Sahana Narayanan - 2016 Near Scholar

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2015-16 JOHN NEAR GRANT Recipient Bee-Boppa Doe: The Soul of an African-American Musical Revolution in an Post-World War II Era Sahana Narayanan, Class of 2016


“BEE-BOPPA-DOE:” THE SOUL OF AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSICAL REVOLUTION IN A POST-WORLD WAR II ERA

Sahana Narayanan 2016 John Near Scholar Mentors: Ms. Susan Nace, Ms. Susan Smith April 10, 2016


Narayanan 2 But jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America; the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile. – Langston Hughes, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926)1

Protest Music The passion and pain behind protest music has reverberations that stimulate revolutions, both in artistic as well as social realms. Protest is at the heart of Bebop, a genre of music in the late 1940s and early 1950s that descended from the complex melodies and tonalities of jazz.2 Bebop reflected years of angst for a people whose dignity was denied and whose rights were forgotten,3 consequently fomenting the basis of a nationwide revolt against musical and artistic conformity in a post-World War II era. Thus, Bebop jazz was not only an African-American musical revolution in which a new exclusive musical vocabulary was created, but also a larger social and musical revolution that transcended race. As its musical message resonated within African-American and listeners alike, the Bebop revolution forever changed the racial, social, and musical landscape of America. Social Context after World War II After facing substantial racism within the American army itself,4 African-Americans were disappointed and disheartened to find similar conditions at home. Fighting for a country that denied them their basic civil rights, and then returning to an unwelcoming homeland, culminated in resentment toward their white counterparts. Further denied jobs and fair payment by white business owners,5 African-Americans lacked economic independence and housing.6 In addition, Jim Crow laws in the South encouraged African-Americans to migrate to Northwestern and Northeastern cities.7 Additionally, the demand for mechanization rather than manual labor


Narayanan 3 left fewer jobs available in the market, resulting in a scarcity of opportunities for AfricanAmericans in the post-World War II era.8 Drug usage in the African-American community has many complicated subtexts, as there is often a discrepancy between the public portrayal and the reality of the racial dynamics within the African-American neighborhoods.9 During the 1950s, as a result of their oppressive social and economic conditions, historians suggest that African-American drug use was a reaction to their lack of independence and opportunity.10 However, these African-American communities were often the victims of a biased and racist public. Painting entire groups of people in a negative light, and using a few instances of drug use for justification, resulted in an unfair and untrue stereotype that pervaded post-World War II America. Furthermore, African-American communities were arguably the targets of an American government who used the stereotype of drug abuse in order to break apart community meetings and demean them in the public eye.11 In reality, the use of heroin in urban centers was minute in comparison to the overall abuse of alcohol in rural areas.12 Moreover, drug and alcohol treatment programs were unavailable and unaffordable in African-American communities, leading to a cycle of abuse with no opportunity for self-help.13 As a whole, African-American communities tended to regard this usage as the norm and as a coping mechanism for the oppressive social and economic conditions they endured.14 Consequently, this chaotic stage set the scene for the birth of Bebop. A Deferred American Dream What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat?


Narayanan 4 Or crust and sugar over Like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags Like a heavy load. Or does it explode?  Langston Hughes, Harlem (1951)15

Prior to the Bebop era, Langston Hughes set the stage for artistic protest against the elusiveness of the American dream. Through his poetry, which was heavily influenced by thy rhythmic and tonal elements of jazz,16 Hughes represented an early instance of the fusion between poetry, music, and protest. Consistently reciting his poetry with jazz accompaniment in the background,17 Hughes illustrated a hypocrisy inherent in the American Dream a dream that preached equality for all, yet seemed to apply only to white citizens. In his jazz recitations of poetry that focused on the African-American identity, the background musicians are ironically white players,18 an early example of an African-American art form being co-opted by white musicians. In his poem The Weary Blues,19 the narrator takes note of the solemnness with which the blues player touches the piano, indicating a musical clash between the white and black keys, as well as a larger social divide in America.20

Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues:” With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody O Blues! Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man’s soul O Blues! In a deep song voice with a melancholy tune I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan


Narayanan 5 ‘Ain’t got nobody in all this world, Ain’t got nobody but ma self. I’s gwine to quite ma frownin’ And put ma troubles on the self.’ – Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues21 Historically, the blues originated from the Deep South during the turn of the 20th century, and evoke a melancholy sentiment. The chord progressions, emotions and poetry of the blues greatly influenced early jazz, and are still found in today’s modern jazz. Symbolically, the blues communicate a sadness in the African-American life, and set a precedent for a restrained, yet emotive form of artistic expression in underprivileged black communities. Musical and Social Division Another source of antagonism that African-American musicians faced derived from a set of urban and elite African-Americans who had already assimilated into mainstream society prior to and during World War II.22 Forced to create and maintain their own businesses as a result of Jim Crow laws in the South during the war, a set group of African-Americans rose to an elite status through their economic independence.23 Wealthy African-Americans moved to predominantly white neighborhoods, and although they faced backlash from their white counterparts, a greater racial and social stratification emerged between upper class and middle class African-Americans.24 Subsequently, varying definitions of democracy and civil rights surfaced with the convergence of these two subgroups after World War II. This social phenomenon stretched to the musical sphere as well, as an older black elite consisting of Swing musicians from the Great Depression looked down on the musical experimentation of the younger African-American generation.25 During the 1920s and 1930s, Swing music, characterized by a call and response structure, a danceable rhythm, and an orchestral sounding style, became mainstream as white bandleaders such as Benny Goodman


Narayanan 6 integrated African-American and white musicians alike.26 This big band sound, played by prominent figures such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller, usually featured either a male or female vocalist, and found a receptive audience with white listeners.27 With Duke Ellington’s hit song “It Don’t Mean a Thing, if it Ain’t got that Swing,” music performed by African-Americans entered the conscious ear of listeners, yet very rarely were these individuals recognized for their compositional as well as performance abilities.28 Instead, white Swing artists purchased the charts (the chord development and musical score) from African-American bandleaders such as Fletcher Henderson, and played the music within their own exclusively White bands.29 As Swing tended toward commercialization, the media portrayal of jazz also became predominantly white, and Black bandleaders such as Duke Ellington were criticized by proponents of the Civil Rights movement for choosing to advance his own career rather than the rights of his people.30 Although a few racially mixed bands went mainstream, such as in the case of Benny Goodman’s, the media would cut out scenes involving African-American players and dancers in videos that showcased Swing performances.31 Furthermore, the continual co-opting of an originally African-American music by white composers led to a bitterness that set the stage for the Bebop era.32 For example, George Gershwin’s 1924 composition “Rhapsody in Blue,”33 which has grown to be one of the most famous pieces of American music, represents a historic musical fusion of jazz and Classical. However, Gershwin’s piece illustrates a trend of white musicians adapting black music for purposes of commercialization. Utilizing the techniques of jazz to reproduce a black sound, these white composers were able to market their pieces to a curious audience, without paying respect to the African-American musicians who developed that sound in the first place.


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Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” 34

In what is today known as the first symphonic jazz concerto, Gershwin arguably co-opts the Blues scale for the purposes of Classical music, a traditionally white and Western art form. In this section from the trumpet part, the technique of flutter tonguing is utilized here to intensify the end of a phrase.

