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1954-1960: HARD BOP OR EAST COAST

1. Introduction

Hard bop is a jazz style that started around 1955 in New York and other Eastern cities in

the United States such as Detroit and Philadelphia to continue the spirit of bebop but with the

addition of a greater influence of traditional African-American types of music such as blues

and gospel. It is also a reaction against the cool style that was thought of as a dilution of

bebop, as too intellectual and too white.

The name "Hard Bop" comes from the album with the same title by one of the movementsseminal groups: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. The term "hard" may be interpreted

musically to mean strong and direct but at the same time it refers to the American blackpopulaces struggle for emancipation and self-affirmation: a serious matter and a difficult

struggle. Hence the word messengers in the groups name Jazz Messengers: there is a

message to assert. Hard bop re-examined the origins of Afro-American culture: blues, soul

and gospel. Political motives often lay behind song titles, such references to Afro-American

history are apparent, for example in: Work Song by Nat Adderley; Opus de Funk and

Sister Sadie by Horace Silver; Soul Trane by John Coltrane, and many other similar song

titles. There are also more direct references to Africa: African and Afro-Blue by John

Coltrane, Airegin by Sonny Rollins and so on. We even find direct references to the blackliberation struggle in such titles as: Now is the Time by Charlie Parker, and Freedom,

Meditation for Integration, Prayer for Passive Resistance and Free Cell Block F, 'Tis

Nazi USA by Charles Mingus. Furthermore, the apostrophe that replaces the letters ing in

English words with that suffix, we may interpret as a reference to Afro-American culture. In

titles like Moanin ', Doodlin', Workin ', Steamin', Cookin ', Relaxin', a more African-American pronunciation of English is suggested.

We distinguish several different directions within the hard-bop movement: The clearest and

most conspicuous type of hard-bop is called the funky style. The main pacesetters of this

movement are Horace Silver and Art Blakey, both especially in their collaborations as Jazz

Messengers. In this hard bop variant the emphasis lies both on gospel and on the bluestradition in melody, form, harmony, rhythm as well as in the solos. The harmony is simple,

based on just a few chords, plagal (or amen) cadences, suspendedchords and pedal notes.

The form demonstrates preference for 16 measures and twelve-bar blues. This funky hard-bopstyle evolved into soul jazz the 1960s, a more popular jazz form. A second trend in hard bop

was set by the musicians who continued the jazz tradition without a very strong commitment

to innovation but with respect for the hard bop tradition, playing music in the spirit of hardbop. The repertoire consisted mainly of standards or standard-like original compositions with

a modern interpretation and blues-forms. Most of the Miles Davis Quintet recordings and

those by the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet fall into this category. Lastly we note the

pursuit of more complex harmonies and less predictable forms. This movement further

developed bebops innovations, but the innovations and developments of cool jazz were

respected as well. Experimentation was common, and we note early references to the 1960s

styles free jazz and modal jazz. Much of Sonny Rollinss, Charles Minguss and some of JohnColtranes work date from this hard bop movement. However, it must be noted that the

different variations of hard bop are often present within the repertoires of particular artists sothat we therefore cannot differentiate between strictly segregated subgenres. All musicians

record standards in their repertoires, for example, so that using John Coltrane as a case in

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point, we find in his work both harmonic experiments and more straightforward blues

harmonies.Early examples of hard bop are Miles Daviss 1953 and 1954 recordings for Prestige:

Walkin 'and Bag's Groove, as well as the Art Blakey Quintets recordings for Blue Note

with the pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown: A Night At Birdland .

2. Characteristics

1. A return to a more energetic way of playing: Playing hot, but with more control than

in the Bebop which is more accessible to a wider audience.

2. Bebops purely harmonic and technical characteristics vanish and make room for a

more melodic, smooth style of playing.3.

The themes are less complicated and more melodic.

4. A clear influence of Afro-American roots: gospel and blues

5. The drummers playing is very present, rhythm and polyrhythm gain importance as a

result of the African influences.

