Great Tutorial: My Little Suede Shoes-Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker: My Little Suede Shoes-mp3
The Real Easy Book-Vol. 3: A Short
History Of Jazz from Sher Music Co. is a unique
fake book which will give students 'the big picture' of all the different eras and styles of
jazz. It consists of 5-10 tunes from each era or style-from
Dixieland to
Afro-Cuban jazz, and everything in between-plus a
short story text introducing each era and its musical innovations (like the Bebop one printed above).
For more information, see
The Real Easy Book, Vol.3: A SHort History Of Jazz
The Era
Bebop is so much a part of the
jazz
vocabulary today that it's hard to image why the music was so
controversial when it was introduced in the mid-1940s. Most of the
innovations in jazz seem a natural outgrowth of what had been played
before, but bebop was nothing short of a revolution-both musically and
culturally.
Swing era bands were big bands, with riff-based
melodic
tunes and limited time for soloing. The arrangement was as important as
the tune, and there was relatively little room for harmonic
experimentation, since the music was primarily for entertainment and
dancing. The beboppers found this too confining and were seeking new
avenues of artistic expression.
The architects of bebop were almost all
African Americans
who largely came out of the black big bands, meeting in clubs after
hours to jam, and to explore new musical ideas. These were exciting
times of big musical breakthrough! Bebop was played predominantly by
small groups, with plenty of room for the innovative improvisor.
Charlie Parker (known as "Bird") was one of the most gifted of all improvisors, and he became an icon to many in the jazz community.
Dizzy Gillespie was the master theoretician and teacher, as well as a brilliant trumpeter.
Thelonius Monk, who was the house pianist at a club in Harlem called
Minton's, was another key figure, but his style is so unique that it really defies categorization.
Bud Powell was the quintessential bebop pianist.
Bebop
polarized the jazz community, with many 'traditional' players pitted
against the so-called 'modernists.' To the old guard, bebop was not as
melodic, the improvisations were harder to follow, and it was hard to
dance to. But bop musicians felt that their music was an art form, and
that their primary responsibility was to the music itself. History has
proved them right, because bebop has been the foundation of jazz for the
past half century, and many of the bebop pioneers became senior
citizens enjoying worldwide acclaim.
The Musical Innovations
1. Composition-
What made bebop sound so radical at the time? First, the melodic lines
were quite different. Gone were the solos that stayed close to the
melody that were so prevalent in the swing era. the swing era tunes
often featured complex arrangements, but the bebop musicians largely did
away with them, opting instead for extended improvisations based on the
chord changes.
The melody was stated at the beginning of the tune, but then it would
be lost in the complex harmonic possibilities offered by the chord
structures of the music.
Some bebop musicians would
write whole new tunes based on the chord changes of standards, or pop
tunes of the day. These contrafacts, as they are called, include Bird's "
Donna Lee," based on the standard tune "Indiana," "Ornithology," based on "
How High The Moon," and Thelonius Monk's "Evidence," based on "Just You, Just Me."
2. The Rhythm Section -
Some of the most radical innovations of the bebop era were rhythmic.
The bebop drummer moved the time-keeping duties from the bass drum to
the hi-hat and played in a more polyrhythmic style, with asymmetric
accents that were called "bombs." The approach was developed by the two
master bebop drummers,
Kenny Clarke
and Max Roach, and their new concepts have forever altered jazz
drumming. The bass player became the main keeper of the quarter note
pulse, with virtually all classic bebop tunes played in 4/4. The
pianist's role gradually became one of pushing the soloist to new
heights, in addition to outlining the
chord progressions.
3. Harmonic Advances - Bob
players liked to improvise on difficult chord progressions, at
breakneck tempos, with bursts of eighth and sixteenth notes. They also
altered existing chords, frequently utilizing the lowered, or flatted,
fifth, and other more dissonant notes against the basic harmony. Bird
was quoted as having said that he came up with bebop one night as he was
playing a solo on the tune "Cherokee" and found himself using just the
upper extensions(9ths, 11ths, and 13ths) of the original chord changes.
The end result of all this stretching of previous limits was that the
music sounded too abstract and jagged to some, but gorgeous and artistic
to others.
Today, the advances of bebop are standard
practice throughout the jazz world, but people still scratch their head
in amazement when they hear Bird at the peak of his form, swirling out
chorus after chorus of genius improvising. -- Reprinted courtesy of
Sher Music and Criterion Music.
Anyone who is a
jazz lover and wants to deepen their understanding of chords,
scales, licks, and soloing techniques, visit Jazz 201
Best Wishes,
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."
B.B.King
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