Excerpt from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”35 The technique, however, originated from Swing. Furthermore, the use of syncopation, or the cross-rhythms in which the tune becomes off-beat, represents the proliferation of jazz techniques into mainstream white music.36 The Bebop musician formed as a result of this harsh musical phase  a phase where African-American artist would get fired before their white counterparts, were denied the same wages, and were victims of a white acculturation of an originally black music37 (by better known and more widely accepted white musicians.) Urban musicians from the younger generation, as well as younger musicians form the Swing era, ostracized by both a white and black elite, accessed their passion and angst to create music that accurately represented their experiences as victims of racial discrimination, while providing a means for whites to cope with the disrespect and devaluation they faced as artists.38


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A Unique African-American Art Form From I, Too, Sing America: I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America. – Langston Hughes, I, Too, Sing America39

Just as Langston Hughes declared the uprising of a social revolution through his poetry, so did the group of young African-American musicians in an underground jazz scene. Their sensational and sonic formation reverberated throughout the nation, as black artists fomented a nationwide upheaval in race relations creating an authentic tapestry of African-American identity. The Negro music that developed in the forties had more than an accidental implication of social upheaval associated with it. To a certain extent, the music resulted from conscious attempts to remove it from the danger of mainstream dilution or even understanding. For one thing, the young musicians began to think of themselves as serious musicians, even


Narayanan 9 artists, and not performers. And that attitude erased immediately the protective and parochial atmosphere of ‘the folk expression’ from jazz. – Amiri Baraka, Blues People40

As Amiri Baraka, prominent music critic, writes, the Bebop of the forties was established in a response to the musical injustice of the Swing era. Because Bebop originated as a separate entity from the mainstream music scene, it became more vulnerable as well as accessible. Rising against the American stereotype of jazz as simply “jazzy” and as entertainment rather than art,41 black beboppers began to liberate themselves from the social rigidity and conformity of a rigged system. Rather than being defined by the color of their skin, they attempted to transcend race itself by expanding their definition of democracy and freedom to every realm of social and creative experimentation, consequently resulting in a revolution that called for a respect of their individual genius.42 During this chaotic time, a group of younger soloists from the Swing era met and discussed musically progressive ideas.43 Representing a departure from Western descended tonalities and rhythms, these musicians rejected the orthodoxy of 1930s Swing and aimed to create a music that was not co-opted by white musicians. Alto Saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie are among the founders of the Bebop movement,44 and both had distinct approaches to infusing messages of equality within their music. However, both men, in keeping with a new style of Bebop, refused to worry about the public’s response and attention, and instead focused on their music itself. “I don’t care if you listen to my music or not,”45 they would say. In reaction to the lack of attention paid to his musical virtuoso and the devaluation of his art due to the color of his skin, Parker moved to Europe in 1949 and 1950.46 While he


Narayanan 10 opposed the conventional stereotypes of the black musician as “primitive,�47 through his sojourns in Europe, he also furthered the image of the black musician as an outsider. The new sound of Bebop was characterized by fast tempos, complex melodies, and rhythm sections that laid down a steady beat only on the bass and the cymbal of the drummer.48 Rather than playing in larger and formal Big Bands, which resembled Orchestras, beboppers opted to play in small, intimate combos, with less instruments and more room for creative experimentation.49 This led to an unprecedented level of exclusivity, as the musicians aimed to only play with those who matched their technical and creative genius, rather than to share their music in the public sphere. Minton’s playhouse, an important jazz club and jamming place for these musicians,50 offered opportunities for small-scale performances, as well an escape from the musical and social frigidity of the Swing era. Consequently, musicians could try out melodic twists and turns such as shocking, intervals and dissonant chords.51 This experimentation marked the creation of a musical revolution with a style known as Bebop. Artistic Assimilation and Innovation After years of not being allowed to play their music in major venues and commercially sponsored radio programs,52 black musicians excluded white musicians from their inner musical circles and co-opted traditional white melodies.53 In response to their treatment as second-class citizens and the co-opting of their original jazz sound in Swing, African-American musicians effectively turned the table, dramatically transforming the power gradient both racially and artistically. In an explicit counter to the musical ideologies of Gershwin and Benny Goodman from the previous Swing era, Charlie Parker and trumpeter Miles Davis frequently made use of the contrafact,54 or a musical composition with a chord structure borrowed from another song.


Narayanan 11 Thus, beboppers did not have to pay fees for copyright and could instead immediately improvise over the basic harmonic structure while composing their new melody.55 One of the earliest examples of the contrafact phenomenon occurs in the relationship between Ballard MacDonald and James F. Hanley’s “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” and Miles Davis’s “Donna Lee.”56 Although originally recorded as a Dixie land band tune (early New Orleans style jazz at the beginning of the 20th century) and later as a standard, the tune was refashioned in the Bebop style with the new generation of African-American musicians. Recorded by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, pianist Bud Powell, bassist Tommy Potter, and drummer Max Roach, “Donna Lee” steals its underlying melodic structure from “Indiana,” yet is groundbreaking in its musical aesthetic and sound.

The Benny Goodman version of “Indiana”57

Charlie Parker and Miles Davis’ “Donna Lee”58

The three main soloists (Parker, Davis, and Powell) spill over bar lines, begin and end in random places, and improvise over the melody. Parker’s solo is especially characterized by short fragments that interrupt the flow of the melody within long phrases which frequently violate the bar lines. These phrases lead to the impromptu quality of the entire piece, as if the performer is extemporaneously thinking aloud in front of the audience. Parker modulates from each idea through different melodic motifs in various keys, and a stream of consciousness joins both the listener and the player in a completely in-the-moment piece of music.


Narayanan 12 The choice of contrafact was also an implicit commentary on the tradition of white musicians playing black music. Perhaps Parker’s most famous piece, “Anthropology,” also known as “Thriving from a Riff” (written by both Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in 1945) is based on the chord changes from famous composer George Gershwin’s iconic 1930 piece “I Got Rhythm.”59 The similarities and differences in melodic contour and rhythmic changes between both pieces are apparent through an examination of the charts:

Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”60

Parker’s “Anthropology”61

In terms of the actual chord changes, while the B sections are identical between the two charts, the charts differentiate in the second line of the first A section. However, the feelings and the sentiments that the two tunes evoke are completely different. On the ending phrases, while


Narayanan 13 “Anthropology” has no melodic resolution and leads the listener to wonder where the phrase is going, Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” leads with more conventionally upbeat chords.

Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “I Got Rhythm”62

Charlie Parker’s “Anthropology”63

Ella Fitzgerald, known as the “First Lady of Song” and “Queen of jazz,” frequently fronted the big bands of the Swing era. Her version of “I Got Rhythm” includes strings (a classical component) and has an emotional vibrancy that is brought out by her extensive use of vibrato. She starts off slowly, with intentional and deliberate phrasing, and clearly follows the assigned chords of Gershwin. While she scats and improvises, it seems perfectly in the range of what is considered musically acceptable. Her sound is never jarring, with lush vibrato that is almost classical in origin. Although she began singing with Gillespie’s band during the rise of Bebop, her rendition of “I Got Rhythm” here is quintessentially Swing. Parker’s rendition of “Anthropology” could not be more different, if not completely divergent from the chart from which it is so similar. The tempo is consistently fast, and never ceases to resort to the laid-back feeling of Ella’s version. Each note is short and hard, and until Parker’s solo, lacks a lingering phrase. Parker improvises as if he is constantly going somewhere. He explores the upper intervals, ends his solo on a short high note without any resolution, and then pauses for the piano solo. Repeating the same phrase while the drummer hits the cymbal intensely equips the tune with a sense of urgency, as if the musicians are consistently communicating a message that has been repeated for too long. When he finally retreats back to


Narayanan 14 the main melodic tune in section A, the tune ends on an abrupt note as if it lacks a melodic and emotional resolution. The relationship between the original piece and the Bebop version is a defiant musical and social statement. In essence, they are stealing back the music of their people, while also creating an entirely new musical form. For the first time, African-Americans took ownership for their art, and in doing so, spurred an artistic revolution that marked the ultimately departure from the servility that characterized their predecessors in early jazz and Swing. Challenging the Musical Status-Quo A new vocabulary was formed by these African-American musicians. An order of sounds that could only be played by an exclusive group of musicians arose into a musical language. Rhythmically, melodically, and harmonically, this could not be reproduced by white musicians who wanted to commercialize Bebop. Thus, Bebop grew as a wholly AfricanAmerican music. The music was full of splintered phrasing and astringent sounds. Its rhythm was angular and complex, queer and off center, yet riveted to some atavistic rock…. Irritated. It was jazz. Yet it was not jazz… It seemed to reflect the turmoil and insecurity of the war years. At the same time, it implied a profound contempt for those who had been foolish enough to become involved with the war.

 Ross Russell, The Sound

The description of Bebop as jazzy, but not identical to Swing, underscores the individuality of the African-American musician that made its way into the music. Bebop responded to the hypocrisy of America’s exhortation as a country of equality, and consequently presented a musical and social critique of the African-Americans who chose to serve in a war for a country


Narayanan 15 that denied them their basic civil rights. Furthermore, an implicit resentment against the AfricanAmericans who fought for the United States is apparent in Russell’s analysis. Bebop’s circumvention of musical definition, it’s implicit disagreement with individuals who aligned themselves with the dominancy of white society, and the racial discord from which the notion of Bebop sprung, was reflected in the specific musical choices of the artists. Russell goes on to contend, Harmonically, the style had not advanced much beyond Ravel and French impressionism. The unique aspects lay rather in the airy, vibrato-less intonation of the instruments, more in the classical style than jazz, and in the dodging, off-center rhythms. This could all be reduced fairly to notation, scored and arranged, and might very well describe the form, but would it explain the emotional content?

