Bop and 1940s progressive groups

The following tape recorded program is a presentation of the National Association of

educational broadcasters.

This is the 22nd in a series of programs on the roots of jazz in the United States.

On this program we discuss and listen to the music of Bob and progressive groups

of the 1940s.

You are listening to the guitar playing of one of the greatest jazz personalities the

late Charlie Christian who became well-known in the late 30s as the Spock of many of

Benny Goodman. Small groups Christian symbolizes the transition

from hot to cool jazz. He was at Minton's Playhouse as early as the

beginning of 1941 Minton's was a club room in the Hotel

Cecil in Harlem Minton's is where modern jazz began. This

is a recording of Charlie Christian playing at Minton's in May of 1941.

They began playing with Benny Goodman in the last half of 1939.

Every evening he played in jam sessions at the Harlem club room and exactly two

years after John had been discovered in an Oklahoma City he was confined to

Bellevue sanatorium suffering from to the losses.

He died in March of 1942. Christian was the first

important jazz musician to use the electric guitar setting of Vogue

which continues increasingly important today. The guitar had

replaced the banjo as a rhythm instrument back in the days of Chicago jazz. It

remained a rhythm instrument. It's like chords setting a firm basis upon

which other instruments could improvise. But it never possessed enough volume

to be noticeable as a solo instrument. The electric guitar

became a new and beautiful solo voice in jazz groups from the time of Charlie

Christian.

Then

there are some men in the history of jazz who are as Barry who in an office called

them figures of transition.

Charlie Christian was one of them. Another was the trumpet player Roy Eldridge.

The following quotation is in the woods of Roy rich commenting on his

mentors in the jazz world.

When I first came to New York I had to play everything fast and double bass.

I couldn't stand still like a lot of youngsters today all my ballads had to be double

time. I was fresh I was full of ideas augmented chords nines the

cats used to listen to me. Well they'd say he's nice but he don't say nothin.

Consequently I didn't work. I was playing fine saxophone on the

trumpet. Try to hold notes longer than they should be held. Trying to get a sound

which I couldn't and shouldn't get. When I discovered that the trumpet has a sound all

its own and a way of playing all its own.

Then I began to play really learned from two great saxophonist.

He says the two men who have been my favorites ever since I began playing music

are Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. They really inspired me. I'd listen

to them and be stunned. I didn't know the right names for anything at first

but I knew what knocked me out. They do eight bars and then play what I call the turn around

eight and the turnaround changes.

I dug and he learned also from Louis Armstrong.

I went up to the Lafayette theater to try and discover what he was doing. I sat through one

show and nothing happened. I figured this couldn't be it. I sat through another.

Then Louis started to build chorus after chorus. He came to a real

climax and organized climax right clean clear.

I stood up with the rest of them. I couldn't see why people were digging him. It

was feeling it's always feeling when it's right. It's

also building. Giving your solo shape going somewhere when it's

there. Nothing matters. Range speed sound. They just come.

It's nothing I see. I can be cold sober from somewhere it

comes afterward I sit up in my room and try to figure it out. I know I

haven't cleaned my horn but the sound was gone. I know my lip isn't that in that good

shape but I made an artist MOOC as big and fat as a C two octaves lower.

It just doesn't figure. I just don't seem to make it I'm not sure I

ever made a good record. Usually the tunes are bad or everybody's in a hurry.

Yeah there's one anyway. I like the rockin chair I made with Jean. I

don't know what I'd played until Ben Webster played it for me on the coast.

I didn't even know who it was when I heard the introduction I thought it was Louie. I can truthfully

say that I played what I wanted to play on that record and maybe two on the Embraceable You I

made with a studio band.

And here is Roy Eldritch figure of transition in his

solo on the rocking chair.

Thank you.

And I.

Am I.

Am.

The next figure of transition is the tenor saxophone man lest a young

Prez as he is called it by most modern jazz sax man.

Coleman Hawkins gave the town a saxophone its first style and made the

instrument a popular one in jazz. But Young took over and we had a

coolness. His phrases were long and possessed great a variety

but no matter what the reason we no know that what Kristian did for guitarists

and Eldridge did for trumpet as Lester Young did for saxophonist.

These were the prototypes of modern jazz. They made the transitions

while searching for a style good taste and satisfaction in the artistry of that

music. They are known as musicians musicians since much of

what they do is not fully appreciated save by fellow Johnson. Here

is Lester Young solo on an old ball Kalyan when he was playing with comp bases

orchestra the number is 12st.

Hey.

I am.

This is Lester Young in the 1940s with jazz at the Philharmonic.

How does the song as played by.

The figure of friends if.

They were artists searching for a much greater freedom than either swing

Dixieland or Chicago style had afforded them. They tried everything.

