THE BIRTH OF BEBOP (And modern jazz) Jazz History #45

The bebop era in the 1940s was a dividing line in jazz history. A radical and controversial departure from the music of the swing era, bebop could be seen as the start of ‘modern jazz’, since the melodic and harmonic language of the beboppers still underpins the jazz language today. The musical revolution--with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at the forefront--was in full force at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, where jam sessions served as a musical laboratory. This video kicks off a sequence focused on a relatively short but highly consequential time period in the evolution of jazz.

ABOUT THIS SERIES
The Jazz History series is a video adaptation of a PowerPoint presentation used to teach a university course. It traces the roots of jazz from Ragtime at the turn of the 20th century to jazz-rock fusion at the end of the 1960s. You’ll find a lot more videos like this one in the JAZZ HISTORY playlist on this channel.

If you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of playing jazz, check out the videos in the
JAZZ TACTICS playlist.

JAZZ TACTICS SUGGESTIONS

ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
On this channel, jazz trumpeter, educator and author Chase Sanborn offers information and advice for musicians and music appreciators.

PLAYLISTS
This link will take you to all the playlists on this channel:

MORE INFORMATION
For more in-depth and personal information and instruction, check out Chase's books and online lesson options on his website:

[chasesanborn]

If you enjoy these episodes on Jazz History, please encourage YouTube to share them by leaving a LIKE!

[robbesrh]

I had heard the names of players, I had heard snippets of the music, but I really didn't know a damn thing about it. After watching the story of Stan Levy, and now this video I feel like I'm getting a picture of what this chapter in the story of jazz was like for the people who were living it. It is history that is relevent and worth knowing.

[Steve-mpby]

It was an amazing era and Bird was the king. Historians claim it ended the Jazz age because you couldn't dance to it and it was too complex. So the artists started repeating the music Rosetta Tharpe created in the 30's and sped it up and added variations to it to make it danceable

[zoumzoumzou]

some good info there for jazz fans, thanks !

[bamboosa]

I took a bathroom break in the middle of this vid. When I go to the bathroom I always turn on the radio to find the music I like and often there is nothing on KJZZ, KCSN or a couple of others that I can listen to - lately KJZZ (Long Beach) is playing pretty good stuff after midnight, par for the course. So at 5:01am I go from video to bathroom radio and they are playing Charlie Parker, of course.

[HieronymousLex]

This is the first video of yours I’ve seen, and I’m instantly hooked. I’ve love this type of stuff!

[bennygoodmanisgod]

Now I’m definitely a “moldy fig” in the sense that I much prefer swing and don’t care for most bebop, but it’s origins and history is still very interesting

[bebopreview]

The term Moldy Fig is not solely about someone 'who couldn't get with the new sounds'. The term originates before the bebop era during the 1st critics war of the early to mid 1940s. It was aimed at those who advocated early New Orleans music (called Dixieland revivalists now) over the jazz music that developed during the 1920s which they saw as commercial rubbish. (see my video the jazz critic wars). Moldy figs is really a term outlining the decaying nature of the critics who were carping swing.

[rillloudmother]

bebop is the music of those who reject consumerist/populist dogma.