6.

The use of suspend chordsand pedal notes: gospel influence7.

The line up is usually a rhythm section and two or three horns.

3. Comparison: Bebop, Cool Jazz, Hard Bop

Bebop Cool Jazz Hard Bop

Energetic, hot playing Detached, intellectual,

cool playing

Raw, unpolished, hot

playing

Mainly black musicians Mainly black musicians Mainly black musicians

Mainly East coast Starts on the East coast butblows over to the West coast Mainly East coast

Preference for fast tempo Preference for moderate

tempo

Both fast and moderate

tempo

Unison themes Preference for arrangedthemes

Theme is harmonized orplayed in counterpoint.

Blues influences Classical music influences Blues and gospel influences

4. Main bands and musicians

4.1. Funky Style

Horace Silver(b. 1928) Piano

He has been one of the leading figures in the hard bop. His piano playing is strongly

influenced by Bud Powell. In a short time he developed into a pianist with a distinctive style

with bebop ideas mixed with influences from Afro-American musical traditions. Initially he

was a little-known sideman with Stan Getz, Terry Gibbs, Lester Young and Coleman

Hawkins. In 1953 and 1954 he played on the historic recordings of Miles Davis's: the albums

Walkin' andBag's Groove. In the mid 50s he became the leader of the Jazz Messengers. The

musicians of the first version of the Jazz Messengers were: Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Hank

Mobley on tenor sax, Doug Watkins on bass, Art Blakey on drums and leader Horace Silveron piano. The first album is:Horace Silver And The Jazz Messengers, recorded in November

1954, release in 1955. Actually the band had this line-up already earlier because they already

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recorded an album under the name of Horace Silver Quintet. In 1955 the name of the band

changed again into The Jazz Messengers on the albums The Jazz Messengers At The Cafe

Bohemia Vol.1 and The Jazz Messengers At The Cafe Bohemia Vol.2. Horace Silvers

compositions are strongly rooted in the blues and gospel traditions so the music of the Jazz

Messengers gets the funky style that is so typical for this band. In 1956 Horace Silver left the

Jazz Messengers and leads his own formations in the hardbop style. In these bands often playsuch prestigious soloists as Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Randy Brecker, CliffordJordan, Joe Henderson. He is in this respect is certainly not inferior to his former colleague

Art Blakey. Horace Silver kept composing for his own bands and many of his themes have

become jazz standards.

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers

Besides Horace Silver the drummer Art Blakey (1919-1990) was in the 50's also a well

known name in the funky style. They already worked together in 1954 when the drummer Art

Blakey played in the Horace Silver Quintet and Horace Silver played in the Art Blakey

Quintet. Also Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson played in this band. Blakey began his

career as a pianist and but soon decided to go for the drums. Before he became a central figurein the hard bop he played already with Fletcher Henderson, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker and

Clifford Brown. He first used the name Messengers in 1947 for his band SeventeenMessengers and after that for an octet called the Jazz Messengers. In early 1955 the name

appears again: Horace Silver and Jazz Messengers, then it became simply Jazz Messengers

and after Silver left the band in 1956 the was called: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Even after the departure of Silver in 1956 Silvers compositions stayed in the repertoire. In

later versions of the Jazz Messengers we find on trumpet: Donald Byrd, Bill Hardman and

Lee Morgan. Mobley successors include Jackie McLean, Lou Donaldsen, Johnny Griffin,

Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson. The ensemble grew into a veritable institution in the course

of time even with the changing line ups. Although in later years the ensemble was not at the

forefront of style innovations the band remained a breeding groung for young new talents

such as Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, Terence Blanchard and the brothers Wynton and

Branford Marsalis. Throughout the years many composers were for a time part of the

Messengers and contributing to the funky repertoireof the band. Think of themes like The

Preacherby Horace Silver,Moanin' by Bobby Timmons,I Remember Clifford,Blues March

and Whisper Notby Benny Golson. It is a group with a true star status and the list of famous

ex-Messengers is therefore infinite, we have already mentioned Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett,

Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin, Benny Golson and the Marsalis brothers, but otherwise there

are Cedar Walton , Freddy Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Kenny Garrett, Mulgrew Miller and many

others. Typical in Art Blakeys way of playing are the turbulent explosives of energy and

explosive. He constantly encourages the soloist and often uses double time. He studiedintensively the African rhythms to refine his polyrhythms. An example of this is the album

The African Beatfrom 1962 with the band The Afro-Drum Ensemble. It is an attempt to make

music with American and African musicians together. Yusef Lateef plays on all kinds of

strange horns ons this album and also noticeable is the presence of trombonist Curtis Fuller as

a percussionist.

In the fifties, Blakey played with musicians such as Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Jimmy Smith,

Canon Adderley and Thelonious Monk. All his life he remains and continues to lead the Jazz

Messengers, the band that stayed his main form of expression.

Cannonball Adderley(1928-1975) alto sax

His real name was Julian but already at a young age, because of his big appetite he wasnicknamed "cannibal", which later became cannonball. From 1959 he formed a band with

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his brother, cornetist Nat Adderely in the funky hard bop style. In the '60s, they cause a real

soul-jazz craze with the song Mercy, Mercy, Mercy of the young Austrian pianist Joe

Zawinul.

Lee Morgan(1938-1972) Trumpet

He is from Philadelphia and played at the age of 18 with Dizzy Gillespie in New York.From 1958 to 1961 he was a member the Jazz Messengers and after that he formde his own

bands. He was shot by his girlfriend at a club in New York. A well-known album is the

album The Sidewinder from 1963. The succes of the title track is simular to the succes of So

What.

4.2. Further evolution of bebop within the hard bop movement

The Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet

The quintet existed from 1954 to 1956. It was a very homogeneous group, which in

addition to Roach on drums and Brown on trumpet was made up of Richie Powell on piano

and Harold Land, later replaced by Sonny Rollins, on tenor sax. The bass was played byGeorge Morrow. The band played a well-balanced combination of improvisation and

arrangements. The style is both derived from and a further development to the elements of

bebop. The Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet was one of the leading bands of its time. The

partnership came to a brusque end when Clifford Brown passed away in a traffic accident.

The groups pianist, Richie Powell, brother of the famous bebop pianist Bud Powell, was also

killed in the accident.

Max Roach (1925-2007) already had quite some experience by the time he teamed up with

Clifford Brown. For years he had been Parker's favorite drummer, and he had contributed to

some of the very best bebop recordings. He also played on Birth of the Cool and in this way

contributed to cool jazz as well. After Clifford Browns death of Max Roach led several otherbands. In the early 1960s, Roach became a vigorous campaigner in the struggle for equal civil

rights and the emancipation of blacks, among other things through his FreedomNow Suite.

Roach became an inspiration for free jazz.

Clifford Brown (1930-1956), nicknamed "Brownie," became known in 1953 when he

played with Tadd Dameron and in Lionel Hampton's band. His playing he incorporatedinfluences from Gillespie, Miles, and Navarro. His playing displays the strong influence of

Parker's bebop lines. Brown was a trumpet player with an extraordinary technique. For these

reasons he exerted a strong influence on trumpet players of the following decades.

Miles Davis(1926-1991) Trumpet

The years 1950 to 1953 are called the 'Lost Years' in the career of Miles Davis. After hisrole in the bebop with Charlie Parker and with the cool jazz with Birth of the CoolMiles

leads in the early '50s bands with different line-ups for the Blue Note and Prestige labels. On

these recordings that we find people like Jackie McLean, J.J. Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Percy

Heath, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and other musicians from the bebop and hard bop

movement. Because of his drug abuse the quality of his work in these years is not always very

good. In 1954 Miles cleaned his act up and made two groundbreaking albums: Walkin'and

