Bebop: Modern New York Jazz
Author(s): Peter Rutkoff and William Scott
Source: The Kenyon Review, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 1996), pp. 91-121
Published by: Kenyon College
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4337359
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PETER RUTKOFF
WILLIAMSCOlT
BEBOP: MODERN NEW YORK JAZZ
from NEW YORKMODERN: THE ARTSAND THE CITY
November 26, 1945, six young African-Americansentered the
recordingstudios of radio station WOR in New York.Teddy Reig,
artists and repertoireman for Savoy records, had engaged Charlie
Parkerand his Beboppersfor the session. Parker'sgroup, the first that he
directed,had played togetherfor barelya month,performingat the Spotlight,
one of Fifty-secondStreet'smanyjazz bars,in the eveningsbeforemovingto
Minton's,a musicians'after-hoursclub in Harlem.'
Savoy paid two hundreddollarsfor the studio time and Parkerearned
threehundreddollarsfor the four compositions.2The secondcut recordedthat
day, "Ko-Ko,"whose jagged melody Parkerconstructedover the harmonic
structureof anothertune, "Cherokee,"would become Parker'sgreatcontribution to the beboprevolution.Energetic,sometimesfrantic,andbluesy,bebop's
incendiarystyle, pulsing rhythm,and intensity contrastedwith the melodic,
linear,and commercialqualitiesof swing. Yet the innovatorsof bop schooled
themselvesin thejazz of the 1930s, andas they pushedswing to its limits they
discovereda new music, one which they could begin to call theirown.
Parker'sgroupbeganthe firsttakeof "Ko-Ko"with a tightandfast chase
betweenParker'ssaxophoneand Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet;the tautharmonic
statementwould become a hallmarkof bebop expression.After the opening
eight bars, even as the group maintainedits breakneckspeed, the musicians
driftedback,as if by habit,to the originalmelodyof "Cherokee"
thatParkerhad
been determinedto leave behind.After less thanforty secondsParkerlowered
his mouthpiece,clappedhis hands,whistled,and said, "Hey,hey. Hold it."3
Whentheyresumed,theyclearlyconformedto Parker'svision.In placeof
the danceableand melodicallystraightforward
"Cherokee,"they playedbebop.
The harmoniccomplexity,rhythmicdrive, and above all the improvisational
O
N
9I
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THE KENYON REVIEW
gestures of "Ko-Ko,"built on Parker'smasteryof the blues, distinguished
it from its swing predecessor.In the space of a few moments Parker's
group graspedthe differencebetween swing and bop, creatinga new form
of Americanjazz.
Miles Davis, then only nineteen,joined fellow trumpetplayer Dizzy
Gillespie,bassistCurleyRussell,drummerMax Roach,pianistArgonneThornton, and Parkerin the historic session. Davis, however, found the opening
section of "Ko-Ko"so dauntingthat he let Gillespie, who had been playing
trumpetprofessionallyfor almosta decade, play in unison with Parker'salto
saxophone.4
Gillespie'sandParker'sopeningsectionburstfromtheirinstrumentswith
controlledtightnessandprecision.The staccatonotespushedforward,each one
a soundin its own space, each separatefromthe next. Passingthe themeback
andforththe playersresumedfor a last measure,andthenpaused.The opening
statementof "Ko-Ko"hid the innovativestyle of drummerMax Roach, who,
along with KennyClarke,hadbegunto redefinethejazz percussion,preferring
to keep time with the cymbal,leaving the bass drumfree to accentirregularly.
The Parker-Gillespieintroductiononly hinted at Parker'sreformulationof
modernjazz.5
Davis explained,"Birdwas a fast motherfucker."
Parker'ssolo became
legendaryfor its intensityand its facility, and remarkablefor its combination
of tempo and lyricism.6In two minutesParkerexploredevery aspect of his
alto's range.One momentscreechingas Parkerstretchedto reachone notefrom
inside the precedingone, anothersoaringmelodicallythroughthe notes of a
chordprogressioninsinuatedby the piano'soccasionalremnantsof the original
tune, Parkerplayed one of the "greatestsolos in the historyof jazz."7Based
on a combinationof multiplekey signaturescoexisting in a single, unified,
yet, improvisedand finally linear melodic statement,Parker'swork in "KoKo" pushedmodernjazz towardatonality.As he careenedthroughthe song's
Parkercreateda "showpiece"and a masterpiece.8
complex "labyrinth,"
As Parkerworked his way throughthe recording,his playing became
both more complex and more lyrical. He moved his alto up and down the
pathwaysof each phrase,creatinga fluiditythatunitedharmonicand rhythmic
experimentation.In contrastto the hard-edgedopening and closing sections
of "Ko-Ko,"Parkerand Gillespie, with close and tightly controlledmusical
punches,firstin unison,thenin solo andonce againin unison,playeda swirl of
almostpureabstraction.The atmosphericsof "Ko-Ko,"its color andmovement,
its design and mood, becameits content.Yet, despiteParker'sferociousspeed
and virtuosity,the roots of "Ko-Ko"lay in the blues, reachingback to the
"tragicaccent"reminiscentof Bessie Smith.9
In contrast,in the midstof an inventiveriff,as his altomovedin andout of
an almostperceptivelyrecognizedmelodic figure,Parkerdisclosedthe tune of
"TeaforTwo"imbeddedin thepatternof his musicalideas.Thatremnantserved
as punandevidence,a displayof a realitythatParker'sinventionhaddisplaced,
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOYT
93
a reminderthata representational
worldlayjust beyondhis music'sabstraction.
