Jazz styles of the 50's

8/22/2019 Jazz styles of the 50's

1/7

Ted Gioia has stated in his book The History of Jazzthat 'The ascendancy of

bebop inevitably invited challenges. A music so radical in its intentions, so open

in its defiance of conventions, almost demanded dramatic responses.' Discuss

how the jazz styles of the 1950s may be viewed as 'dramatic responses', payingparticular attention to the defining musical features of the styles.

So that we may qualify the above statement by Gioia I feel it is necessary first

to look at those ways in which Bebop defied existing conventions within jazz at

the time and how it came to be seen as radical. From here I will look at other

styles and innovations that emerged within the jazz scene post bebop and by

comparative analysis will assess to what extent these styles can be viewed as

dramatic responses to Bebop. I will also use some examples from transcriptions

of Miles Davis work as they demonstrate and exhibit elements of all the styles

that arose in the 1950s. It is worth noting at this point that despite the

fragmentation of styles during the 50s these new innovations did not preclude

the existence of styles already in existence. Indeed in many cases with many of

these styles there is a lot of crossover however there are trends common to

each style and these will be explored throughout the course of this essay.

Bebop emerged as a result of several years of experimentation by a diverse

group of musicians who were not content to confine their creative efforts to

parameters set by the swing big bands of the 1930s. Compared with Bebop,

music of the swing era did not leave very much room for improvisation,

harmonically the style was limited using only triads, 7th chords, and diminished

and augmented chords with occasional use of chromaticism; rhythms were

stereotyped with relatively simple syncopations and melodies were tradition

bound generally sticking to the 4 and 8 measure of dance music. In response

to this, with Bebop we see longer more convoluted solo melodic lines played in

straight eighths fashion,with highly complex, altered chords and harmonies, and

a rhythmic interplay between the accompaniment instruments that had previouslybeen unheard of. Although the repertoire consisted largely of popular tunes that

contained challenging chord progressions, the melody or theme was often

abandoned in favour of the musicians own inventions which were constructed

from the harmonic framework of the tune. This saw a greater emphasis on

technical virtuosity as the ability to negotiate complex structures in any given

key at frantic tempos became a pre-requisite for the bebop musician.

The exponents of Bebop sought to raise jazz to a status of art form as

opposed to that of a functional style of dance music like swing and in this


2/7

respect artistic endeavour took precedence over commercial success.

Consequently the ascendancy of this style tore the jazz world apart dividing

musicians and aficionados alike into warring camps with the left wing radical

champions of Bebop on one side and the right wing traditionalists on the other.

Popular acceptance of Bebop was slow in coming, however as an independentmeans of expression for the jazz musician it continued to flourish and

eventually it became the lingua franca of jazz, a style in which every young jazz

musician found themselves involved with.

The first style to emerge after Bebop was known as cool jazz otherwise

referred to as west coast jazz. It diminished the hard swinging role of the

rhythm section typical of Bebop and de-emphasised technical virtuosity placing

more importance on lyricism. It was light and relaxed in feeling and thoughtful

and uncluttered in conception and as a writers style of jazz it was shaped as

much by the composers and arrangers as it was by the musicians. Compositions

tended to be longer and more complex and chord progressions and sequences

were composed as opposed to being borrowed from popular repertoire. Also

because parts were composed ,the use of counterpoint and polyphonic practices

that were more in keeping with traditional European classical harmony were

commonplace .There was also much more experimentation with sounds and

timbres and the use of non-standard jazz instruments such as French horns

,tubas ,flutes, e.t.c and unorthodox types of ensembles. As regards the actualcool jazz sound its precedents were in the playing styles of musicians like

Lester Young whose light soft dry tone coupled with his unique melodic and

rhythmic sensibilities pointed to a restrained and somewhat understated yet

tasteful and extremely lyrical approach to playing. Many of the key exponents

of this style such as Stan Getz (tenor sax), Lee Konitz (alto sax), Gerry Mulligan

(baritone sax) and Miles Davis (trumpet) employed a light soft dry tone that

often hovered around the middle register. The first truly groundbreaking album

in this genre was the Miles Davis nonet group recording Birth of The Cool. Ifwe look at example 1 on the handout(.p.24-25)we can see a good example of

part writing and influence of European harmony in the changing time signatures

and the instrumentation. Its obvious from looking at this extract too that the

music has been composed and arranged and the parts are lyrical and could

easily be sung. These are just some of the trends that helped characterize cool

jazz.

Cool jazz later came to be known as West Coast jazz because many of its

prototypical exponents were either from, or moved out to California where life


3/7

moved at a much slower pace and where people were of a sunnier disposition.

This geographical element is very much reflected in the music as indeed the

name cool even connotes an emotional detachment.

Another sub-style born from this strain of jazz was third stream. Essentially itwas a combination of European classical elements, which was considered to be

the first stream, combined with elements of jazz ,considered to be the second

stream, to form a new hybrid style known as third stream. It was an attempt to

return to the concept of organizing jazz compositions and utilizing techniques

and devices found in the longer forms of European classical and contemporary

music. It shared many similarities with cool jazz but on a much more profound

level. As a style it was much more cerebral and complex and was an attempt to

bridge the gap between jazz and the classics. Some might class the album Time

Out by the Dave Brubeck quartet as third stream given its use of irregular

time signatures and compositional style. Nevertheless with the rise of the avant

garde and hard bop, which displayed a spontaneity and extrovertism that

pseudo classical works lacked, it did not become a dominant musical force and

as a movement was short lived, never really catching on beyond academic

circles.

