An Introduction to America’s Music

402 PART 4 | SINCE WORLD WAR II

K Trumpeter Miles Davis (1926–1991) was a magnetic presence on the jazz

scene from the mid-1940s through the 1980s.

If cool jazz brought a classical refi nement to the language of bebop, a coun-

tervailing trend was hard bop, which emphasized grittier timbres, heavier

rhythms, and a closer connection with jazz’s roots in the blues. Groups such as

Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the quintet led cooperatively by drummer Max

Roach and trumpet player Clifford Brown spearheaded the hard bop movement,

which fl ourished on the East Coast and was thought to refl ect the harsher, faster

pace of urban life, in contrast to the laid-back, West Coast ethos of cool jazz. Gospel-

tinged tunes like Horace Silver’s “The Preacher” (1955) alluded to the traditions

of the black church, inspiring a subset of hard bop called soul jazz. By the early

1960s hard bop embraced a diverse array of music, ranging from the intellectual

solos of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins to the accessible presentation of pop

standards by guitarist Wes Montgomery.

hard bop

soul jazz

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