In the fall of 1945, CharlesParker,age twenty-six,brokeintoa parallelrealmof
musicalabstraction.Framedby the chordalharmonicstructureof "Cherokee,"
Parker'scomposition"Ko-Ko"centeredon new jazz ideas. The suggestionof
"Teafor Two,"however,attractedattentionand demandedexplanation.Jazz
musicians,Parkerincluded,had played this commercialsnippetfor a decade
as they elaboratedthe harmonicstructureof "Cherokee."
Parkeracknowledged
the song's short,but importanthistory,and revealedthe extent to which the
apparentsuddenrevolutionof bebopwas simultaneouslya painstakingprocess
of musical innovation.It also implied a social worldbeyondjazz.
Previously Parker and other African-Americanmusicians played and
composedjazz only to have white musiciansclaim creditandfinancialrewards
throughthe processof "covering."Withbebop,Parkerandhis groupcreateda
formof jazz they regardedas uncoverable.In "Ko-Ko,"Parkerused the pasted
scrapof "Teafor Two"to tauntthe white dominatedmusic business."Ko-Ko"
had begun, here, with laughter,moved to derision,and culminatedin anger.
Parkersought to sabotageTin Pan Alley with his virtuosoperformanceand
inimical composition.
The shortphrasefrom popularmusic's most easily recognizedtune also
served as an ironic allusion to a shift in the politics of the music business.
Frommid-1942to 1944 a ban on recordinghad left jazz performerswithouta
mass audience.Denied access to recordingandradio,jazz musiciansscratched
out livings, playing in small clubs and for each other. The emergence of
bebop was, in part, a consequenceof the commercialexile of jazz during
World WarII. The curious quotationof "Ko-Ko"remindedaudiences and
promotersthat things had changed. Parkerleft standingonly a fragmentof
jazz's past. In revolutionizingthe form of modem jazz, Parkerand others
threatenedto revolutionizethe business of jazz, liberatingit from commercial entertainmentand establishingit as art, controlledand defined neither
by popular-tastecommercialproducers,but by its artists, most of whom
were black.
Parkerclosed "Ko-Ko"with the structureit opened with, the pushing
trumpet-alto
restatementof the "Cherokee"-derived
theme.He broughtthe tune
back to its immediatehistoricalroots, acknowledgingits jazz heritage.
Long considereda "mystery"session, the Savoy recordingof "Ko-Ko,"
which Gillespie regardedas "just perfect, man,"revealed how innovatively
challengingthe musiciansjudged the piece. Davis, still in awe of Parker,
knew thathe couldn'thandlethe openingsection, and he realizedthat Parker
knew it as well. "I wasn't ready for the tempo,"he said, "it's the damndest
introductionI ever heardin my life."10Bebop's requirementof extraordinary
virtuosity,both tempo and technique,representedyet anotherbarrieragainst
ThatGillespieslippedinto the pianist'sslot later,feedingParker
expropriation.
the harmonicoutlinesof his solo, testifiedto his musicianship.Parker'sgenius
for improvisationalspontaneityfoundin Gillespiea thoughtfuljazz performer.
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THE KENYON REVIEW
As Gillespie recalled, "Yardand I were like two peas. We played all our
regularshit.""
JohnBerksGillespie,calledDizzy because,it was said, he was "dizzyas
a fox," understoodthe significanceof the bebop revolution."Ourmusic,"he
wrote, "emergedfrom the war years-the SecondWorldWar,and it reflected
these times... fast and furious."The sheer speed of bop, which intimidated
the otherwisearrogantDavis, who hadjust declaredthatJuilliardhad nothing
moreto teachhim, was a breathless,even desperateattemptto createsomething
unique,inimical."Sometimes,"Gillespiecontinued,"whenyou know the laws
you can break them."'2
The economiclaws of the recordbusinessalso challengedthe youngjazz
WhenSavoyproducerReig approachedParkerto composefour
revolutionaries.
original tunes, he thought"'Ko-Ko' wasn't nothing but 'Cherokee."",13
Reig
pulledthe new nameout of the air. "I told them 'Ko-Ko'to makesureCharlie
didn't have to pay seventy-fivedollars (in royalties). OtherwiseLubinsky,
the owner, would have had a baby."'4In fact, Teddy Reig's attributionof
the song's title was deceptive. "Ko-Ko,"a compositionby Duke Ellington,
had been performedby the Ellingtonorchestrafive years earlier, in 1940.
Ellingtoncreditedthe title to Congo Squarein New Orleanswhere,explained
African-Americans
convenedto talk and dance,
Ellington,nineteenth-century
and thatwas where,some thought,"jazzwas born."'lThe changein the tune's
title did protectthe new owners/producers/composers
frompayingroyaltiesto
the Tin Pan Alley music factory.But changingthe song, restructuringa new
melody on top of the original'sharmony,involved much more thanchanging
the name.
The middle section, the bridge of "Ko-Ko,"animatedthe song's new
structure,demonstratedParker'smusicianship,that he had "woodsheddedhis
chordsandscales,"andservedas a testinggroundfor a generationof musicians
to come.'6Parker'ssolo codifiednotjust a new approachto playingjazz, but
his extraordinary
virtuosityinstitutionalized,
unintentionally,an aspectof jazz
culturethatParkerhadbroughtwith himfromhis musicalrootsin KansasCity.