Another major style to emerge during the 50s was Hard Bop. It saw an

aggressive return to Bebop concepts with a more direct approach to hotphrases and rhythms. It retained the speed and intensity of Bebop yet with

more of a blues and gospel influence in terms of harmony and rhythm. Due to

this blues and gospel influence, forms and structures tended to be simpler than

that of Bebop and especially that of third stream. Melodies were simpler yet

more soulful and the raw hard driving pulse with emphasis on consistent

swinging coupled with darker tone colours give it a weightier solemn edge.

Rhythmically it was more varied as the rhythm section was often freed up more

from the confines of the standard four beats to the bar. These characteristics

were first apparent in the playing styles of Clifford Brown (trumpet), Harold

Land (tenor sax) and the bands of Art Blakey and pre- cursors to this style

were evident in the playing of Dexter Gordon(tenor sax), Sonny Stitt(tenor sax),

Charlie Parker(tenor sax), Fats Navarro(trumpet) and Miles Davis(trumpet).

Finally the last important style to emerge during the late 50s was Modalism.

Modalism minimzed the fast frantic chord changes of Bebop for a more static,

simplified chord structure that hung on one chord for considerable lengths ,as

many as sixteen bars at a time even. Unlike all the styles prior, it flew in theface of tonal harmony. In tonal harmony chord progressions are relative to the


4/7

key of a piece and musicians will often improvise using scales that are relative

to the overall key. In Modalism however chords are selected purely on how

they sound and do not serve a functional purpose. Chords are not related in a

key context and musicians improvise using scales or modes to fit the chord as

each new chord has the potential to suggest a different key or scale. Also theperfect fourth interval was favoured due to its tonally ambiguous character. A

good example of modalism is the tune So What? by Miles Davis of his album

Kind Of Blue(see handout) .This tune is conceived using the Dorian mode with

the bassline given the melody. The whole tune consists of two chords going

from Dm7 in the A section to Ebm7 in the B section and both the tonic notes

of these chords are underpinned by their prominence in the bass melody. There

are no functional chords or cadences and instead the whole tune is purely a

vehicle for melodic improvisation. The album Kind Of Blue truly was agroundbreaking album when it was released as every tune on it is modally

conceived and in the true spirit of jazz completely improvised.

In summary then we can say for certain that there were at least three major

new styles of jazz that emerged during the 1950s and each with a distinct set

of trends and tendencies that characterized the music. They were:

Cool Jazz/ West Coast Jazz

1. Restraint- solos curtailed to an extent, ensembles thinned out, volumedecreased, mid tonal range employed, use of musical space, softer and

quieter dynamically

2. Lyricism- less jagged intervals ,more melodic singable lines3. Composition/Arrangment- generally part composed and arranged ,use of

counterpoint, polyphonic lines, etc.

4. Metre- less frantic, generally slower relaxed pace

Hard Bop

1. Blues and Gospel Influenced repertoire- led to simpler structures,simpler melodic lead lines, less identical to pop forms employed in

Bebop

2. Rhythmic variety- freed up from the standard 4 beats to the bar andless of a start/stop quality typical of Bebop

3. Darker tone qualities- combined with rhythm gives the music a moresolemn edge


5/7

4. Metre- retains the emphasis on hard driving insistent rhythm typical ofBebop

Modalism

1. Slow Moving Harmonic Rhythm Chord changes less frequent2. Drones/Pedal notes- use of static bass notes to establish a sense of

tonal centre

3. Non-functional Harmonic Movement- very little harmonic movement by wayof cadence points such as V-I progressions or ii-V-I typically found in

other styles of jazz

4. Quartal Harmony- the use of the perfect 4th interval is employed for itsexotic and tonally ambiguous qualities

Although all of the tendencies outlined above were not apparent in every tune

within its respective genre these were nevertheless general trends common to

these jazz styles. By generalizing in this way about these styles it enables us to

come to a conclusion as to how these were viewed in regards to Bebop music.

From looking at the previous examples and the defining characteristics of each

new development its easy to see how cool jazz could be viewed as a dramatic

response to Bebop as the characteristics of cool jazz show it to be the

complete antithesis of Bebop. Hard Bop was perhaps not so much a response

to Bebop but rather another strain of it and one that was still very much a part

of that tradition. Rather Hard Bop could be viewed as a reaction to cool jazz

in its effort to reinstate Bebop concepts within the mainstream of jazz. Finally

Modalism could be viewed as not only a reaction towards Bebop but towards

harmonic practices and conventions that up until that point permeated all styles

of jazz.

In spite of all this Bebop music opened the floodgates for inspiration to a

generation of young musicians by enriching and enlarging the harmonic, melodic

and rhythmic possibilities within jazz music. In this respect it could be argued

that all of these styles arose from a response to Bebop by musicians who in

one way or another were inspired by Bebop and who sought to explore

harmonic ,melodic and rhythmic possibilities so as to find an alternative to it.


6/7

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Berendt, Joachim- Ernst. ed.(1978). The Story Of Jazz: From NewOrleans To Rock Jazz. Barrie and Jenkins Ltd ,London

2. (2002) Miles Davis : Birth of the Cool. Hal Leonard. New York3. Hodeir, Andre.( 1975). Jazz: Its Evolution and Its Essence. Da Capo

Press. New York.

4. Tirro, Frank. ed .(1993). Jazz: A History 2nd ed. W.W. Norton &Company. 500 Fifth Avenue. New York


7/7

Jazz styles of the 50's

Documents

Transcript of Jazz styles of the 50's