Bag's Groove, both for Prestige. On both albums the title tracks are blues forms, with

moderate pace, with a harmonized theme but with more simple changes compared to what

was usual in bebop. Although the form refers to the funky blues style the style of playing is

rather mainstream. The other songs on the album are jazz standards and original compositions

by Miles or other band members. On Bags Grooveit is especially Sonny Rollins whocontributed some compositions: some up tempi: OleoandAiriginand a bluesy song in the

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hard bop style:Doxy. These albums, together with the work of Art Blakey and Horace Silver

mark the beginning of the hard bop period. Miles had a bad reputation in the clubs, because

of his drug habbit, but his successful appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955 with

Round Midnightwith Monk on piano turns the tide. Miles would like to switch to Columbia

and gets George Aviakan, the jazz producer at Columbia, interested but Columbia refuses him

because the lack of steady group sound. Miles then forms a steady group with Red Garlandon piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Paul Chambers on bass and the relatively unknown John

Coltrane on tenor sax. This group is the band we call "The First Great Quintet". Miles still had

five albums to make accordig to his Prestige contract before he could switch to Columbia.

Behind Prestiges back he starts to recod his first Columbia album:Round About Midnight

released in1956. Meanwhile he makes five albums with Prestige:Milesin 1955, released

under the name The New Miles Davis Quintet. It is the first album with this new quintet and

in the following year 1956 he records 4 albums in 2 days to get rid of his contractual

obligations: Workin, and Steamin'recorded on May 11, and Cookin'andRelaxin'recorded on

26 October. The name of the band is now just The Miles Davis Quintet. Ironically Columbia,

that requested the new band, only gets one album:Round About Midnightbecause the next

album on which we can hear the quintet is actually a sextet album. In 1957 the quintet hasall kinds of temporary personal changes. Coltrane is playing a while with Monk and was

replaced by Sonny Rollins. Philly Joe Jones is replaced by Art Taylor and then by Jimmy

Cobb until Philly Joe Jones returns. Red Garland will soon be replaced by Tommy Flanagan

and before Coltrane returns Belgian saxophonist Bobby Jaspar plays one week in the band

and after him Cannonball Adderley. For the next quintet album with Columbia, the album

Milestonesin 1958, Miles gets the orignal quintet back together but the quintet is expanded to

a sextet with Cannonball Adderley on alto sax. Miles wants more space in the music and the

blues of Cannonball is a good addition to the sound of the quintet and a good contrast with the

more harmonic approach of Coltrane. In this period Miles also produced film music for the

filmAsenceur pour l'echafaudwith French musicians and Kenny Clark who was living inParis at that time. The music was improvised while screening the movie, without the use of

prepared themes, with only a few notes, motives or chords. In this setting Miles plays his

melodious. By the late '50s Garland was replaced by Bill Evans and after Evans quit

Wynton Kelly became thje regular pianomayer. Garland and als Philly Joe Jones were fired

because of their drug problems. Philly Joe Jones was then replaced by Jimmy Cobb. It is with

this new band, with Evans, Kelly and Cobb that Kind of Bluewas recorded in 59. This album

is a milestone in the development of modal jazz.

characteristics of the music of Miles in this period:

1. lyrical way of playing in the spirit of Bix Beiderbecke, but also the influence of blues

2. In the early '50s Miles plays long legato phrases in the style of Dizzy Gillespie, but more

and more he evolves technical into a more sober and simple style in which he strips the

melody of all ornaments.