Therein the 1930s, as in Harlemin the 1940s,jammingmusiciansparticipated
in a competitiveritual,the cutting contest, a proving ground for individual
improvisationaltalentdesignedto demonstratewho blew best. Parker'swork
on "Ko-Ko"said no contest. Because bebop placed such a high value on
the improvisational,the gestural,on the process of discovery, many of the
musicians,Parkernotoriously,avoidedrehearsaland took the jam session into
the studio.Savoy's recordingof Parker'ssolo on "Ko-Ko"froze a momentof
unparalleledjazz improvisation.
Even Parker'scontractswere original.Parkercreateda publishingcompanyin his own nameto copyrightthe newjazz pieces whichhe hadcomposed,
manyon the sameharmonic-melodic
basis as "Ko-Ko."His companypaid him
two cents a side for his rightswhen othermusiciansrecordedhis work.Parker
also agreedto allow his company,calledParker-Dial,to pay halfof his royalties
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
95
to one EmeryBryd, a Los Angeles drugdealerwhom Parkerimmortalizedas
"Moosethe Mooche".'7Parker'snotoriousdrughabitkilled him in 1955.
In the aftermathof WorldWar II CharlieParkerand Dizzy Gillespie
revolutionized
jazz. Abandoningcommercializedmusicof the swing erawithits
conventionalharmonicstructure,theyturnedinward,discoveringnew harmonic
relationshipsand creatinga fast, dissonant,improvisational
jazz thatexceeded
the ability and understandingof most conventionaljazz musicians. Bebop
emphasizedvirtuosity,individuality,and artisticinnovationsuitableto small
groupsplayingto informedaudiencesin intimatesettings.Modemjazz divorced
itself, self-consciously,from commercialentertainment.
Bebop's liberationof
jazz fromshow business,however,representedmorethana musicalrevolution.
By assertingits artisticidentityanddrawingon African-American
blues, bebop
enabledblackjazz musiciansto liberatethemselvesfromwhite controlas they
revitalizeda jazz that had become stagnantand formulaic.
On the eve of WorldWar II the big bands of the "Swing Era" found
themselvescircumscribedby the tastesof theiradoringfans andthe demandsof
theiragents,recordcompanies,andtheaterowners.Swing becamethe familiar
musicof dancingat Savoy,its tunesa recastof the familiar.ParkerandGillespie
restoredthe blues to jazz, reconnectingit with its African-Americanorigins.
Bebopenabledthem to expresstheirculturalas well as theirartisticidentities.
They playedjazz that expressedtheirfeelings and ideas;
When Charlie Parkerrecorded"Ko-Ko"in 1945, he was a relatively
unknownitinerantjazz musician with a certaininsider's reputationfor improvisationalgenius born of the after-hoursjam sessions that he irregularly
frequented.Severalyears later,weigheddown by the legend of his subsequent
success-commercial, critical,mythical-Bird becamethe subjectof intense
scrutiny.Whenone interviewerlearnedthatParkerhadbeenbornandschooled
in KansasCity, he asked,"Didyou ever listento LesterYoung?"Parkerreplied,
"Everynight."'8
Before Bebop: Breakingthe Rules
with Hammond,Lady, and Prez
If swing was the midwifeof bebop,theprocessof transformation
whereby
African-Americanmusiciansreclaimedtheir artisticheritagewas a complex
one. Bebop was more thanan expressionof racialpolitics. Nevertheless,race
had a profoundeffect on jazz as it did on nearlyeverythingelse in American
life, and its divisionsoffendedsensitivewhites as well as blacks.Indeed,John
Hammond,one of jazz's most importantfigures,was as motivatedby his sense
of racialjustice as his love of jazz. Youngandwealthy,Hammondplayeda key
role in the careersof Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman,Lester Young, Count
Basie, andCharlieChristian.Largelythroughhis effortsNew Yorkin the 1930s
becamethe focal pointfor the introductionof Southwestern,especiallyKansas
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THE KENYON REVIEW
City style, into the city's jazz tradition.Togetherwith club owner Barney
Josephson,Hammondbroke down the barriersof racial segregationin jazz.
WithoutHammond'sefforts in the 1930s bebop might never have evolved
when and where it did, denying Parkerand Gillespie the occasion of artistic
collaborationand creativity.
Jazz had always been a "performer'sart,"intimatelyconnectedwith its
audience.'9Yet,in the firstthreedecadesof the twentiethcenturyjazz remained
segregated. White musicians played, wrote, and arrangedjazz, organized
orchestrasand tours, made recordingsand performedon the radio, often
borrowingthe most innovative styles and songs of African-Americansfor
theirown, achievingcommercialsuccess andpopularity.Duringthe heydayof
Americanjazz, between the two world wars, the two raciallydivided aspects
of Americanjazz cultureexisted side by side. In New Yorkjazz musicians
recordedon "race"recordsand in Harlemperformedfor blackaudiencesat the
one-thousand-seat
Lincolnand the two-thousand-seat
Lafayettetheaters,at the
squareblock large Savoy Ballroomas well as at dozens of small clubs.20A
few blackorchestras,like Duke Ellington'sand CountBasie's, playedat clubs
for whites only in Times Squareor Harlem.But they traveledon segregated
trains,stayed in segregatedhotels, ate in segregatedrestaurants,and played
in segregatedbands. With few exceptions white bands received higher pay,
played at better clubs and concert halls, received more publicity, and sold
more records.2'
In the 1930s this patternof racial segregationgave way in New York
largelybecauseof the efforts of John Hammondand then BarneyJosephson.
