Bop Comes Alive

The Minton Playhouse jam session would actually challenge the musicians' imagination by playing unusual chord changes without a definite key center, with the drummer providing irregular rhythmic patterns. Often, more than one soloist would improvise and not be aware of what the other musicians were playing. it became a musical free-for-all.

In the early 1940s, this new music was a further development of jazz, and was usually played by small groups. A typical bop group would consist of a saxophone, trumpet, and a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums.

Bop was not the creation of any one individual. There were many musicians who spearheaded this revolutionary development. About 1945, when the swing era came to an end, a group of black jazz musicians developed the "bop" sound by the alteration of the basic chords. With the changing of the melody and the inclusion of complex rhythmic patterns, bop became an expression of revolt.

It was a revolt against the commercial music dominated by white bands. Ross Russell, in his "Be-bop Instrumentation" record changer, summed it up best when he said, "Bebop is the music of revolt. Revolt against big bands, arrangers, vertical harmonies, soggy rhythms, non-playing orchestra leaders, and Tin Pan Alley-against commercial music in general."

The public's interest in bop didn't last any length of time. This could be the fault of the same musicians who created this new music. Their attitudes probably out of contempt and malice toward the public; caused them to do everything they could to discourage the acceptance of bop.