 Ross, Russell, The Sound64

In an effort to create a new sound, these musicians set the stage for a more informal style while challenging the status quo: A laid back and “chill,” atmosphere, but also a fiercely independent sound which could not be reproduced by anyone except their own exclusive group of musicians. Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Bud Powell tell stories that the “weird” chord changes that originated in clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse were originally designed to stop musicians from playing, in essence, to jar the conformist ears of musicians in an effort to challenge the musical status quo.65 A jamming mentality left over from the late forties and an overall “free for all” theme where different instrumentalists could take a chorus permeated jazz clubs like Minton’s Playhouse. 66 Various modulations and differences in keys and experimentation in switching between keys became the norm, and a new harmonic language arose from the needs and feelings of the African-American musicians.


Narayanan 16 Charlie Parker, specifically, challenged the established entertainment jazz style of older African-American jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong. Instead of staying with what he thought were obvious notes of the melody, he purposely committed “mistakes,” or “wrong” notes that were dissonant.67 However, Parker searched to resolve these dissonances within the greater scheme of the chord changes. Using the extended intervals-- the ninths, elevenths and thirteenths in upper and lower octaves, he created a hard-edged tone that became popular in the later 1960s jazz scene.68 The Rhythms of Disjointed Message The tumultuous rhythms of the lives of African-Americans made its way into Bebop. Perhaps the most obvious characteristic of Bebop that differentiates its style from Swing is the integral role of the rhythm section.69 Comprising of a guitar, piano, double bass and drums, the rhythm section set the emotional tone for Bebop through its fast-paced phrasing.70 Charlie Christian, a jazz guitarist from the Swing era, played with a rhythmic phrasing that emphasized an unsymmetrical beat.71 Rather than corresponding to the melodic and harmonic formations of the music, as the rhythm sections of Swing did, Bebop rhythm sections would deliberately foreshadow a future phrase earlier in the music, creating an off-beat rhythm that pushed the energy of both the spontaneous improvisation and the tune of the melody itself.72 Thus, polyrhythms, or rhythms with conflicting beats, were used to create an effect of disconnectedness and disarray within the piece. Emphasizing the cymbals and snare rather than the bass drum,73 Bebop musicians communicated a lightness rather than a heaviness to the sound, innovating in both the tonal quality and the actual complex system of overlapping rhythms. Furthermore, rhythm section players utilized “comping,” or the musical accompaniment while the soloist improvised.74 Rather than playing all the accompanying notes, the musicians


Narayanan 17 tended to leave spaces to create a momentary gap of disjointedness within the piece, ultimately creating a more laid-back musical atmosphere.75 During times where no soloists were improvising, the rhythm section would insert rhythmic punctuations to end the phrase. An excerpt from a chorus of pianist Duke Jordan’s comping of Charlie Parker’s 1948 Scrapple From The Apple indicates the looseness to the rhythm section that subtly complemented the primary improvisation while also pushing the piece forward.

Duke Jordan’s piano comping for “Scrapple From The Apple” 76 As shown in the above transcription of Duke Jordan’s comping, there is no explicit pattern in terms of which beat the pianist plays on. Only on the second half of the fourth beat of phrases does he cadence, or bring about a harmonic resolution to the phrase.


Narayanan 18 The Original Recording of “Scrapple From the Apple” 77 The piano clearly sets the stage for the piece through the introductory bars, yet hands over the melody to the horn players. All the while, Jordan, the pianist rarely overshadows the soloists, and instead provides a rhythmic and harmonic complement to sound of the horns. Only can the drums be heard at the cadence, with the rhythm section fittingly introducing and closing the piece. In Parker’s iconic composition “Salt Peanuts,” random words are spoken by Gillespie throughout the piece, indicating Bebop’s assertion as an art founded in rhythmic audacity. Yet another contrafact of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” the title derives from a specialized drum lick that drummer Kenny Clarke performed, which can be heard in the opening of the song.78

Parker’s “Salt Peanuts” 79 Repetitions of the words “Salt Peanuts” are interlinked with Parker’s improvisation. Rhythmically and melodically jarring with its verbal and spoken infusions, the piece is both a silly tune and a song of protest. The musical contradictions, with its simple four measure riffs and Swing style drumming, harken back to the earlier musical era. However, this juxtaposition of the old and new, combined with the casual nature of Gillespie’s voice, cement the song as a Bebop tune. Although the piece was performed as a public favorite, it is neither a work of entertainment nor art. With its repetitive phrasing, but also randomness in structure, “Salt Peanuts” justifies Bebop as revolutionary in its utter defiance of categorization and definition.


Narayanan 19 Musical and Emotional Dissonance The jagged element of the Bebop melody, replete with chromatic and disjunct chords, added a musical subtext to the journey for harmonic resolution in many Bebop tunes. Parker and Gillespie’s “Shaw ‘Nuff” begins with a repeated riff of dissonance in the rhythm section before handing the melody to the soloists. Gillespie’s “Shaw ‘Nuff” 80

The first few seconds of dissonance have an eerie quality, as if the musicians are boding something evil to come. However, that sentiment transitions into the characteristic loud playing of Bebop, and the dissonant notes of the rhythm section serve to tranquilize the melody while providing a natural end. On the same album as “Shaw ‘Nuff” was Parker’s “Groovin’ High.” Underscoring Parker’s own drug usage, the title indicates a liberalness with drugs that perhaps was not known to have ramifications at the time. Based on the chord structure of Paul Whitman’s 1920 popular standard “Whispering,”81 the song has a clearer melodic pattern, with the riffs clearly descending. Moreover, “Groovin’ High” is in a medium-tempo, rather than the up-tempo rhythm that characterized most Bebop compositions. A comparison of the two charts highlights some key similarities and differences8283:


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“Whispering” 84

“Groovin High”85

While there are several differences in the chord changes between the two charts, the underlying structures share the same basic melodic elements. Although these two pieces could not sound more different, Bebop musicians did not stop at publicizing the fact that they were utilizing contrafacts. At one point in a 1956 tour, in an attempt to show how Jazz musicians took from the music of the past, namely successfully white composers, Gillespie performed both “Groovin’ High” and “Whispering” at the same time.86 Furthermore, the small combo of only six musicians, especially in “Groovin’ High” created a very specific tone color that reflected the laid back, calm, and cool emotional sentiment of its melody. Form: Evolution and Revolution Parker’s solo in “Koko,” a contrafact of the 1939 hit song by Ray Noble “Cherokee,”87 is a landmark in its implicit call for a new genre of music, a genre where the melody lay entirely in the higher intervals of the chords. In the first take of the recording, the original melody of


Narayanan 21 “Cherokee” is played by Parker, but in the second take, the original melody is not included at all.88 Parker’s “Koko” 89

Consequently, although the spontaneity of Parker can be attributed to a diverse set of technical skills, an evolution of the melody took place throughout each subsequent recording session. Furthermore, while the introduction includes a stereotypical four-phrase structure within each bar, no chord changes or rhythm changes are present. In fact, the rhythm section does not improvise in this tune at all. After a prolonged drum solo, Parker plays a set of upward and downward scales, followed by the immediate abrupt end of the piece. The clear cut off, sans lingering phrases and lush vibrato-filled notes, completes both the evolutionary and revolutionary aspects to the tune. On one hand, the very melodic basis of the song descends from traditional folk song, and its simple structure indicates an evolution from past times. On the other hand, the higher intervals and innovative rhythmic techniques resound loud and clear, symbolizing the defiance of a musical revolution. Bebop’s prime artistic innovation can be associated with Charlie Parker’s rich tune, “Yardbird Suite.”90 Reflective of Parker’s nickname as the “Bird,” the title is both a mockery and parody of Western music as well as a further co-opting of classical tradition. The title is also a possible pun on Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite,” a ballet produced in 1910.91 The introduction consists of a piano riff, followed by a deliberate repetition of the same phrase by the horn section, before the melody transitions to the solos. In this case, the solos are very specific, and fail to stray far from the underlying melodic structure.


Narayanan 22 Parker’s “Yardbird Suite” 92 The same repetitive riff is played over and over again. The horn section, piano, and even the guitar, which sounds reminiscent of classical guitar style. The piano solo imitates the guitar solo before the horns go back to the A section and finish on a defiant note. Both the chord progressions of the A and B sections are original in their melodic content, indicating that “Yardbird Suite” was not a contrafact of a previously well-known tune. However, the use of a looser chromatic scale and the blues notes characterize the pieces as classic Bebop, although there is less dissonance and the melodic contour is more Swing than Blues. Furthermore, he makes particular use of the half-diminished scale, which adds to the emotional tension of the song and the search for harmonic resolution.