Hammondhad been a regularvisitor to Harlemsince 1927 when, as a senior
at Hotchkiss,he had decided to devote his life to jazz.22He droppedout of
Yale two years later and began collectingjazz recordings.In 1931 he moved
to an apartmenton SullivanStreetin the GreenwichVillage and had his name
removedfrom the Social Register.Withthe onset of the depression,supported
by his Vanderbiltfamily trust fund, Hammondworked as a disc jockey on
WEVD,the radiostationof the JewishDaily Forward,wherehe playedrecords
fromhis collectionand,out of his pocket,paidperformersten dollarsfor guest
appearances.23
Tall, awkward,and sportinga crew cut that graduallygrew
white with age, Hammondwrote for several small English music periodicals
andthen for the Nation,for which he coveredthe Scottsborocase.24Whenthe
NAACP invitedhim to join its boardof directorsin 1935, he readilyagreed.
Wealthy,committedto racialequality,and fascinatedby jazz, Hammondused
his social connectionsand money to promoteblack musiciansand to end the
racial segregationof jazz in New York.
Hammondadopteda two-frontstrategy.First, he actively searchedfor
talentedblackjazz musicianssuch as Billie Holiday,LesterYoung,andCharlie
Christian.Second, he persuadedwhite producers,club owners, and band
leaderslike BennyGoodmanto hireblackmusicians.Hammond'sfirstmusical
discoveryoccurredin 1933 at Monette'sin Harlem.The owner and featured
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
97
singer,MonetteMoore,askeda young singer,Billie Holiday,to substitutefor
her on the evening Hammondcame around.Holiday had been working in
Harlemclubs for two years,includingConvan's,the AlhambraGrill, and Pod
and Jerry's,all clusterednear Seventh Avenue and 134th Street. Hammond
describedthe youngHolidayas a "tallself-assuredgirl with rich golden-brown
skin, exquisitelyshown off by the pale blue of her... low cut evening frock.
Billie was not the sort you could fail to notice. . . in the crampedlow-ceiling
quartersof a Harlemspeak-easy... she came over to your table and sang to
you personally.I found her quite irresistible."25
So too did much of the jazz world.At age eighteen Holidayseemed to
have lived a lifetime, experiencingthe dramaand scars of Harlemwhere she
had workedsince her arrivalfrom Baltimoresix years earlier.When Holiday
sang the blues, her audiencebelieved she had lived them. Hammondmarveled
that she possessed the unteachablegift of making every song her own.26
Holiday's distinct, husky singing lent itself well to the swing bands of the
1930s. Barnstorming,or at city gigs, male colleaguesadmiredher abilitiesat
music and cards. Holiday's delivery-dramatic and soulful-appeared "too
artistic"for manyof the music copyrighterswho determinedwhich bandsand
artistsreceivedexclusiverightsto popularsongs. Consequently,Holidayfailed
to achieve the commercialsuccess that she desired and many believed she
deserved.27
Two years after her discovery by Hammond,Billie made her debut at
the Apollo. In April 1935, quiveringfearfullyin the wings, Billie was pushed
onto the stage by comedian"Pigmeat"Markham.When she "brokeup the
house"withherencorerenditionof "TheManI Love,"the Apollo management
booked her for a two-week run.28That same year Billie workedwith Teddy
Wilson, who with Lionel Hamptonhadjust joined and integratedGoodman's
orchestra.Hammondhad been forcefullyinstrumentalin that historicevent,
andtogetherwith Goodmanprovidedthe social environmentin whichmanyof
the majorAfrican-American
jazz performersof the 1930s could demonstrate
the vitalityof theirmusicandthe virtuosityof theirmusicianshipto theirwhite
peers.Between 1935 and 1942 Holiday,workingwith HammondandWilson,
recordedscores of recordsaimed at a black jukebox audience. She worked
with LesterYoung,with whom she had a special affinity,and then with the
bands of Count Basie and Artie Shaw. In 1938 with Shaw she became one
of the first black singers to star with a white swing band. Her classic jazz
repertoirederivedfromher associationwith Hammond,movingfrom standard
jazz balladssuch as "Did I Remember"to the Bessie Smith-inspiredblues of
"Fine and Mellow."
By 1935, when Holiday first workedwith Benny Goodman,Hammond
andGoodmanhad been musicalpartnersand friendsfor morethanthreeyears.
Hammondhad not restrictedhis New Yorkjazz wanderingsto uptownclubs,
and in 1933 he heardGoodmanleadinga groupat the Onyx, a speakeasyon
Fifty-secondStreet.It was ownedby Joe Helbock,a jazz fan who hadplaceda
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THE KENYON REVIEW
pianoat the backof his place for the pleasureof the musicianswho stoppedby
and announcedthemselveswith a password,"I'm from 802," the musicians'
union which Helbock supported.29
Once his customer-playersbegan to jam
regularly,Helbock,thanksto the repeal of prohibition,transformedthe Onyx
into Fifty-secondStreet'sfirstjazz club.30Hammondbelieved in the talentof
his friends,andunderhis guidanceGoodmanattractedthe talentsof manyof the
best jazz performersof his era, black and white. In 1934 Goodmanorganized
his firstbig band,a twelve-pieceensemble,and at Hammond'surgingengaged
ex-Ellingtoncollaborator,FletcherHenderson,as his arranger.
