Slang has always been a big part of the jazz world. Words like cat, swing, gig, chops, even boogie-woogie, seemed to point out who was "in the know" in the world of jazz. As swing gave way to bebop, the audience changed too. The younger generation was attracted to this strange, new music that was rejected by the mainstream. Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones) said, "At first it [bebop] was strange and the strangeness itself was strangely alluring...A new language a new tongue and vision for a generally more advanced group in our generation...Bebop suggested another mode of being. Another way of living".
Coupled with bebop's "strangeness" was the musicians themselves. Dizzy Gillespie is attributed to influencing the hipster movements' style with his goatee, horn-rimmed glasses, beret, and zoot suit. Though Dizzy disdained hard drugs, many of the other artists didn't. Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Theodore Navarro, Dexter Gordon, and many others were addicted to drugs (usually heroin). This influence was seen in the hipster movement just as much as Dizzy's style was.
Bebop, for some time, became a symbol of rebellion. In 1948, Ross Russell, owner of Dial Records, described this attitude: "Bebop is music of revolt; revolt against big bands, arrangers, vertical harmonies, soggy rhythms, non-playing orchestra leader, Tin Pan Alley -- against commercialized music in general. It reasserts the individuality of the jazz musicians as a creative artist, playing spontaneous and melodic music within the framework of jazz, but with new tools, sounds, and concepts".
With the end of World War II, many people became disillusioned, especially black jazz musicians and those who disagreed with the blatant racism of the time. Bebop and the hipster movement seemed to show that. "Bebop", Michael Brecker said, "was about change, about evolution. It wasn't about standing still and being safe".
Though this mood was prevalent, many jazz musicians have disdained or at least denied any active influence on their part. Lennie Tristano was openly disdainful of the hipster movement saying, "the supercilious attitude and lack of originality of the young hipsters constitute no less a menace to the existence of bebop". Louis Armstrong disliked the very idea of bebop opining that "[Bebop musicians] want to carve everyone else because they're full of malice, and all they want to do is show you up, and any old way will do as long as it's different from the way you played it before. So you get all them weird chords which don't mean nothing, and first people get curious about it just because it's new, but soon they get tired of it because it's really no good and you got no melody to remember and no beat to dance to. So they're all poor again and nobody is working, and that's what that modern malice done for you".
Though some will blame the musicians and some will absolve them, I believe that Dizzy Gillespie said it best: "We didn't go out and make speeches or say, 'Let's play eight bars of protest.' We just played our music and let it go at that. The music proclaimed our identity; it make every statement we truly wanted to make". The hipster movement is an interesting glimpse into the begin of major counterculture movements and how those movements are influenced by music. It seems to be the precursor to the later hippie and beatnik movements.
As with all other forms of jazz, bebop seemed to portray the growing feelings of the era. While the Jazz Era had been filled with the glamour of the 1920s and the Swing Era had been filled with the patriotism and optimism of the 1930s, the Bebop Era was unsettled and strange. Bebop was a far cry from the music ten years earlier, but like all jazz music it fits the underlying current of the country perfectly.
Sources:
The Rise of a Jazz Art World by Paul Douglas Lopes
John Coltrane by Bill Cole
To Be, Or Not...To Bop by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Fraser
Jazz by Scott DeVeaux and Gary Giddens
dmep.montereyjazzfestival.org/dmep/spotlight/randy-brecker
With the end of World War II, many people became disillusioned, especially black jazz musicians and those who disagreed with the blatant racism of the time. Bebop and the hipster movement seemed to show that. "Bebop", Michael Brecker said, "was about change, about evolution. It wasn't about standing still and being safe".
Though this mood was prevalent, many jazz musicians have disdained or at least denied any active influence on their part. Lennie Tristano was openly disdainful of the hipster movement saying, "the supercilious attitude and lack of originality of the young hipsters constitute no less a menace to the existence of bebop". Louis Armstrong disliked the very idea of bebop opining that "[Bebop musicians] want to carve everyone else because they're full of malice, and all they want to do is show you up, and any old way will do as long as it's different from the way you played it before. So you get all them weird chords which don't mean nothing, and first people get curious about it just because it's new, but soon they get tired of it because it's really no good and you got no melody to remember and no beat to dance to. So they're all poor again and nobody is working, and that's what that modern malice done for you".
Though some will blame the musicians and some will absolve them, I believe that Dizzy Gillespie said it best: "We didn't go out and make speeches or say, 'Let's play eight bars of protest.' We just played our music and let it go at that. The music proclaimed our identity; it make every statement we truly wanted to make". The hipster movement is an interesting glimpse into the begin of major counterculture movements and how those movements are influenced by music. It seems to be the precursor to the later hippie and beatnik movements.
As with all other forms of jazz, bebop seemed to portray the growing feelings of the era. While the Jazz Era had been filled with the glamour of the 1920s and the Swing Era had been filled with the patriotism and optimism of the 1930s, the Bebop Era was unsettled and strange. Bebop was a far cry from the music ten years earlier, but like all jazz music it fits the underlying current of the country perfectly.
Sources:
The Rise of a Jazz Art World by Paul Douglas Lopes
John Coltrane by Bill Cole
To Be, Or Not...To Bop by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Fraser
Jazz by Scott DeVeaux and Gary Giddens
dmep.montereyjazzfestival.org/dmep/spotlight/randy-brecker
Very interesting reading. Thanks.
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