Parker’s iconic “Yardbird Suite” 93


Narayanan 23 The Politics of Bebop Parker, the composer and main soloist along with Dizzy Gillespie for all the aforementioned pieces, considered the name “Bebop” derogatory, preferring to denote his art as simply music.94 Later in his life, Parker opted to work in more complex modernist and improvisational forms, but the public audience was more resistant to his “new music.” Parker eventually died an alcoholic and drug addict in 1955, leaving behind an image of the charismatic genius marred by extensive heroin use. Up-and-coming jazz players, as a result, succumbed to drug use in the hopes of achieving his creative and musical brilliance.95 Gary Giddins in “Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker,” writes: His tone became increasingly sure, waxing in volume despite the deliberate lack of vibrato. It was candid and unswerving, and it had a cold blues edge unlike that of any of his predecessors. The musicians in New York had tried to intimidate him into aping the clean, pear-shaped sound of Benny Carter or the rhapsodic richness of Johnny Hodges. His contemporaries in McShann’s band knew what he was after. They were amused, too, by how fast his mind worked, as he imitated sounds echoing in from the streets – engines backfiring, tires, auto horns – and worked them into musical phrases.96 Parker’s complex accents, both rhythmically and pitch-wise, and his distinctive tone with little vibrato became the musical model for jazz saxophonists. Playing at such a fast speed where he could not warm his tone with vibrato, a hard-edged sound was produced that reflected an urgency of the Bebop music. Scott Deveaux, author of “The Birth of Bebop,” writes: “Its distinctive idiosyncrasies—a loose, improvisatory format and an eclectic repertory of standards studded with harmonic obstacles—were tailored to the specialized requirements of professional musicians, who pursued their commercial ambitions through other, more public channels.” 97


Narayanan 24 Viewing music as a concrete entity, rather than a romanticized source of entertainment, further induced vitality in Parker’s playing. Although he perhaps did not consciously make a statement about the collective identity of his people, he asserted his own musical prowess by showing the world how deeply he cared about his art. In doing so, he claimed his own musical and social identity as an individual artist. Following the Swing era, where African-American artists were not recognized for their skills and viewed simply as “jazzers,” the Bebop era, rife with an eclecticism and tendency towards spontaneity, allowed for a certain environment for a man like Charlie Parker to be recognized for his creative and artistic brilliance, finally receiving the respect he deserved. In contrast to Parker’s more quiet and individual style, Gillespie more overtly crossed the bridge of race, reaching out to white media in order to publicize Bebop.98 Although he faced criticism from both his white and black counterparts, his work ultimately culminated in the public adoption and reception of the movement. Gillespie’s aim was to shift Bebop from a series of private, late-night jamming sessions to a recording session that could be marketed as a musical commodity in the public at large. 99 However, Bebop ultimately failed in its attempt to connect with a broader array of white listeners, for they clearly delineated Bebop as a purely African-American art form. Ultimately, their rejection of Bebop represented the success of the movement. The original intent of Bebop was to create a new and exclusive vocabulary for African-Americans, to bring about the recognition of jazz and Bebop as a purely African-American art form, and for a Bebop profession to become an economically viable pathway for African-Americans, so that they could make a living from their art.


Narayanan 25 Bebop and Duality The notion of Bebop as a revolution is further justified by the varied public response and social upheaval from all sides of the racial and economic spectrum.100 The complicated mainstream press reaction to Bebop sheds light on the dual nature of Bebop: on one hand, the pure African-American art form, but also a social tool with which black musicians could make a statement. Although Gillespie writes in his memoir that white listeners had a negative response to their new sound,101 the press as a whole did not utilize racial rhetoric. A number of factors could have influenced this refrain from hateful speech. The growing successes of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1940s and early 1950s, or perhaps the recognition of the “race music” market by the recording industry set the stage for this neutral reaction. The ardent dedication of the Bebop musicians and the public embrace of Gillespie as the embodiment of Bop, however, directly eased race. Moreover, Gillespie played the role of an outside observer in his own community.102 In various public interviews, he continually attributed the widespread conversion of jazz musicians to Islam in the late 1950s to their individual pain  a pain that the public assumed to be drug - and alcohol - related due to the stereotypical public image of Bebop following Parker’s demise.103 However, their individual pain most likely originated from artistic and social isolation, the original source of their protest music. In the post-World War II environment, African-American men experienced an unprecedented amount of street violence. In Gillespie’s autobiography, he descriptively recounts an incident where he was mistaken for accompanying a white woman,104 and consequently was attacked. A discrepancy clearly existed between the attention the musicians were receiving on a nationwide scale, and the realities of their individual lives in which they consistently faced discrimination and oppression. According to social historian Eric Lott, “Brilliantly outside, bebop was intimately if indirectly related to the


Narayanan 26 militancy of its moment. Militancy and music were undergirded by the same social facts; the music attempted to resolve at the level of style what the militancy combatted in the streets.” 105 Meanwhile, the white media envisioned its own version of Bebop  one that attributed the entire movement to Gillespie.106 Thus, Gillespie as “Bop” is a recurring theme in the story of Bebop as revolution. A 1948 New Yorker profile writes:107 “Followers, both white and Negro, often affectionately declare that Dizzy is ‘it,’” (Boyer 1948: 26). In another 1948 Life magazine feature on Bebop, Mel Tormé and Ava Gardner, both figures from Hollywood and the Philly jazz scene, are shown casually enjoying Bebop music as entertainment,108 suggesting a shift from the previous exclusivity at jazz clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse. From the white perspective, Gillespie embodied Bebop itself, as he exposed the music to a larger audience. Furthermore, in comparison to the darker and mysterious images of fringe artists such as Charlie Parker, Gillespie inhabited a more central position. His humorous personality on-stage, such as his clowning antics and his “dizzy” behavior,109 created a sense of comfort within the audience that allowed for the later influx of Bebop musicians into the public sphere. Gillespie utilized both his music and his performance persona to create the optimal, safe image of Bebop for white audiences to accept. 110 Gillespie’s classic Bebop tune “A Night in Tunisia” illustrates his understanding of the extent and limit of his audience’s comfort zone.111 “A Night in Tunisia” offers a catchy, simple melody for the listener to remember, and is musically and rhythmically less complex than the more eclectic tunes by Parker and the other Bebop musicians who opted to stay in jazz clubs such as Minton’s playhouse, rather than to explore the opportunities in a more public musical sphere.112 Gillespie moves away from the traditional four beat bass rhythm and instead dabbles in a particular form of syncopation. The Afro-Cuban rhythms add an exotic sentiment to the


Narayanan 27 piece, while the underlying alto saxophone complements the trumpet solo with a measured level of dissonance. The title of the piece itself, expresses an exploration of the foreign, a mysterious land where new sounds are created. All of these factors implicitly helped market the piece as something that was musically innovative, but also safe enough to be commercially viable.

Score of “A Night in Tunisia” 113

Miles Davis and Charlie Parker play “A Night in Tunisia”114 As shown by the musical score of the big band version of the piece, all the parts are perfectly aligned. The fourth trombone and baritone sax play the same phrase at one point, and each instrument is deliberate in its syncopation. While the syncopation continues to play the role of pushing the energy of the piece forward, the rhythm is never out of control. Thus, the contour


Narayanan 28 of the piece has a wandering quality that enables it to be considered edgy, yet is simultaneously structured in its melodic movement. The notes are longer and more drawn out, and they have the illusion of searching for harmonic resolution, while never leaving the musical realm through the higher intervals. The “B” section of the piece consists of a repetitive set of notes before the improvised solo and return to the “A” section. As the piece slows down, Gillespie distinctly uses vibrato to highlight the dissonance before retreating to the ending minor chord. In such a way, the average American listener enjoyed Gillespie’s direct presentation and understandable definition of Bebop. They found excitement in the prospect of indulging in the avant-garde, while maintaining their sense of security and post-World War II ideals. The Proliferation of Bebop into Mainstream Thought The complex and polarized press reaction to Bebop underscores a racial shift from the Swing era, in which the media attempted to understand this new music rather than immediately discredit it as a black art form. While some white writers, such as Leonard Feather and Barry Ulanov, were fervent fans, other conservative critics who had reacted negatively to Swing, also also reacted negatively to the hipster and bad boy image of Bebop.115 However, the discussion following the advent of Bebop was particularly colorblind, valuing how Bebop attracted both white and black listeners alike. The rhetoric, though, confined Bebop to the European tradition, comparing the sound to the acquired taste of Stravinsky or Shostakovich.116 The New Yorker cited pianist Thelonious Monk’s statement “We liked Ravel, Stravinsky, Debussy, Prokofieff, Schoenberg and maybe we were a little influenced by them”117 as indicative of the influence of Western Classical music, and consequently, implicitly deemed Bebop as worthy of artistic respect and admiration. A common theme as Bebop entered the mainstream; musicians derived