For the big dance bands of the 1930s, a "drivingunaccented4/4 that
maintaineda steady pulse against varied melodic accents," provided the
rhythmicessence of swing.31In Goodman'scase, however,the music owed
its special driveto the tensionbetweenthe beat and the tendencyof Goodman
to play just before the beat.32Comparedwith the jazz bands of the 1920s,
swing bandsplayedmorerhythmicfigures,leaving shortburstsof the melody
to soloists whosephrasescontrastedwith the riffs of the reedandhornsections,
which in turnpassedthe tune's motifs back and forthbetweenthem.33By and
large, the swing bands emphasizedthe value and sound of the whole at the
expenseof the virtuosityandspontaneityof the soloist.Fortheyoungmusicians
of the 1930s, however,the rigid organizationand structureof the swing bands
becamesuffocating.Manyfoundthe freedomthey soughtby movingfromband
to band, serving as itinerantmusiciansas the mood or the city suited them.
Othersfoundemotionaland artisticsatisfactionby playinginformallyfor each
otherin after-hoursclubs, hotel rooms, or even on the roofs of tenements.
As the "King of Swing," Goodmanhad embracedswing in 1934 at
Hammond'surging,andbegana long recordingcareerwith Columbia.Thanks
to Henderson'sreworkingof jazz standardsand contemporarypopulartunes,
Goodmanestablisheda firm musical identity.In July 1935 he invited Teddy
Wilson to form a trio with himself and drummerGene Krupa.The Benny
GoodmanTrio, the first integratedjazz group of the century,played fine,
chamber-inspired
jazz, recordingan especially well-received"After You've
Gone" in a July 1935 session. Goodmanexpandedthe trio to a quartetwith
the additionof a second black musician, Lionel Hampton,with whom the
grouprecorded"Moonglow"in August 1936. At the same time his big band
acquirednationalfame thanksto severalfilm appearancesanda series of radio
broadcasts.By 1938 Goodmanhad achieved unparalleledstatusas a popular
musicalstarand becamethe idol of legions of adoringteenagefans.
Goodman's popularityreached its apex with his famous concert at
CarnegieHall on January16, 1938. Goodman,who played,so to speak,at his
own coronation,"rockedthe hall,"while his exuberantfans danced as if the
aisles they appropriated
belongedto the Paramount."Swingtoday,"the Times
proclaimed,"is the most widespreadartistic medium of popularemotional
expression."34Again, at Hammond'surging, Goodmaninvited Count Basie
and five membersof his bandto join the concerttowardthe end of the session.
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
99
Togetherthe two groupsjammedan extendedversionof "HoneysuckleRose,"
providingmanyin the CarnegieHall audiencewiththeirfirstextendedexposure
to Basie and, perhaps,to his form of blackjazz. The spontaneityof the jam
session providedone of the emotionaland musical,and for Hammond,social
highlightsof the evening when Goodmandrummer,Gene Krupa,joined the
Basie rhythmsection for the rest of the historicoccasion.
Late that evening membersof Goodman'sband went to the Savoy in
Harlem where they watched Chick Webb's band engage Count Basie in a
cuttingcontestthatlastedthroughthe night.News of the bands'contestspread
throughoutHarlem,forcing the Savoy to turnaway an estimatedtwenty-five
thousandfans. Late that morningWebboutdrummedKrupa,still playingwith
Basie, to the pleasureof those lucky enough to get inside, while the rest of
Goodman'smusiciansjammedin theirhotel room as the sun rose.35
A yearlaterHammondhimselfcommandeered
CarnegieHall for a concert
in
"FromSpiritualsto Swing"thatdemonstrated
the role of African-Americans
the historyof jazz.36Hammondunsuccessfullyapproachedfirst the NAACP,
whichfoundhis concepttoo daring,andthenthe International
Ladies'Garment
WorkersUnion to sponsor the concert. Finally, Hammondconvinced Eric
Bernay,a financialbackerof the New Masses, to fund the program,booking
CarnegieHall for December23, 1938. Hammondspent the summerlining
up his performers,findingfolk-bluessinger Sonny Terry,fashioninga Benny
Goodmansextet with a very young and innovativeelectric guitarist,Charlie
Christian,and engagingthe KansasCity Six, a segmentof the Basie bandthat
featuredsaxophonistLester Young.37
Hammondhad heardBasie as early as 1932 at Covan'swhen the young
pianistplayed for the KansasCity band of Benny Moten. Covan's had been
one of the first Harlemjazz spots that Hammondvisited, an experiencehe
owed to muralist/painter
CharlesAlston.By 1935 Basie assumedleadershipof
Moten'sband,and Hammond,constantlyon the lookoutfor new talentin the
Midwestand Southwest,heardBasie, then playingat the Reno Club in Kansas
City, over his car radio. Hammondcalled MCA's WillardAlexanderin New
York,arrangedfor the two of them to fly to KansasCity, where Alexander
signed Basie on the spot. Hammondthen set up a recordingdate in Chicago
and a headlinerengagementat the RoselandBallroomin New York.38Under
Hammond'sguidanceBasie reshapedhis quintessentiallyKansasCity bluesbased band into one of the three majorblackjazz bandsof his time, gaining
initialnationalrecognitionwith the 1937 classic "OneO'ClockJump."39
The Basie band, which featuredLester Young on saxophone,rivaled
Goodman'sin commercialappeal.By the late 1930s, however,no one in jazz
rivaledYoung.By his twentiethbirthdayin 1929, the youngtenorsaxophonist,
then with King Oliver's band, had already developed a highly individual,
