Bebop
Related: black music - Charlie Parker - Beat Generation - hipster - jazz
When punk emerged, it scrambled the distinctions between high and low culture even more severely than bebop jazz (whose practitioners sometimes wore "existentialist" goatees and horn-rimmed glasses) had in the late 1940s. --Scott McLemee, Safety Pin as Signifier
Definition
Bebop or bop is a form of jazz which uses a fast tempo and complex improvisational techniques. It was introduced in the 1940s.
Many bebop tunes were based on chord progressions (also called chord changes) from popular songs. The chord changes to the song "I Got Rhythm" by George Gershwin were so often used that they get their own name, "rhythm changes." Jazz solos had always been improvised over song chords, but entirely new compositions based on chord changes was an innovation.
The typical bebop combo consisted of bass, drums, and piano, with two horn players up front. The classic 1940s bebop combo was Charlie Parker on alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Max Roach on drums, Percy Heath on bass, and Bud Powell on piano.
The name bebop (briefly called rebop) is an imitation of a characteristic quick two-note phrase that was played together by the lead instruments to introduce a solo or end a song. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop
The Beat Generation [...]
As the Beat movement was getting underway, bebop was already going strong, especially in New York City, where 52nd Street was bustling with activity in jazz clubs up and down its length. Bebop was an innovative style of jazz which saw its heyday in the '40s, characterized by smaller combos as opposed to big bands and a larger focus on virtuosity. Bebop's renaissance came about in the heart of New York City, where musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Miles Davis were ushering in a new era for jazz music. --http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/Topics/JanssenOnJazz.html, accessed Apr 2004
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