Narayanan 29 their artistic and musical sophistication from critics through their concordance with the European classical canon. In the prevailing media coverage, white music critics utilized comparisons to Classical music in an attempt to explain Bebop to a non-musical public by using European culture as an analogy.118 In a commentary on the origin of the word “Bebop” in the 1947 press report “Saturday Review of Literature,”119 the author wrote, Lest you carp too quickly and brand these effusions as childish, remember that Sir Thomas Beecham and countless other symphonic conductors clarify difficult passages vocally during rehearsal for the benefit of the orchestra. If put to paper these mounting would seem as bizarre as the passage transcribed above (‘bee-bobba-doe-bobba-doe’).

Subsequently, Charlie Parker was compared to Dylan Thomas in a 1956 tribute by white jazz critic Whitney Balliet.120 In an attempt to legitimize Parker’s creative life to a non-AfricanAmerican audience, Balliet writes, Both (Parker and Thomas) had about the same amount of talent. Both were in their thirties when they died. Both were modified revolutionaries. Both had a maximum and highly daring approach to the basic content of their particular mediums. Both had damaging twists in their personalities that were bathed in either dope or alcohol. Both gave overgenerously to themselves in their world. Both loved and hated their homes, their families, and their work. 121 The universality in the tragic arc of the creative genius, as Balliet explicates, was in keeping with the colorblind nature of the Bebop press response. Balliet’s use of the word “[modified] revolutionaries,”122 indicates a conclusion from white media that the proponents of Bebop were in fact innovative in their technical and musical prowess, thus constituting a musical revolution.


Narayanan 30 The white media’s recognition of this revolution demonstrates that the racial aesthetics of Bebop were not rigid in a clear divide between white and black, but rather fluid in the constant evolution of both the white and black cultures. While the white media acknowledged the influence of Bebop, African-American journalists largely covered the Civil Rights movement instead. This dearth of a mainstream, public African-American press response to Bebop underscores the self-segregation that Bebop artists presented. 123 Later African-American responses to Bebop in the 1960s, specifically by playwright, poet, and music critic Amiri Baraka, argue that Bebop catalyzed a political revolution in its radical pronouncement of an exclusive African-American art form.124 However, the political opposition that Baraka and other intellectuals attribute to the Bebop movement is countered by Gillespie, who traveled with the U.S. Department of State in an attempt to show the world that America was not racist.125 In contrast to Balliet’s confirmation of Parker’s genius through his prolonged and tragic drug abuse, Baraka paints the use of heroin as a source of power in Bebop musician’s assertion of their subcultural identity. Baraka writes, “Heroin is the most popular addictive drug used by Negroes because, it seems to me, the drug itself transforms the Negro’s normal separation from the mainstream of the society into an advantage. It is one-upmanship of the highest order.”126 Although Bebop derived its exclusivity from the private use of heroin, Baraka’s statement that heroin served as an advantage, is offset by the proliferation of a nonconformist Bebop identity within a younger generation of counterculture.


Narayanan 31 “Cool” Aesthetics Although African-American beboppers presented an image of coolness and calmness, such as through Charlie Parker’s Cool Blues (1947) and Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool (1957),127 they deliberately exercised restraint to hide their inner turbulence from the public. Bebop experienced a decline of African-American audiences as compared to Swing, consequently giving credence to the notion that Bebop was an isolated subculture, a musical formation that was disconnected from both the black and white mainstreams. This artistic isolation marked Bebop as an attraction for those looking to protest the conformity of the 1950s, while the resolve inherent in its musical form fascinated younger African-American intellectuals who wanted to defy convention. Furthermore, members of the Beat community romanticized the heroin addiction of Bebop musicians such Charlie Parker, cementing the Bebop character as an outsider.128 Unlike the poetry of Langston Hughes, which centered on topics such as racial identity through Swing-like jazz rhythms, the poetry of the Beat generation emerged from a place of spontaneity and freedom, reflecting the improvisatory nature of the Bebop sound. Beat poets such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg took from jazz to fuel the literary and emotional structure of their work.129 The sentiments of the Beat Generations a countercultural movement and defiance against superficial notions of entertainment in a mundane society, found a home in places such as Minton’s Playhouse.130 Their exhaustion with mainstream conformity left them searching and longing for something deeper, and their confusion and haphazard way of life was reflected musically through Bebop. Just as the random structure of notes restlessly searched for melodic completion, the Beat poets scrutinized intellectual fulfillment. Furthermore,


Narayanan 32 interactions between black beboppers and white poets were not uncommon,131 Gillespie even wrote a song called “Kerouac” in 1941132 due to Kerouac’s frequent visits to jazz clubs.

Gillespie’s “Kerouac” 133

“Kerouac” lacks melodic dissonance, perhaps reflecting the white Beat poet’s lack of racial oppression. The chart follows the conventional blues chord changes and is a standard Bebop tune in its musical stylization, which influenced the way in which Beat poets produced their literature. Jack Kerouac’s “Beat prose” consists of a stream of consciousness and a lack of formal structure, while his off-beat punctuation reflects a definite influence by the syncopation of Bebop.134 Furthermore, he refrains from utilizing periods in order to represent the pauses in improvised solos where the horn player had to take in air between phrases. Yeah. Kerouac learned his line directly from Charlie Parker, and Gillespie, and Monk. He was listening in ’43 to Symphony Sid and listening to “Night in Tunisia” and all the bird-flight-noted things which he then adapted to prose line. –Allen Ginsberg135 The massive influence of the Bebop musicians on both Kerouac and Ginsberg underscored the devaluation of race. Both cultures evolved together, symbolizing a revolution in the way that the art itself trumped the differences in the color of their skin.136 Instead, the way in which Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie would play a phrase, then build on it with a series of improvised variations, influenced the literary structure of both Beat poetry and prose. Allen Ginsberg’s work Howl is divided into three sections, which are musical in their rhythmic structures and topic content. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, Starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets


Narayanan 33 at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night. Who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz. 137 Rather than attempting to create, sustain, and publicize a large-scale identity in a postWorld War II era, both the Bebop musicians and the Beat poets opted to find their own individual identity through creating art. The end result was never a revolution of race and culture, but a revolution of their individual creative process. As their own individual revolutionary techniques of music and literature became known to the greater public, so too did their art procure a deeper influence and meaning in the context of a 1950s conformist and racist society. Thus, the artistic interplays between the Beat poets and Bebop artists deviated from the original intent of the creators of Bebop in generating a music that could not be reproduced by their white counterparts. As a result, Bebop transformed from a movement defined by race, to an art that spoke clearly and genuinely from the depths of their souls, no matter the color of their skin. In a post-World War II world of diminished opportunities for the economic independence and civil rights of African-Americans, black beboppers sought out a means to make a living while garnering the musical respect they deserved. In response to antagonism and racism from white industrial owners and urban black elites, a group of musicians from the Swing era formed their own exclusive group and created a musical vocabulary. This new performance language circulated around musical themes of dissonance, asymmetrical rhythms, and higher chord


Narayanan 34 changes, and resulted in a sound that America had never heard before. As a reaction to decades of white musicians co-opting an original black sound and the harsh reality of their underappreciated artistic talent, Bebop musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie formed their own small combos and developed hundreds of jazz contrafacts, or tunes built on the chord changes of tunes by popular white artists. These tunes became Bebop standards, and were implicit commentaries on their lives as artists and intellectuals, as well as expressions of their internal feelings of rejection due to racism. These small combos, at first intensely private and exclusive, eventually blossomed into a musical revolution that touched both white and black listeners. The technical aspects first experimented with during the intimate jamming sessions later developed into full-fledged characteristics of the Bebop sound. Melodic and harmonic structure, rhythmic syncopation, and a dissonance that pervaded the musical and social realms, communicated a longing to be understood as artists in their own rights. However, very rarely did they explicitly express this desire. As shown by the “cool” image of Beboppers, these artists lived with a “take it or leave it” mentality, and as a result did not shy away from musical improvisation and spontaneity. While the press response was polarized, their reactions were largely colorblind, indicating a growth from the racist rhetoric of the Swing era. In turn, these informal tenets of Bebop profoundly influenced a younger generation of “hipsters” who searched for spiritual depth in a conformist 1950s society. They were attracted by the defiant atmosphere of Bebop, and interspersed musical elements of Bebop in their own literary works. The interactions between Beboppers and Beats led to a nationwide recognition of the new jazz art form, illustrating how both races could learn and evolve together.