harmonicallyadvanced style of playing. Yet, as the most influentialartist
between Armstrongand Parker,Lester Young remainedan introspectiveand
fundamentallyprivateperson.40
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THE KENYON REVIEW
As a teenagerYoungplayedthe drumsand the alto sax beforeswitching
to the clarinetand then tenorsax, whichhe playedin a rangewhich embraced
the sonorityof the alto. Young spent his twenties moving, itinerantly,from
town to town throughoutthe Midwestand Southwest.ElectricguitaristCharlie
Christian,who playedwith Youngat the "Spiritualsto Swing"concertin 1938,
first heard Lester in OklahomaCity in 1929 and again in 1931 with Walter
Page's Blue Devils. Christian,still in his teens, found that Young'snarrative
style of playing,in contrastto ColemanHawkins'stechnicalflightsof fancy,
would have a lasting effect on his own development.4'
On at least two occasions, once in 1933 and again in 1939, Young
and Hawkinsmet in classic confrontation.The firstprecededHawkins'sfiveyear Europeansojourn,while the secondoccurredwithinweeks following his
return,when he supposedlysaid after surveying the tenor scene, "I didn't
hear a thing that was new."42The 1933 KansasCity jam lasted throughthe
middleof the next day, a testamentto the rivalry'sintensity.Hawkins'splay
that night combinedhis "large"vibratosound with the speed of pushed up
eighthnotes, creatinghis signaturehot sound.The contrastwith Young,whose
smooth vibrato-lesstone-he employed alternativefingeringsto soften his
timbre-could not have been more clear.43
Forthe next two yearsYoungplayedfor Basie in KansasCity, andarrived
with the Countin New Yorkin 1937. Youngdid not conformto the stereotype
of a swaggering,aggressive,blackjazz musician.Indeed,his very nature-shy,
introverted,laconic-ran againstthe grainof that image, and his personality
permeatedhis musicalaesthetic.LesterYoungloved subtleandshadedlanguage
in music and words. His gentle mannercombinedwith a sly sense of humor
and commandof language,which he latergraftedto a musician'slife.
Young, who called all women "Lady"out of gallantryand genuine
gentility,conferredthe proudlyworn"LadyDay"on Billie Holiday.She reciprocatedby calling him "Prez,"an affectionatecontractionof "ThePresident,"
Young's democratichandle awardedin recognitionof his first confrontation
with Hawkins. His private code extended beyond Holiday. "Where'syour
poundcake?"he askedfellow musicians,inquiringabouttheirwives. And if he
pepperedhis everydayspeechwith the vernacularof barroomsandgin mills, he
preferredto referto sexualintercourseas "wearinga hat."44He only exercised
any semblanceof controlover the band,however,when he pitchedfor Basie
in softballgames held againstplayersin the Goodmanand HarryJamesbands.
One evening shortlyafterhis arrivalin New York,Youngaccompanied
Hammondand Basie to Clark Monroe's Uptown House in Harlem where
Holiday had just begun a three-month"residency."Although Basie already
had a blues singer in JimmyRushing,he immediatelysigned Holiday.While
Holiday never recordedwith Basie, the experienceled to an extraordinarily
close artistic and personal friendshipwith Young. "Lady Day" and "Prez"
sharedthe blues and a sense of narrative.For each of themthe storyto be told
had artisticprecedence,and the blues, in essence, told stories. Young often
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOTT
IOI
referredto the necessity of musiciansunderstandingthe words of the songs
theyplayedso thattheycouldimproviseexpressivelyon theirmeaning.45In the
SouthwestbluestraditionYoungembraceda linearformof playing-derivative
of the folk vernacularand narrativeexpression.46Young'ssolos displayedan
extraordinary
smoothness,the consequenceof his own tendencyto compress
his range,as he slid from note to note. Young'sstyle led to his breakingthe
boundariesof swing-bandjazz. The divisionof songsinto segmentsof fourbars
cramped Young's need to express himself. His pursuitof blues-based narratives
also led him to explore innovative harmonic and rhythmic ideas.47 Like many
of his KansasCityjazz colleagues,Youngoftenhungbackbehindthe beatever
so slightly,barelyslowing the rhythm.creatinga tensionbetweensoloist and
ensemble,emphasizingthe smoothnessof his own exposition,whose "gentle
cats-pawway of moving"he punctuatedwith open spacesof pausedsilence.48
Young'sinnovations,concealedwithina musicalsystemof whichhe remained
an integralpart,obscuredhis role in the evolutionof jazz fromswing to bebop.
Young'selegantaestheticpreparedthe way for the moredramaticchangesthat
lay ahead.
As long as the formatandformof the swing orchestraheld sway over the
jazz world in the 1930s, the expressivenessof Youngand Holiday remained
submergedbehind the identity of group and leader. Hammond's"Spirituals
to Swing"concertof 1938 challengedthese structuralassumptionsas well as
thoseof racialsegregation.The popularityof the smallensemble,the combosof
quartets,sextets,andtriosthatemergedas jazz staplesin the next decade,owed
theirsize equallyto the vision of Hammond-musically and socially-as well
as to the proliferationof small dives modeledafterthe Onyx on Fifty-second
Street.The KansasCity Six, featuringLesterYoung,withits two electricguitars
andabsenceof piano,madeit a prototypeof the emergingsmalljazz ensemble.