3. Miles uses rests and pauses tot bring more space into the music

4. He creates his own sound with the use of harmon mute 5. He plays mainly in the midrange

4.3. Experiments in hard bop

Charles Mingus(1922-1979) double bass

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The importance of Mingus in jazz is three-fold: bass player, band leader and composer. As

if this were not enough, Mingus also plays piano on several albums. Mingus, like Rollins, is

the type of musician who does not fit into one specific pigeonhole. His music is closely

related to hard bop and based on the same material: blues and gospel inspired him as is

evidenced by titles such asBetter Git Hit In Your Soul, Wednesday Night PrayerMeetingand

East Coasting.Mingus originally studied trombone and cello but he switched at some point to bass. He

took lessons from Red Callender as well as from the classical bassist Herman Rein Schagen,

who played with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Mingus debuted in the early 1940s

with New Orleans jazz musicians Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory and continued his career

playing with Illinois Jacquet, Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, CharlieParker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Red Norvo. He even briefly played in Duke

Ellingtons orchestra and he accompanied Oscar Pettiford in a 1952 session in which Pettiford

plays cello. As an accompanist, he was one of the three great bop bass players in the 1950s

along with Ray Brown and Oscar Pettiford.

In the 1940s Mingus started leading his own bands in Los Angeles, sometimes called Baron

Mingus. These bands still sound traditional but the repertoire already consisted largely ofMinguss own compositions. The recordings were done on a label Mingus himself, together

with Max Roach, founded in 1951: Debut Records. From 1952 Mingus lived and worked in

New York and from the second half of the 1950s, he focused on composing music and leading

experimental bands. Realizing that musical notation was inadequate for his approach to

composition, and inspired by the Jazz Composer's Workshop, of which he was a part from

1953 to 1955, Mingus founded his own Jazz Workshop. A rank and file of famous soloists

took part in the Jazz Workshops: the saxophonists Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Pepper

Adams, Clifford Jordan, Roland Kirk, Charlie Mariano, and Booker Ervin, the pianists Mal

Waldron, Horace Parlan, Roland Hanna and Don Pullen, the trombonist Jimmy Knepper, the

trumpeter Booker Little and the drummer Danny Richmond. The first workshop was in 1956

and resulted in the album Pythecantropus Erectus. The workshops music was a variation of

arranged pieces with wildly chaotic and collective improvisation. Mingus brought the

spontaneity of improvisation to very complex structures. He wanted compositions to take on

an improvisational character, and accomplished this by introducing a certain amount of

freedom into the composition or the arrangement. Thus, through this 'extended form', Mingus

became a pioneer of free jazz. During their solos, the musicians in Minguss group

improvised comments and replies as well so that a kind of improvised arrangement arose, acollective improvisation as it were. Despite his avant-garde ideas, we also find a deep bond

with tradition incorporated in Minguss work, while it remains free of parody or folklore, for

example in the numbersMy Jelly Roll Soul,Duke Ellingtons Sound Of Loveand Parkeriana.

Mingus recorded many, many albums. Here we mention only the most well-known:MingusAh Humfrom 1959, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingusfrom 1960 and The Black Saint

and the Sinner Lady from 1963. Mingus was a very charismatic figure, and while he allowed

his musicians a great deal of freedom, he exercised a great influence on them as well. As a

person he was a complex and contradictory figure, he was intellectual as well as emotional

and he had a very short temper. Mingus took very clear positions on racial issues and the

struggle for equal civil rights, as is evidenced by politically-tinged compositions such as

Fables of Faubus or Free Cell Block FTis Nazi USA and Meditiations On Integration.Mingus expanded on his political views in his 1971 autobiography Beneath the Underdog,

describing in detail his rather special and complex heritage as the son of a Chinese-English

mother and African-American-Swedish father. In this book he harshly derides Uncle Tomism.

After Minguss death in 1979, his music thrived thanks to the bands Mingus Dynasty and theMingus Big Band, bands originally comprised of ex-band members, and most recently in the

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Mingus Orchestra, under the direction of Charles Minguss widow, Sue Mingus. On June 3rd,

1989, Minguss composition Epitaph was first performed by a 30-piece orchestra (led by

Gunther Schuller), and in 1990 it appeared for the first time on CD. This is a monumental

composition incorporating themes such as Pythecantropus Erectus, Peggys Blue Skylightand

Better Git It In Your Soul. In 1962 Mingus himself had undertaken a not very successful

attempt to perform the work, and this version appears on the album The Complete Town HallConcert. The concert was based on a misunderstanding because Mingus had actually intendedthe event to be an open rehearsal.