Narayanan 35 As the 1950s ended, and the tumultuous era of Civil Rights and counterculture grew to its full extent in the 1960s, Miles Davis and other Beboppers continually evolved their playing style and experimented with new tonalities, rhythms and sounds. With the advent of jazz fusion in the later 1960s, elements of Bebop fused with new techniques of Rock and the Blues, creating a sound that further experimented with the original voicing of Gillespie and Parker. Today, jazz continues to evolve in its sound, tone, and overall emotional quality. However, each moment of creative experimentation can be attributed to the desire of Bebop musicians to overthrow the status quo and make true music from their individual hearts. Although commercialized to an extent, modern jazz still retains the sentiment of those AfricanAmerican men who stood courageous and confident in their musical abilities despite the artistic, societal, and racist norms that worked against them. Perhaps Bebop failed in achieving the massive political and social revolution that intellectuals such as Amiri Baraka indicated. However, a revolution occurred in the way that Bebop musicians provided themselves a voice from which to protest injustice. Separating themselves from the very notion of race, gender, class, or religion, these artists formulated a zone of pure musical expression that continues to inspire creativity within the hearts of all musicians today. Then had come Charlie Parker, a kid in his mother's woodshed in Kansas City, blowing his taped-up alto among the logs, practicing on rainy days, coming out to watch the old swinging Basie and Benny Moten band that had Hot Lips Page and the rest Charlie Parker leaving home and coming to Harlem, and meeting mad Thelonious Monk and madder Gillespie--Charlie Parker in his early days when he was flipped and walked around in a circle while playing. Somewhat younger than Lester Young, also from KC,


Narayanan 36 that gloomy, saintly goof in whom the history of jazz was wrapped; for when he held his horn high and horizontal from his mouth he blew the greatest; and as his hair grew longer and he got lazier and stretched-out, his horn came down halfway; till it finally fell all the way and today as he wears his thick-soled shoes so that he can't feel the sidewalks of life his horn is held weakly against his chest, and he blows cool and easy getout phrases. Here were the children of the American bop night. –Jack Kerouac138


Narayanan 37 Notes 1

Kresh, David. "Langston Hughes and His Poetry." Library of Congress: Journeys and Crossings. Accessed March 28, 2016. 2

W.W. Norton. "Bebop." University of Virginia. Accessed April 3, 2016.

3

"The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom World War II and Post War (1940–1949)." Library of Congress. Accessed March 28, 2016. 4

Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

5

Ibid.,

6

Satter, Beryl. "Review of Racial Democracy and the Black Metropolis: Housing Policy in Postwar Chicago." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 106, no. 1 (January 1998): 167-70. Accessed April 2, 2016. doi:10.5406.

7

Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present. 8

9

Foertsch, Jacqueline. Reckoning day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in postwar America. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2012. "Legalize All Drugs? The 'Risks Are Tremendous' Without Defining The Problem." KQUED Public Radio. Last modified March 26, 2016. Accessed April 3, 2016.

10

Ibid.,

11

Ibid.,

12

"A Social History of America's Most Popular Drugs." PBS. Accessed March 28, 2016.

13

Ibid.,

14

Ibid.,

15

Hughes, Langston. "Harlem by Langston Hughes." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2016. 16

Hokanson, Robert. "Jazzing It Up:The Be-Bop Modernism of Langston Hughes." Mosaic (Winnipeg) 31, no. 4 (December 1998): 61. Accessed August 25, 2015. 17

Ibid.,


Narayanan 38

18

"Langston Hughes - 'The Weary Blues' on CBUT, 1958." Video file. YouTube. Accessed March 28, 2016. 19

Ibid.,

20

Hughes, Langston. "The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2016.

21

"Langston Hughes - 'The Weary Blues' on CBUT, 1958."

22

Metzger, L. Paul. "American Sociology and Black Assimilation: Conflicting Perspectives." The American Journal of Sociology 76, no. 4 (January 1971): 627-47 23

Ibid., 628

24

Ibid.,

25

Myers, Marc. Why jazz happened. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.

26

McCann, Paul. Race, Music, and National Identity: Images of Jazz in American fiction, 19201960. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008.

27

Martin, Henry, and Keith Waters. Jazz: The First 100 Years. 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Schirmer, Cengage Learning, 2012.

28

Ibid., 34

29

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.

30

31

Harker, Brian. Jazz: An American Journey. DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History.

32

Gershwin, George, and Leonard Bernstein. Rhapsody in Blue. New York: New World Music Corporation, 1932. Accessed April 2, 2016. 33

Ibid.,

34

"George Gershwin- Rhapsody in Blue." Video file. Youtube. Accessed April 3, 2016.

35

Gershwin, George, and Leonard Bernstein. Rhapsody in Blue.

36

Ake, David Andrew. Jazz matters : sound, place, and time since bebop. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.


Narayanan 39

37

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History.

38

Harker, Brian. Jazz: An American Journey.

39

Hughes, Langston. "I Too Sing America,� Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2016.

40

Baraka, Amiri. Blues People. New York: William Morrow, 1963.

41

Gourse, Leslie. Dizzy Gillespie and the Birth of Bebop.

42

Baraka, Amiri. Blues People.

43

Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. New York: Canongate U.S., 1999. Kindle.

44

Ibid.,

45

Owens, Thomas. Bebop: The Music and Its Players. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

46

Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. 6.

47

"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Department of English at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Accessed April 2, 2016. 48

Rosenthal, David H. Hard Bop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Kindle.

49

Owens, Thomas. Bebop: The Music and Its Players.

50

Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. 11.

51

Ibid.,

52

Philipp, Zola. "The Social Effects of Jazz." The Social Effects of Jazz 6, no. 1 (2009). Accessed March 28, 2016. 53

W.W. Norton. "Bebop." University of Virginia.

54

"List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2, 2016.

55

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History.

56

"List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia.


Narayanan 40

57

"Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: Back Home Again In Indiana 1929." Audio file. Youtube. Posted May 19, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016.

58

"Charlie Parker-Donna Lee." Audio file. Youtube. Posted January 22, 2012. Accessed April 3, 2016.

59

“List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia.

60

Gershwin, George. I Got Rhythm. New York: New World Music Corporation, 1930. iReal Pro.

61

Parker, Charlie. Anthropology. 1945. iReal Pro.

62

"Ella Fitzgerald - I Got Rhythm." Video file. Youtube. Accessed April 3, 2016.

63

"Charlie Parker - Anthropology." Video file. Youtube. Posted by Elad Bena, June 6, 2009. Accessed April 3, 2016.

64

Rosenthal, David H. Hard Bop. 13.

65

Ibid., 10.

66

Ibid.,

67

Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. 25.

68

Ibid.,

69

W.W. Norton. "Bebop." University of Virginia. Accessed April 3, 2016.

70

Ibid.,

71

"Bebop." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://www.gutenberg.us/articles/bebop.

72

Ibid.,

73

Ibid.,

74

Russel, Bob. "Bop-style Comping." University of North Carolina Wilmington. Last modified 2000. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://people.uncw.edu/russellr/ comping.html.

75

Ibid.,

76

Ibid.,


Narayanan 41

77

"Charlie Parker Quintet - Scrapple From The Apple." Video file. YouTube. Posted April 4, 1947. Accessed April 3, 2016.

78

Taylor, Clyde. "'Salt Peanuts': Sound and Sense in African/American Oral/Musical Creativity." Callaloo 16 (October 1982): 1-11. Accessed April 3, 2016. 79

"Charlie Parker - Salt Peanuts (1949)." Video file. YouTube. Posted August 30, 2013. Accessed April 3, 2016.

80

"Shaw 'Nuff by Dizzy Gillespie and his All Star Quintet." Video file. YouTube. Posted May 9, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016

81

“List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia.”

