles Davis Quintet ...
Is Hard Bop soulful?
It began to “heal” the rift that occurred with Bebop’s “lack of danceability” a decade earlier. Hard Bop was more soulful, bluesy, and still provided the musicians the artistic “freedom” that Bebop gave. You could “move and groove” to Hard Bop.
Who started hard bop?
Hard bop emerged in the 1950s, spearheaded by the likes of Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Jackie McLean and Sonny Rollins, who between them made some outstanding albums that still resonate loudly today
Who was the Bop artist who recorded further explorations?
Silver had been making great hard bop records for Blue Note since 1956, so Further Explorations from 1958 or Horace Scope from 1960 could easily have been put here. But this 1963 session with Carmell Jones and Joe Henderson is justly famous and should be the album of choice.
What is a bebop in music?
Continue Reading. The term “bebop” was first used in the swing era as a nonsense scat syllable, denoting a phrase that ends on an offbeat 8th note (syncopation). In the 40s the word came to be used to describe the new jazz as played by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, probably because the type of phrase ending on two 8th notes was even more ...
What is the head of a bebop?
Complex melodies emphasising dissonance. The melody played at the beginning and end of most jazz tunes is known as the head, and bebop heads could be dizzyingly complex and virtuosic, often stressing notes that were outside the harmony of the underlying chord. Examples are Parker’s ‘Scrapple from the Apple’ and ‘Confirmation’.
How many musicians were in a bebop band?
Bebop groups were mostly small, five or six musicians at most, as opposed to the large bands common to swing music. A typical lineup would be sax, trumpet, piano, bass, drums. Dizzy Gillespie formed a big band to play bebop, but it didn’t take off.
What was the influence of Bebop on jazz?
Bebop left a lasting influence on jazz, especially what’s now known as ‘mainstream jazz’. It established the head / solos / head format as standard for jazz performances, even if many jazz musicians like to blur the distinction, and it raised the bar as far as musical sophistication and virtuosity were concerned. It was, for many listeners (including the present writer, who discovered bebop as a teenager in the 1980s), the most compelling and exhilarating form of jazz that had come along, the gateway to a lifetime of engaging with the music.
Why was bebop possible?
One reason why this shift came about, and why it was possible for the musicians themselves to develop bebop in the conditions in which it was developed, was the 1942–44 Musicians’ Strike.
Where did bebop originate?
Bebop is a form of jazz that began to emerge in the late 1930s and 1940s, principally in New York City but also having origins in Kansas City, Missouri and elsewhere in the USA.
Who is considered to be a bebop?
Yet Monk, who is also considered to be bebop, doesn’t share some of the major thi. Continue Reading.
Style Characteristics
Return to Melody
According to Nat Hentoff in his 1957 liner notes for the Art Blakey Columbia LP entitled Hard Bop, the phrase was originated by music critic and pianist John Mehegan, jazz reviewer of the New York Herald Tribune at that time. Hard bop first developed in the mid-1950s, and is generally seen as originating with the Jazz Messengers, a quartet led by pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey. …
Rhythms and Changes
Reactionary Influence
Social Influences
Founding Artists
Artists to Check Out
- One of the most obvious changes that came with this new musical style was its renewed focus on singable melodies. This was a divergence from bebop music of the time; typically consisting of much more complex melodies. If you were wondering why highly accomplished jazz musicians would want to simplify their music, there's actually a very good reason. Simpler music was gener…