Some of it was meaningful. Some was waste. But the importance of

their contribution was in their effort to find a new style a new freedom

from old form. All of this experimentation resulted in two

concerted efforts big bands moved in the direction of what became known as

progressive jazz. The music of what Herman's herds the

varied product of Stan Kenton Charlie Barnett and Boyd raver.

These were the high powered orchestras that bring us up to the present. They

are they were all fortunate enough to attract young vibrant modern musicians

with extremely capable Rangers. Ralph Burton's arranger for Woody

Herman Bill Harris and George handy arrangers for Boyd Reva

and Pete wriggle 0 4 stand can. This is the sound of freedom

in Woody Herman's orchestra.

The second output resulted from the experimentation of Christian young Outteridge

and Charlie Parker was the small group jazz which became known as Bach.

There are many names in this field and we cannot treat all of them. Billy

Eckstein and Mel Torme certainly with the vocal champions of the music. Dizzy

Gillespie the trumpet of Charlie Parker the saxophonist and Fats Navarro and how of

Niggy trumpet as J.J. Johnson and Kay winding trombone it's

part of a basis and many of us follow here. In the

words of one of the most creative minds of modern jazz

Lenny Tristan and artistically the situation is deplorable.

These little monkey men of music steal note for note the phrases of the master of

the new idiom John Burks Dizzy Gillespie.

There are endless repetition of these phrases makes living in their midst like fighting one's way

through a nightmare in which bebop or is out of the walls the heavens and the

coffee pot. Most boppers contribute nothing to the idea

whether they play drums saxophone piano trombone or glockenspiel.

It still comes out gasping. This he probably thinks he's in a house of

mirrors but in spite of this barrage of dead echoes he still sounds great.

They managed to steal some of his notes but his soul stays on the record and

Lenny has analyzed Bob better than anyone else from a musician's point of view.

This is a long quotation but perhaps all the more valuable

because it relates to what went before.

It must be understood that Bebop is diametrically opposed to the jazz that

preceded it. Swing as applied to large groups and Dixieland as applied to the small ones

swing was hot and heavy and loud Bebop is cool light

and soft. The former bump along like a beat

locomotive. This was known in some quarters as Dr.. The

latter has a more subtle beat which becomes more pronounced by implication

at this low volume level. Many interesting and complex accents may be

introduced effectively the phraseology is next in importance

because every note is governed by the underlying beat. This was not true

of swing. For example the long arpeggios which were

executed with no sense of time. The prolonged tremolos and the

sustained scream notes though Dixieland presents a

single and crude form of counterpoint. It's contrapuntal development ends in a

blind alley. Each line is governed by the end result which is

collective improvisation collective improvisation is limited

by a small number of chords perhaps 6 or 7. A good

melodic line is sacrificed completely the boppers

discarded collective improvisation and placed all emphasis on a single line.

This is not unfortunate since the highest development of both would probably not occur

simultaneously. Perhaps the next step after bebop will be collective

improvisation on a much higher plane because the individual lines will be

more complex. Bebop has made several contributions to

the evolution of the single line the arpeggio has ceased to be important. The

line is primarily diatonic. The procedure is not up

one chord and down another nor is it up one scale and down another. The

use of skips of more than a third precludes this seesaw motion. The

skillful use of scales fosters the evolution of many more

ideas than does the use of arpeggios. Since an arpeggio merely restates the

chord instead of a rhythm section pounding out each chord four beats to a bar

so that three or four soloists can blow the same chord and arpeggio form in a blast of

excremental vibrations. The bebop rhythm section uses a

system of chordal punctuation. By this means the soloist

is able to hear the chord without having it shoved down his throat.

He can think as he plays a chorus of bebop may

consist of any number of phrases which vary in length a phrase may consist of two

bars or twelve bars. It may contain one or several ideas.

Then music is thoughtful as opposed to the kind of music which is no more than an endless

series of notes somewhat bent.

And here is John Burke's Dizzy Gillespie.

Some say that even followed in the footsteps of Charlie aka. And

that may well be true because God is considered by many to be the

greatest improviser of modern jazz. Papa was born in

Kansas City in 1920. He started playing out of

saxophone with Jay Machado in Kansas City in

1943. He joined the great Hines band where

he worked with Dizzy and vocalist Billy Eckstein and Sarah Vaughan.

Up to 1946 dizzy and Jada had led the field in Bach

and created the groundwork for modern jazz. In

1949 and 1950 pocket toward Europe

and in one thousand fifty five he died. Jazz critic learned

father had this to say.

Charlie was a very strange complex person but he was the greatest

jazz artist of the modern era and certainly one of the four or five

greatest of all time.

Oh.

This has been the twenty second series of programs on the roots of jazz in the United.

The roots of jazz is written and produced by Norman was the reader and

sound technician. As has been clearly speak.

The preceding program was tape recorded. This is

a radio network.