Sonny Rollins, Newk (1930) tenor sax

Before the hard bop period Sonny Rollins was already a well-known musician. He playedin the Miles Davis Quintet with Horace Silver, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke on Bags

Groove. Miles recorded Rollinss compositions Oleo, Airegin and Doxy in that album.

Rollinss parents came from the Virgin Islands and he always felt very attracted by the

Caribbean Dance Music. All of his brothers studied classical music but he felt attracted to jazz

and blues.

Rollins combines all of the different styles of the sax players in the 40s: The full soundand the chordal playing of Coleman Hawins, the nonchalant phrasing of Lester Young, the

virtuosity of Charlie Parker. Rollins has his roots in the past, but meanwhile he is a precursor

of the avant-garde, constantly searching for a new apporach, for example the albums where he

plays in trio without a piano player: Way Out West and Freedom Suite: the duo recordings

with Philly Joe Jones onNewks Time.

Evidence of his search are the sabbatical years he took several times during his career. The

first time in 1955: he lived as a worker in Chicago; Second time: 59-61: he stopped playing

and thought about style and the purpose of improvising and harmony. During this period he

studied at night on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City. The result is the album The

Bridge. In 62 he made music in the style of free jazz with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins. In

63-64 he retires again to meditate and study Eastern Philosophy. He makes different trips to

India and Japan. In 63 he recorded an album with his idol Coleman Hawkins: All the things

you are. Also between 67-72 he disappeared form the scene again for a while.

Characteristics of his playing:

- Opposite of Stan Getz: heavy sound, brute changes in the melody

- Melody is ripped apart (Monk)

- Pioneer in improvisation with the use of little motives

John Coltrane, Trane (1926-1967), tenor sax

Coltrane was not well known when he was offered to play in Miles Davis Quintet in 1955.

For the largest part of the following years 55-60 he remained with Miles except for a short

period in 1957 when he played with Monk and Coltrane will create together with Miles the

modal jazz on Kind of Blue (1959). In the meanwhile he recorded some albums as a leader

during his period with Miles. The most important are: Blue Train (1957) and Giant Steps

(1959). These records remain in the style of hard bop, but without the presence of the typical

funky way of playing. On the album Giant Stepshe really puts emphasis on the changes and

the harmonic progressions. The next move after Giant Steps is atonality or modal music.

Coltrane moves into the modal direction with A Love Supreme in 1964 for a few years but

then his style changes again into free jazz.

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Characteristics:

Legato with no vibrato (opposite of Rollins more like Lester Young )

The comparison with Lester is limited cause Coltranes music is more aggressive.

A lot of technique Practically always double time, rests are diminuend to the absolute minimum

The phrasing became sheets of sound

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THIRD STREAM

The name of this style is given by the horn player Gnter Schuller whos double interest for

classical music and jazz lead to a new style in American music where the first two styles weremerged into the combination of these and called Third Stream. Mingus and Theo Macero

were composers who experimented with avant-garde ideas combining with jazz on

Abstractions in December 1954. Also Lee Konitz with Mingus recorded such experiments.

Further on there is George Russell who composed songs for a chamber-jazz-ensemble: All

About Rosieand Gunther Schuller even wrote an opera for a symphonic orchestra and jazz

ensemble: The Visitation.

John Lewis and Jimmie Giuffre composed also music, which can be placed into this style.

Also Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain andPorgy and Bess, thecooperations between Gil Evans

and Miles Davis can be seen as Third Stream.

The ideas of the Third Stream-movement were not that new. There have been similar kinds ofexperiments, for example:

Scott Joplin Treemonishain 1915

George GershwinRapsody in Bluein 1924

Symphonic jazz from the 30s from Paul Whiteman Progressive jazz from the 40s with Woody Herman: Ebony Concerto, Stan Kenton

Innovations in Modern Music

In the 50s we called this music combination of classical music and jazz Third Stream.