Bebop is a jazz style known for its complex, unpredictable, and experimental melodies. In the 1940s and 1950s, the genre arose as a complete departure from the constrained sounds of big band music, another type of jazz.
Unlike big-band music, which features groups of ten or more musicians, bebop music favors small ensembles of four to six players. Smaller bands allow for more solo opportunities, and bebop jazz emphasizes player solos in a way that big band music does not. Bebop musicians frequently improvise songs and interact with one another, making jazz more personal and intimate.
Jazz musicians became more like explorers, experimenters, and scientists than mere entertainers with the introduction of bebop music. These musicians attempted to create music that did not come naturally to them.
Bebop takes elements from blues and swing music and combines them with its own distinctive sound. The importance of the rhythm section is emphasized bebop musicians. This genre is characterized complex melodies and chord progressions, as well as experimenting with the placement of melodic accents, discordant sounds, the use of the flatted fifth note, fast tempos, and unconventional chromaticism. Other characteristics of this style of jazz include irregular phrasing and the use of the walking bass.
Rather than being danced to, bebop is meant to be listened to. This style of jazz has a more personal, eccentric sound than previous jazz styles, and it immerses listeners in an existential mood. Jazz became music for the elite rather than the masses with the introduction of bebop music. Intellectuals and intellectualism became associated with this jazz style.
Original developers of this new style included trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, drummer Max Roach, and pianist Thelonious Monk. Big band music wasn’t everything, but Bebop was. Big band musicians were seen as sell-outs many bebop jazz musicians, who wanted to create a new inventive style of music. Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s in New York City are said to have been the birthplace of bebop music.
Bebop musicians also deviated from other jazz styles’ common fashions. Bebop musicians favored outfits consisting of a hat and sunglasses, topped off with a goatee, as opposed to the suits worn big band musicians.
Although some bebop musicians referred to this new style of music simply as “modern jazz,” the term “bebop” was coined from the random, nonsensical speak of scat singing.