Editing Bebop (section)

===Swing era influences===
[[File:Dizzy Gillespie at the Downbeat Club, ca 1947.jpg|thumb|left|175px|Dizzy Gillespie, at the Downbeat Club, NYC, c. 1947]]

Bebop grew out of the culmination of trends that had been occurring within [[swing music]] since the mid-1930s: less explicit timekeeping by the drummer, with the primary rhythmic pulse moving from the bass drum to the ride cymbal; a changing role for the piano away from rhythmic density towards accents and fills; less ornate horn section arrangements, trending towards riffs and more support for the underlying rhythm; more emphasis on freedom for soloists; and increasing harmonic sophistication in arrangements used by some bands.  The path towards rhythmically streamlined, solo-oriented swing was blazed by the [[territory bands]] of the southwest with [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] as their musical capital; their music was based on blues and other simple chord changes, riff-based in its approach to melodic lines and solo accompaniment, and expressing an approach adding melody and harmony to swing rather than the other way around.  Ability to play sustained, high energy, and creative solos was highly valued for this newer style and the basis of intense competition.  Swing-era jam sessions and "cutting contests" in Kansas City became legendary.  The [[Kansas City jazz|Kansas City approach to swing]] was epitomized by the [[Count Basie Orchestra]], which came to national prominence in 1937.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018}}

{{quote box
| width = 23em|Bebop wasn't developed in any deliberate way.|—[[Thelonious Monk]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=DownBeat Archives |url=https://downbeat.com/archives/detail/genius-of-bop-thelonious-monk |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=downbeat.com}}</ref>
}}

One young admirer of the Basie orchestra in Kansas City was a teenage alto saxophone player named [[Charlie Parker]]. He was especially enthralled by their tenor saxophone player [[Lester Young]], who played long flowing melodic lines that wove in and out of the chordal structure of the composition but somehow always made musical sense.  Young was equally daring with his rhythm and phrasing as with his approach to harmonic structures in his solos.  He would frequently repeat simple two or three note figures, with shifting rhythmic accents expressed by volume, articulation, or tone.  His phrasing was far removed from the two or four bar phrases that horn players had used until then. They would often be extended to an odd number of measures, overlapping the musical stanzas suggested by the harmonic structure. He would take a breath in the middle of a phrase, using the pause, or "free space", as a creative device. The overall effect was that his solos were something floating above the rest of the music, rather than something springing from it at intervals suggested by the ensemble sound. When the Basie orchestra burst onto the national scene with its 1937 recordings and widely broadcast New York engagements, it gained a national following, with legions of saxophone players striving to imitate Young, drummers striving to imitate [[Jo Jones]], piano players striving to imitate Basie, and trumpet players striving to imitate [[Buck Clayton]]. Parker played along with the new Basie recordings on a [[Victrola]] until he could play Young's solos note for note.<ref>Bird Lives!The High Life And Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, by Ross Russell, p. 89-92, Da Capo Press, 1996, 404 p.</ref>

In the late 1930s the [[Duke Ellington Orchestra]] and the [[Jimmie Lunceford|Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra]] were exposing the music world to harmonically sophisticated musical arrangements by [[Billy Strayhorn]] and [[Sy Oliver]], respectively, which implied chords as much as they spelled them out. That understatement of harmonically sophisticated chords would soon be used by young musicians exploring the new musical language of bebop.{{Citation needed|date=July 2017}}

The brilliant technique and harmonic sophistication of pianist [[Art Tatum]] inspired young musicians including Charlie Parker and [[Bud Powell]].  In his early days in New York, Parker held a job washing dishes at an establishment where Tatum had a regular gig.<ref>Bird Lives!The High Life And Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, by Ross Russell, p. 100-102, Da Capo Press, 1996, 404 p.</ref>

One of the divergent trends of the swing era was a resurgence of small ensembles playing "head" arrangements, following the approach used with Basie's big band.  The small band format lent itself to more impromptu experimentation and more extended solos than did the bigger, more highly arranged bands.  The 1939 recording of "[[Body and Soul (1930 song)|Body and Soul]]" by [[Coleman Hawkins]] with a small band featured an extended saxophone solo with minimal reference to the theme that was unique in recorded jazz, and which would become characteristic of bebop. That solo showed a sophisticated harmonic exploration of the composition, with implied passing chords. Hawkins would eventually go on to lead the first formal recording of the bebop style in early 1944.<ref>see Early bebop recordings</ref>