82

Rose, Vincent. Whispering. 1920. iReal Pro.

83

Parker, Charlie. Salt Peanuts. 1949. iReal Pro.

84

"Whispering - Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra (1920)." Video file. YouTube. Posted by Nathaniel Jordon, February 19, 2013. Accessed April 3, 2016.

85

"Charlie Parker - 'Groovin' High.'" Video file. YouTube. Posted February 29, 2008. Accessed April 3, 2016.

86

"List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2, 2016

87

Ibid.,

88

Martin, Henry, and Keith Waters. Jazz: The First 100 Years. 203.

89

"Charlie Parker-Koko." Video file. YouTube. Posted August 8, 2008. Accessed April 3, 2016.

90

"List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2, 2016

91

"Yardbird Suite (1946)." JazzStandards.com. Accessed April 3, 2016.

92

"Charlie 'Bird' Parker - Yardbird Suite." Video file. YouTube. Posted September 23, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016.

93 94

Parker, Charlie. Yardbird Suite. 1946. iReal Pro. Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. 18.

95

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History


Narayanan 42

96

Giddins, Gary. Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker. New York City: Morrow, 1987. 97

DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History. 298.

98

Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65.

99

Ibid.,

100

Panish, Jon. The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in postwar American culture. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1997. Accessed August 25, 2015. 101

Gourse, Leslie. Dizzy Gillespie and the Birth of Bebop.

102

Panish, Jon. The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in postwar American culture. 9.

103

Ibid.,

104

Ibid.,

105

Ibid., 11

106

Ibid., 12

107

Ibid., 9

108

Ibid., 8

109

Ibid., 9

110

Ibid.,

111

"'A Night in Tunisia.'" NPR. Last modified September 3, 2000. Accessed April 4, 2016.

112

Ibid.,

113

Gillespie, Dizzy. A Night in Tunisia. N.p.: n.p., 1941. Accessed April 4, 2016.

114

"Miles Davis and Charlie Parker - A Night In Tunisia." Video file. YouTube. Posted November 24, 2009.

115

Panish, Jon. The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in postwar American culture. 108.


Narayanan 43

116 117

Ibid., 10 Ibid.,

118

Ibid.,

119

Ibid.,

120

Ibid.,

121

Ibid.,

122

Ibid.,

123

Watts, Jerry. Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual. New York City, USA: NYU Press, 2001.

124

Ibid.,

125

Ibid., 124

126

Ibid., 125

127

Gelder, Ken. Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Accessed April 4, 2016

128

A van Minnen, Cornelis, Jaap Van der Bent, Mel Van Elteren, and David Amram. Beat culture: the 1950s and beyond. European contributions to American studies 42. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1999.

129

Jones, Meta DuEwa. The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to spoken word. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011.

130

A van Minnen, Cornelis, Jaap Van der Bent, Mel Van Elteren, and David Amram. Beat culture: the 1950s and beyond. 25. 131

Ibid.,

132

List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2, 2016.

133

"Dizzy Gillespie - Kerouac." Video file. YouTube. Posted by Grammery Records, December 26, 2012.

134

Yaffe, David. Fascinating rhythm: Reading jazz in American writing. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Accessed August 25, 2015.


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135

Janssen, Mike. "Jazz and the Beat Generation." Literary Kicks. Accessed April 4, 2016.

136

Watts, Jerry. Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual. 123.

137

Ginsberg, Allen. “Howl,� Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 3rd, 2016

138

Janssen, Mike. "Jazz and the Beat Generation." Literary Kicks


Narayanan 45

Bibliography Ake, David Andrew. Jazz matters : sound, place, and time since bebop. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010. A broad history of Jazz, this book by David Andrew Ake traces the importance of Jazz, and especially how the improvisational aspect of Jazz leads it to be constantly invented and reinvented by listeners and musicians alike. This study details the history of Jazz in surprising detail, as well as how it relates to notions of identity in a cultural context. Thus, "Jazz Matters" illustrates specifically how the African Identity was shaped in part by many prominent Black artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Nat Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. Balshaw, Maria. Looking for Harlem: Urban aesthetics in African American literature. London: Pluto Press, 2000. Accessed August 25, 2015. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=2001128. This book by Maria Balshaw studies African American literature from the 1920's onwards. Specifically, she analyzes notions of identity as related to the idea of the "New Negro" in the post war period. She also looks at what it means to be black, and how the rapid urbanization of Harlem became inextricably tied to that identity. She also looks at some short stories by female writers of Harlem, specifically women whose work has been overlooked by many but which definitely set a precedent for later successful African American women writers such as Gwendolyn Brooks. Baraka, Amiri. Blues People. New York: William Morrow, 1963. "Bebop." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://www.gutenberg.us/articles/bebop. Belgrave, Faye Z. African American Psychology: From Africa to America: From Africa to America. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006. "Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: Back Home Again In Indiana 1929." Audio file. Youtube. Posted May 19, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFc_rDHo0dM. "Charlie 'Bird' Parker - Yardbird Suite." Video file. YouTube. Posted September 23, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmroWIcCNUI. "Charlie Parker - Anthropology." Video file. Youtube. Posted by Elad Bena, June 6, 2009. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuItUv9xZc. "Charlie Parker-Donna Lee." Audio file. Youtube. Posted January 22, 2012. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02apSoxB7B4.


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"Charlie Parker - 'Groovin' High.'" Video file. YouTube. Posted February 29, 2008. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukL3TDV6XRg. "Charlie Parker-Koko." Video file. YouTube. Posted August 8, 2008. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okrNwE6GI70. "Charlie Parker Quintet - Scrapple From The Apple." Video file. YouTube. Posted April 4, 1947. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b2AOlCGpKY. "Charlie Parker - Salt Peanuts (1949)." Video file. YouTube. Posted August 30, 2013. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFSpSiGueE. "The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom World War II and Post War (1940– 1949)." Library of Congress. Accessed March 28, 2016. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/world-war-ii-and-post-war.html. DeVeaux, Scott Knowles. The Birth of Bebop: a Social and Musical History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. "Dizzy Gillespie - Kerouac." Video file. YouTube. Posted by Grammery Records, December 26, 2012. Accessed April 4, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it5SqN3aMuE. Driggs, Frank, and Harris Lewine. Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz (1920-1950). New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. "Ella Fitzgerald - I Got Rhythm." Video file. Youtube. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSTkz1BvrXY. Foertsch, Jacqueline. Reckoning day: Race, Place, and the Atom Bomb in postwar America. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2012. Gelder, Ken. Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Accessed April 4, 2016. https://books.google.com/books?id=l1OAAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA110&dq=Charlie+Parker %E2%80%99s+Cool+Blues+(1947)+and+Miles+Davis%E2%80%99s+Birth+of+the+Co ol+(1957)&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_mMSwvPTLAhUHuYMKHRz6BAIQ6AEI HjAA#v=onepage&q=self-segregation&f=false. "George Gershwin- Rhapsody in Blue." mp3 audio file. Youtube. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFHdRkeEnpM. Gershwin, George. I Got Rhythm. N.p.: n.p., 1930. Accessed April 3, 2016. iReal Pro. ———. I Got Rhythm. New York: New World Music Corporation, 1930.


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Gershwin, George, and Leonard Bernstein. Rhapsody in Blue. New York: New World Music Corporation, 1932. Accessed April 2, 2016. http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f9ca2697-58e5-4c85-a8c2-a44f1b82970a. Gillespie, Dizzy. A Night in Tunisia. N.p.: n.p., 1941. Accessed April 4, 2016. https://marinamusic.com/product/night-in-tunisia-a/. Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381. Gourse, Leslie. Dizzy Gillespie and the Birth of Bebop. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994., 1995. Harker, Brian. Jazz: An American Journey. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.,, 2005. Hodsen, Robert. Interaction, Improvisation, and Interplay in Jazz. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2007. Hokanson, Robert. "Jazzing It Up:The Be-Bop Modernism of Langston Hughes." Mosaic (Winnipeg) 31, no. 4 (December 1998): 61. Accessed August 25, 2015. https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-53643780/jazzing-it-up-the-be-bopmodernism-of-langston-hughes. This journal article studies how Langston Hughes "made it new" when integrating jazz dynamics into his poetry, specifically his earlier poetry, which departs from mainstream jazz into the more rebellious form of Bebop. Hughes, Langston. "Harlem by Langston Hughes." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2016. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175884. ———. "I Too Sing America." Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177020. ———. "The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes.'" Poetry Foundation. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176785. Janssen, Mike. "Jazz and the Beat Generation." Literary Kicks. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.litkicks.com/Topics/Jazz.html. Jones, Meta DuEwa. The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to spoken word. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011. Focusing on poetry, this book traces the influence of jazz from the Harlem Renaissance to the modern spoken word poetry.