Innovative promoters could fashion new jazz clubs whose intimate settings lent
themselves to new forms of expression. The most influential was Cafe Society.
"Caf6Society,"recalledSir CharlesThompson(so dubbedby Young),
"wasthe most high class club in the world."49Ownedand managedby thirtysix-year-oldTrenton,New Jersey,show manufacturer
BarneyJosephson,Cafe
Society became the city's first integratednight club. "The wrong place for
the rightpeople,"Josephsononce said.50WithHammondservingas unofficial
musicaldirector,the club on SheridanSquarein the Village, presented"first
ratebutgenerallyunknownNegroandwhitetalent."LesterYoungthoughtCafe
Society a perfectjazz environment.Nothingof the dive or joint characterized
Cafe Society. Josephsonmeticulouslyoversawthe installationand workingof
light, sound,and stage equipment.Josephsonand Hammondwanteda leftist,
popular-frontambience at Cafe Society. When Hammondsuggested Billie
Holidayfor the club's opening,Josephsonreadilyagreed.
Holiday's unformedsocial and political attitudes,the result in part of
a meagerformaleducationwhich ended in the fifth grade, had not kept her
from declaring,"I'm a race woman."Neitherdid it equipher to deal with the
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THE KENYON REVIEW
full implicationsof her appearanceat the club.5' Her stint with Artie Shaw
had convincedBillie that her futurelay in solo performing.Mass audiences
preferredthe big bandsinger;Cafe Society seemed made for her. WhenpoetsongwriterLewis Allen presentedHoliday with his evocative poem "Strange
Fruit,"which he had set to music, she hesitated.Comparedwith severalother
musicianssuch as FrankieNewton, a trumpetplayerwho often discoursedon
the value of Garveyiteeconomicsor the viabilityof the Soviet Five-YearPlan,
Billie Holidayknew musicfarbetterthanshe understoodpolitics.Nevertheless,
she soon agreed to record"StrangeFruit,"its lyric about lynching, its blues
closer to a dirge than a shout. Holiday sang straightforwardly,
a narrative
understatement
which underscoredthe song's content:
Blood on leaves, and blood at the root,
Black bodies swingin' in the Southernbreeze,
StrangeFruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Cafe Society and "StrangeFruit"made Billie Holiday a star-of New
York's liberal, intellectual,New Deal left, and divertedher careerfrom the
path she had taken from the age of sixteen. Once a saloon singer of love
songs, Holiday had become an artist whose deepening addiction to drugs
acceleratedher isolation. The song's political appeal reinforcedHoliday's
legend. Recordedon an obscurelabel, it receivedlittle radioplay in America,
and in Englandthe BBC banned it entirely.52 Hammondbelieved "Strange
Fruit"the worst thing that ever happenedto Billie Holiday-it broughther
modest fame and little fortune.S3Lena Home followed Holiday into Cafe
Society, remaining for two years as Josephson presided over the club's
L-shaped basement room with gracious directness. When patrons voiced
discomfortover Cafe Society's integratedseating, Josephson simply asked
them to leave-immediately. Between 1939 and 1950 Cafe Society hosted,
downtown,the greatjazz voices of the era:SarahVaughan,TeddyWilson,Art
Tatum,and FletcherHendersonin additionto Holidayand Home.
In 1939 pianistMaryLou Williamstold Hammondabouta guitarplayer
In bringingCharlieChristianto New Yorkwith
she knew backin Oklahoma.54
Goodmanlaterthatyear, Hammondunwittinglyset in motionthe sequenceof
eventsthatled to the emergenceof bebop.Everadventurous,Hammondfound
Christianplaying at the Cafe Ritz in OklahomaCity and broughtthe young
electric guitarplayerwith him to meet Goodmanin Beverly Hills. Goodman
lookedat Christian,dressedin pointedyellow shoes,greensuit,andpurpleshirt,
and reluctantlyagreed to humorHammond.55
He assembledsome musicians
and askedthemto play "RoseRoom,"a tunewith which he assumedChristian
hadno experience-hardly an uncommonpracticeamongmusicians.Forfortyfive minutesChristianplayed chorus after improvisedchorus,and Goodman
signed him to play with the sextet on the spot.56
Under Hammond'sguidance Teddy Wilson and Lionel Hamptonhad
integratedGoodman'sgroups several years earlier.But Christianbroughtto
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
I03
Goodmanand New Yorkthe black, aesthetic,harmonic,and blues influence
thatcharacterizedthe music of LesterYoungand providedthe apprenticeship
of yet anotherplayer from KansasCity and the Southwest,Charlie Parker.
Christian,then Parker,and finally a small handfulof other pioneeringjazz
musicians,turnedjazz on its head, and from the after-hoursclubs of Harlem
transformedAmericanmusic.
The Birthof Bop
Charlie Christianprovided the transition,as no other player of his
generation,from the large, white, swing dance band orchestrasof the 1930s
to the small, chamber-club,largelyblackdominatedjazz groupsof the 1940s.
