Hard bop

Characteristics#

Hard bop is sometimes referred to as “funky hard bop”. Jazz critic Scott Yanow distinguished hard bop from the broader world of bop by saying that " t empos could be just as blazing but the melodies were generally simpler, the musicians (particularly the saxophonists and pianists) tended to be familiar with (and open to the influence of) rhythm & blues and the bass players (rather than always being stuck in the role of a metronome) were beginning to gain a little more freedom and solo space." Hard bop has been seen by some critics as a response to cool jazz and West Coast jazz. As Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill explain, “the hard bop school…saw the new instrumentation and compositional devices used by cool musicians as gimmicks rather than valid developments of the jazz tradition.” However, Shelly Manne suggested that cool jazz and hard bop simply reflected their respective geographic environments: the relaxed cool jazz style reflected a more relaxed lifestyle in California, while driving bop typified the hectic atmosphere of New York City. Some writers, such as James Lincoln Collier, suggest that the style was an attempt to recapture jazz as a form of African-American expression. Whether or not this was the intent, many musicians quickly adopted the style, regardless of race.

Origins#

According to Nat Hentoff in his 1957 liner notes for the Art Blakey album Hard Bop, the phrase was originated by music critic and pianist John Mehegan, jazz reviewer of the New York Herald Tribune at that time. Hard bop first developed in the mid-1950s, and is generally seen as originating with the Jazz Messengers, a group led by Blakey. Michael Cuscuna maintains that Silver and Blakey’s efforts were in response to the New York bebop scene: Both Art and Horace were very, very aware of what they wanted to do. They wanted to get away from the jazz scene of the early ’50s, which was the Birdland scene—you hire Phil Woods or Charlie Parker or J. J. Johnson, they come and sit in with the house rhythm section, and they only play blues and standards that everybody knows. There’s no rehearsal, there’s no thought given to the audience. Both Horace and Art knew that the only way to get the jazz audience back and make it bigger than ever was to really make music that was memorable and planned, where you consider the audience and keep everything short. They really liked digging into blues and gospel, things with universal appeal. So they put together what was to be called the Jazz Messengers. and Carl Perkins, both of whom died at a young age.

Mainstream#

David Ake notes that by the mid-1950s, “the bop world clearly was not the ‘closed’ circle it had been in its earliest days.” This coincided with a competitive spirit among bop musicians to play with “virtuousity and complexity”, along with what Ake calls “jazz masculinity.” The broadening influence of hard bop coincided with a generation of jazz pianists who rose to prominence in the late 1950s – among them Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Drew, and Wynton Kelly – who took “altered” approaches to bebop. Although these musicians did not work exclusively or specifically within hard bop, their association with hard bop saxophone players put them within the genre’s broader circle. West Coast Jazz’s diminishing influence during the late 1950s accelerated hard bop’s rise to prominence, while the transition to 33 rpm records facilitated the shifts toward longer solos that were typical of hard bop albums. In 1956, The Jazz Messengers recorded an album titled Hard Bop, which was released in 1957, including Bill Hardman on trumpet and saxophonist Jackie McLean, with a mix of hard bop compositions and jazz standards. Shortly after, in 1958, The Jazz Messengers, with a new line-up including Lee Morgan on trumpet and Benny Golson on saxophone, recorded the quintessential hard bop album Moanin, Morgan’s albums attracted rising stars in the jazz world, particularly saxophonists Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter; Morgan formed a “long-standing partnership” with the latter. who would go on to become “a hard bop stylist.” Blue Train was described by Richard Havers as “Coltrane’s Hard-Bop Masterpiece”, although an edit made to one of the album’s tracks caused controversy following disapproval from sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder. In the early to mid-1960s, prior to his death, Coltrane experimented in free jazz but again drew influences from hard bop in his 1965 album A Love Supreme. Coltrane was a longtime member of Miles Davis’ band, which bridged the gap between hard bop and modal jazz with albums such as Milestones and Kind of Blue. These albums represented a transition toward more experimental jazz, but Davis maintained core ideas of hard bop, such as the “call-and-response theme” found on one of Kind of Blue ’s best-known tracks, “So What”. The earlier album Milestones was described as “indebted to hard bop” due to its “fast speeds, angular phrases and driving rhythms”. Other hard bop musicians went to Europe, such as pianist Bud Powell (elder brother of Richie Powell) in 1959 and saxophonist Dexter Gordon in 1962. Powell, a bebop pianist, continued to record albums in the early 1960s, while Gordon’s Our Man in Paris became “one of his most iconic albums” for Blue Note. Other musicians who contributed to the hard bop style include Donald Byrd, Tina Brooks, Sonny Clark, Lou Donaldson, Blue Mitchell, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt. David Rosenthal considers six albums among the high points of the hard bop era: Ugetsu, Kind of Blue, Saxophone Colossus, Let Freedom Ring, Mingus Ah Um, and Brilliant Corners, referring to these as being some of the genre’s “masterpieces”.

Decline and revival#

Scott Yanow described hard bop in the late 1960s as “running out of gas.” Blue Note Records’ sale and decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combined with the rapid ascendance of soul jazz and jazz fusion, largely replaced hard bop’s prevalence within jazz, although bop would see a major revival in the 1980s (neo-bop). Davis led other jazz musicians toward the fusion genre, particularly other trumpet players. For example, Donald Byrd’s shift toward commercial fusion and smooth jazz recordings of the early 1970s, while celebrated within some circles, was considered a “betrayal” by fans of hard bop. His album Black Byrd (1973), Blue Note’s most successful album, neared the #1 spot on the R&B charts despite the opposition of jazz purists. In 1985, the filmed concert One Night with Blue Note brought together thirty predominantly hard bop musicians including Art Blakey, Ron Carter, Johnny Griffin, and Freddie Hubbard. Following fusion’s decline, younger musicians started a bop revival known as neo-bop, the best-known proponent of this being trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The revival was a “resurgence” by the 1990s, and by the 1990s, hard bop’s revival had become so prominent that Yanow referred to it as “the foundation of modern acoustic jazz.” Veteran saxophonist Joe Henderson, for instance, was described by Yanow as a “national celebrity and a constant poll winner” in jazz circles after signing to Verve in the 1990s, largely due to changes in marketing.

Legacy#

Rosenthal observed that " t he years 1955 to 1965 represent the last period in which jazz effortlessly attracted the hippiest young black musicians, the most musically advanced, those with the most solid technical skills and the strongest sense of themselves, not only as entertainers but as artists." In the same text he laments hard bop’s “many detractors and few articulate defenders,” describing some of the comments made by its critics as “derogatory cliches.” Alternatively, Yanow suggests a slightly longer period, from 1955 to 1968, during which hard bop was “the most dominant jazz style.” Although the hard bop style enjoyed its greatest popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, hard bop performers and elements of the music remain present in jazz.

See also#

• List of hard bop musicians