Bebop 143Gioia, Ted. Th e History of Jazz. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997.
Shipton, Alyn. A New History of Jazz. London: Continuum, 2001.Bebop
Developed primarily by black musicians working in New
York City in the late 1930s and early 1940s, bebop is the
basis for most modern jazz. Unlike swing, bebop is not
dance-oriented; it is a passionate but cerebral form of jazz
played primarily by small groups. Its practitioners oft en see
it more as an art form than as a type of entertainment.
Bebop did not develop in a vacuum. It grew out of
existing jazz forms, particularly swing, which had become
popular in the 1930s. Swing was big band–oriented and was
oft en performed in large ballrooms where patrons danced
the jitterbug to the music. During this swing era, jazz mu-
sicians such as Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Duke
Ellington began to experiment with bebop-style chord
progressions. Th ere were also alterations in the way instru-
ments kept time; for instance, drummer Jo Jones began to
develop the new jazz style of drum playing.
Th en, in the early 1940s, some of the younger jazz mu-
sicians working in New York City began to extend these
experiments with the elements of rhythm and harmony
during jam sessions in Harlem and on 52nd Street. Th eir
creative experimentation led to a radically new sound. Un-
fortunately, there were a series of music industry strikes be-
tween 1942 and 1944. Th is kept them from recording this
new music, and it was not until 1945 that the wider public,
via recordings, was introduced to bebop.
Key to the development of bebop was Minton’s Play-
house in Harlem and Monroe’s Uptown House on 52nd
Street in Manhattan and, to a lesser extent, a number of
other clubs on 52nd Street. Here, in aft er-hours jam ses-
sions, such musicians as Kenny Clarke and Max Roach on
drums, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Charlie Christian on
electric guitar, Charlie Parker on alto sax, Th elonious Monk
and Bud Powell on piano, and Oscar Pettiford on double
bass would play into the morning hours, developing the
new bebop sound.
Minton’s Playhouse was a tiny club at 118th Street
and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. It had originally been
part of the kitchen area of the Cecil Hotel when clarinetistand recurring riff s that defi ned the orchestra’s unmatched
style. Basie’s unique pianistic style would also character-
ize the band’s approach to jazz performance and composi-
tion. Basie’s style exhibited simplicity in thematic material
and improvisation and the infl uences of blues and boogie-
woogie. Th is approach is exemplifi ed in his solos, which
are unifi ed through the use of simple melodic ideas, the
spontaneous use of space, and the restatement of the main
theme. By the early 1940s, the Count Basie Orchestra had
received numerous accolades from the public, executives,
and musicians and was lauded as one of the best bands of
the Swing Era.
Aft er the decline of swing in the mid-1940s, Basie con-
tinued to perform with his orchestra and sextets. In the
1950s, the Count Basie Orchestra embarked on its fi rst of
several international tours. With new musicians and ar-
rangers Frank Foster, Frank Wess, Th ad Jones, and Neal
Heft i, the orchestra took a diverse repertory of music to
Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, and Munich. Th e orches-
tra’s style had evolved to produce a rich library of com-
positions that were modern but that did not replace the
fundamental Basie style. Heft i’s composition Li’l Darlin’
retained the sparseness that characterized the early Basie
style, whereas Foster’s Shiny Stockings represented a more
modern sound.
In addition to concerts, Basie recorded with countless
premier vocalists and musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald
and Frank Sinatra. Ella and Basie and Sinatra-Basie are two
representative recordings that received auspicious reviews
for their popular songs, well-craft ed arrangements, and re-
markable musicianship.
In the 1970s, Basie continued to perform at colleges,
high schools, jazz festivals, and other important venues,
despite being slowed by a heart attack and other physical
problems. Count Basie was undoubtedly one of America’s
most eminent bandleaders. He was partly responsible for
developing and evolving the jazz idiom and for making it a
substantial part of American popular culture. Count Basie
died of pancreatic cancer on April 26, 1984.
See also: Black Folk Culture; Jazz
Ralph A. RussellBibliography
Basie, Count. Good Morning Blues: Th e Autobiography of Count
Basie, as Told by Albert Murray. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo
Press, 2002.