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Kresh, David. "Langston Hughes and His Poetry." Library of Congress: Journeys and Crossings. Accessed March 28, 2016. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/hughestranscript.html. "Langston Hughes - 'The Weary Blues' on CBUT, 1958." Video file. YouTube. Accessed March 28, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7HSOwJw20&feature=youtu.be. African-American poet, Langston Hughes recites his poem, "The Weary Blues" (1925) to jazz accompaniment with the Doug Parker Band on the CBUT (CBC Vancouver) program "The 7 O'Clock Show" in 1958. Host, Bob Quintrell introduces the performance. "Legalize All Drugs? The 'Risks Are Tremendous' Without Defining The Problem." KQUED Public Radio. Last modified March 26, 2016. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://www.npr.org/2016/03/27/472023148/legalize-all-drugs-the-risks-are-tremendouswithout-defining-the-problem. "List of Jazz Contrafacts." World Heritage Encyclopedia. Accessed April 2, 2016. http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/list_of_jazz_contrafacts. Lock, Graham, and David Murray. Thriving on a riff : jazz and blues influences in African American literature and film. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. This book studies how identity and race have been influenced by jazz and blues in the literature and film worlds, looking at specific works of Jazz poetry, as well as work by Amiri Baraka, delving into different ways that various African Americans have expressed their voice. Martin, Henry, and Keith Waters. Jazz: The First 100 Years. 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Schirmer, Cengage Learning, 2012. Mathieson, Kenny. Giant Steps: Bebop and the Creators of Modern Jazz, 1945-65. New York: Canongate U.S., 1999. Kindle. Giant Steps examines the creators of modern jazz and the development of bebop through chapters on Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk. After this, Mathieson delves into differences between modal jazz and free jazz. McCann, Paul. Race, Music, and National Identity: Images of Jazz in American fiction, 19201960. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008. This book examines how jazz influenced narrative fiction from 1920-1960, and how it has slowly changed from a "low art" to a "high art" due to cultural perspective, also looking at how the turbulent politics and national economy have constantly reshaped jazz. Metzger, L. Paul. "American Sociology and Black Assimilation: Conflicting Perspectives." The American Journal of Sociology 76, no. 4 (January 1971): 627-47.


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"Miles Davis and Charlie Parker - A Night In Tunisia." Video file. YouTube. Posted November 24, 2009. Accessed April 4, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxibMBV3nFo. Myers, Marc. Why jazz happened. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Department of English at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Accessed April 2, 2016. http://www.english.illinois.edu. "'A Night in Tunisia.'" NPR. Last modified September 3, 2000. Accessed April 4, 2016. http://www.npr.org/2000/09/03/1081518/a-night-in-tunisia. Omry, Keren. Cross-rhythms: Jazz Aesthetics in African-American Literature. London: Continuum, 2008. Accessed August 25, 2015. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=10427071. "Cross-Rhythms" analyzes African-American literature in the twentieth century through a blues and jazz lens, by studying the works of Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin- all African American writers who purposely adopted an improvisational jazz style of writing in a conscious attempt to propagate social and political change. The book also studies in depth how the harmonic improvisational aspect of Bebop gave rise to a sort of dissonance, ultimately stretching the musical boundaries as well as the musical experience of both the listener and the musician. Owens, Thomas. Bebop: The Music and Its Players. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Panish, Jon. The Color of Jazz: Race and Representation in postwar American culture. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1997. Accessed August 25, 2015. https://books.google.com/books?id=5JCfAAAAMAAJ. Panish's book focuses on race relations in the context of the jazz and literary world in the post war era, studying the extent and depth of African American rights from a social perspective, such as differing approaches to civil rights (assimilation, etc,) even going into the press coverage of jazz from a racial lens. Specifically, studying the polarized response to Bebop in the post war period reveals that there were some whites who positively responded to the birth of bebop, as well as how jazz began to be known as "America's classical music," ultimately drawing comparisons between the "white" European classical music which was largely regarded as superior. The book also examines the "politics of bebop," noting that while Bebop musicians were not selfconscious proponents of political change, the improvisational aspects of jazz interlinked it with it the social movement of the time.


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Philipp, Zola. "The Social Effects of Jazz." The Social Effects of Jazz 6, no. 1 (2009). Accessed March 28, 2016. https://www.york.cuny.edu/academics/writing-program/the-yorkscholar-1/volume-6.1-fall-2009/the-social-effects-of-jazz. This paper’s purpose is to examine the social effects of jazz music. It focuses on the exploitation of black jazz musicians by whites in the industry and looks at whether black musicians benefited at all from their innovations. Many of today’s African American musicians are faced with similar social circumstances as those of past jazz musicians and as a result, the importance of the African American culture is still being ignored. Despite the negative social conditions that blacks faced, some blacks were still able to benefit and gained respect, stardom, and recognition for being the inventors of jazz music. Rosenthal, David H. Hard Bop. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Kindle. Rosenthal examines the origins of Hard Bop, which was an offshoot of Bebop in the late 1950s. He illustrates the development of phrasing and tonalities from popular artists such as Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Jackie McLean, Tina Brooks, Art Farmer, Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan. He notes the influence of Gospel, blues, Latin rhythms, and even Classical Romantic music on Hard Bop, as well as the role of Hard bop in African American neighborhoods. Russel, Bob. "Bop-style Comping." University of North Carolina Wilmington. Last modified 2000. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://people.uncw.edu/russellr/comping.html. Satter, Beryl. "Review of Racial Democracy and the Black Metropolis: Housing Policy in Postwar Chicago." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 106, no. 1 (January 1998): 167-70. Accessed April 2, 2016. doi:10.5406. Schleifer, Ronald. Modernism and Popular Music. N.p.: Cambridge University Press, 2011. "Shaw 'Nuff by Dizzy Gillespie and his All Star Quintet." Video file. YouTube. Posted May 9, 2011. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwiC_KglBE. "A Social History of America's Most Popular Drugs." PBS. Accessed March 28, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/buyers/socialhistory.html. Aired by WGBH Boston in October 2000, this episode is part of a series called "Drug Wars" aired by the PBS show Frontline, which examines the context of drugs in the African-American community. Taylor, Clyde. "'Salt Peanuts': Sound and Sense in African/American Oral/Musical Creativity." Callaloo 16 (October 1982): 1-11. Accessed April 3, 2016. DOI:10.2307/3043958. Tetsuo, Koga. "Historical Moments in Langston Hughes' Montage of a Dream Deferred." PhD diss.


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A van Minnen, Cornelis, Jaap Van der Bent, Mel Van Elteren, and David Amram. Beat culture: the 1950s and beyond. European contributions to American studies 42. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1999. Watts, Jerry. Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual. New York City, USA: NYU Press, 2001. "Whispering - Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra (1920)." Video file. YouTube. Posted by Nathaniel Jordon, February 19, 2013. Accessed April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs6LMjHv-E0. W.W. Norton. "Bebop." University of Virginia. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://people.virginia.edu/~skd9r/MUSI212_new/diagrams/chapter_10_shortened.html. Yaffe, David. Fascinating rhythm: Reading jazz in American writing. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Accessed August 25, 2015. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/alltitles/docDetail.action?docID=10284131. In this book by Yaffe, the author explores the relationship between literature and jazz, as well as how jazz has been documented historically through literature, while also studying current problems in the jazz world. Yaffe further explicates how Jewish novelists such as Normal Mailer, J.D. Salinger and Philip Roth incorporated their ideas of racial and ethnic identities in their work through Jazz. Illustrating how a "neoconservative" movement arose by way of the contemporary jazz scene, Yaffe describes the evolution of the different movements of Jazz and also presents it from a modern perspective of current memoirs. "Yardbird Suite (1946)." JazzStandards.com. Accessed April 3, 2016. http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions1/yardbirdsuite.MusicandLyricsAnalysis.htm. Young, Kevin. Jazz Poems. New York: Everyman's Library, 2006. Kindle file. This anthology includes poems from the Harlem Renaissance to the Beat movement which are structurally inspired by jazz music, showing the influence of Jazz musicians in the literary and intellectual scene. The poets included in this anthology are Langston Hughes, E.E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Frank O'Hara, and Gwendloyn Brooks.


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