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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 movements
seminal 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 black
populaces 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 black
liberation 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 blues
tradition 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, suspended chords and pedal notes.
The form demonstrates preference for 16 measures and twelve-bar blues. This funky hard-bop
style 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 hard
bop. 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 John
Coltranes 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 so
that 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 chords and pedal notes: gospel influence
7. 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 but
blows 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 arranged
themes
Theme is harmonized or
played 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' and Bag'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 Silver
on 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 play
such prestigious soloists as Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Randy Brecker, Clifford
Jordan, 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 figure
in 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 Seventeen
Messengers 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
Preacher by Horace Silver, Moanin' by Bobby Timmons, I Remember Clifford, Blues March
and Whisper Not by 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 studied
intensively the African rhythms to refine his polyrhythms. An example of this is the album
The African Beat from 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 was
nicknamed "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 by
George 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 other
bands. 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 Freedom Now 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 incorporated
influences 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 his
role in the bebop with Charlie Parker and with the cool jazz with Birth of the Cool Miles
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 Groove it is especially Sonny Rollins who
contributed some compositions: some up tempi: Oleo and Airigin and 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 Midnight with 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 Garland
on 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: Miles in 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' and Relaxin' 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 Midnight because the next
album on which we can hear the quintet is actually a sextet album. In 1957 the quintet has
all 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
Milestones in 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
film Asenceur pour l'echafaud with French musicians and Kenny Clark who was living in
Paris 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 Blue was 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 as Better Git Hit In Your Soul, Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting and
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, Charlie
Parker, 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 of
Minguss 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, a
collective 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 numbers My Jelly Roll Soul, Duke Ellingtons Sound Of Love and Parkeriana.
Mingus recorded many, many albums. Here we mention only the most well-known: Mingus
Ah Hum from 1959, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus from 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 the
Mingus 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 3
rd
,
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 Skylight and
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 Hall
Concert. The concert was based on a misunderstanding because Mingus had actually intended
the 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 played
in 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 sound
and 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 on Newks 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 Steps he 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 were
merged 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 Rosie and 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 and Porgy and Bess, the cooperations 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 of
experiments, for example:
Scott Joplin Treemonisha in 1915
George Gershwin Rapsody in Blue in 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.