For the first time in its seventy-fiveyear historyjazz no longer migratedto
New York.Now the city, its musicians,patrons,clubs, unions and bars, and
neighborhoodsprovidedthe setting for a new jazz form, bebop, to come to
the fore. Like abstractexpressionism,whose full developmentit anticipated
by several years, bop's six-year progressiontowarda unifiedmusical whole
exemplified by Parker's "Ko-Ko" in 1945 occurred largely in seclusion,
capturingthe attentionof its audienceonly at the end of the war. By thattime
one of its pioneers,CharlieChristian,had alreadybeen dead for threeyears.
Christian,born in either 1916 or 1919, died of tuberculosisin 1942. He
spent the last year of his life largelyin Harlemwherehe played andjammed
at Minton's and Monroe's, where young musicianscame to experiment,to
break away from the music and the structuresof their elders. Here, during
WorldWarII, Christianand the early beboppersinstitutionalizedthe informal
jazz cultureof the Southwest,of KansasCity, OklahomaCity, and the tank
towns in-between.Christianand then Parkerbroughtthat culture,along with
the influenceof LesterYoung,with themto New Yorkandturnedit into bebop.
ChristianencounteredYoungin OklahomaCity in the 1920s as did Ralph
Ellison, who wrote, "I first heardLesterYoungat Halley Richardson'sshoeshine parlorin OklahomaCity jammingin the shine chair, his feet working
the footrests."57There, Ellison recalled, "most of the respectableNegroes"
consideredjazz a low-class form of music, andthey educatedtheirchildrenin
the niceties of marchingbandmusic. Life in OklahomaCity, where Christian
guided his blind father, who played guitar in the white sections of town,
exposed Christianto the guitarand blues traditionof the region as well as to
the light classics with which they serenadedtheirpatrons.58
Young'sinfluence
in the late twentiesand early thirtiesextendedChristian'seducation.He later
translatedYoung'stechniqueto the electricguitar,an instrumenthe began to
play seriouslyin 1937, only two years beforeencounteringHammond.59
Oklahomaborn, Kansas City educated,Christiancame to New York
playing an instrumentthat had barely existed a decade earlier. Along with
French-BelgianguitaristDjango Reinhardt,he transformedthe electric guitar
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THE KENYON REVIEW
from a rhythmto a solo voice. The "riff-tune"idea, derivedlargelyfrom the
KansasCity school of jazz thathe adaptedfrom Young,workedperfectlywith
Christian'stechnicalinnovations.Abandoningthe chordedrhythmstyle of playing, Christianstrungtogetherlines of singly pickednotes, producingsmoothly
improvisedriffs, whose shaperose and fell with almostclassic symmetry.60
The riff style of KansasCityjazz, the shortrhythmicphraseswhichbands
like Basie's used-and which they said "alwayscarrieda melody you could
write a song from" providedone of the featuresof Christian'smusic. The
other,an innovationwherethe rhythmsectionstressedall fourbeatsratherthan
the accentedsecond and fourth,gave the music its swing. Christiantook this
musical heritageand expandedit, continuingto play in a blues traditionbut
increasingthe improvisationalrichnessof his expression.6'
Christian'srich vein of improvisationalmaterialsconstantlyamazedthe
Harlem aficionadoswho crowded into Minton's. He took great pleasurein
dissectingpopularsongs whose chordprogressionshe found challengingand
then buildinghis improvisationalline anew on the structurehe had uncovered.
At times he lifted other musicians' favorite riffs and quoted them in the
middle of his own line.62An artisttalkingto otherartists,Christianassumed
that his colleaguesand audienceknew the book. His innovations,playing the
uppernotes of a chord,the ninths and elevenths,substitutingdiminishedfor
dominantsevenths,andtemporarilyabandoningsyncopation,all anticipatedthe
internalmusicalchangesthat bebop would expand.Christianalso phrasedin
odd, ill-fittinglengths, three-and-a-halfor five bars, stretchingthe structural
assumptionswhich governed the standardthirty-twobar format that jazz
retainedfrom popularmusic.63Christian'sinnovativemusicianshipenabled
him to extractall the "juicesout of his blues background."64
Christian'sdeathin his mid-twentiesdeprivedmodernjazz of one of its
foremostexperimentalmusicians.But CharlieChristiansharedhis ideas with a
innovators:Parker,Gillespie,drummerKennyClarke,
handfulof contemporary
andpianistTheloniousMonk.Together,in the smallafter-hoursclubsof Harlem
and then Fifty-secondStreet,they createdbebop. The clubs that nurturedthe
bebop generationall beganas illegal speakeasies,ownedby a varietyof black
andwhitegamblersandbookmakers,bootleggers,andgangsters,who gradually
transformedtheirchili parlorsandjukejoints into legitimatebusinesses.Henry
Minton, the owner of the restaurantbar on 118th Street and St. Nicholas
Avenue,startedhis place as a supperclub called Minton'sPlayhouse,to serve
boththe local neighborhoodandthe SugarHill crowd.65Minton,the firstblack
delegate to the AmericanFederationof MusiciansLocal 802, chargedtwo
dollars as cover, and pridedhimself on the food he and his staff served up
at night. Ellison recalled that Minton "createdgenerousportionsof NegroAmericancuisine-the hash,grits,friedchicken,the ham-seasonedvegetables,
the hot biscuitsand rolls."On Mondaynightshe provided"freewhiskey"for
the musicianswho had performedat the Apollo.66The Mondaynight spreads
servedas a springboard
for the legendaryhappeningsat his club between 1940
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
I05
and 1944. They also circumventedunion regulationswhich prohibitedjam
sessions in New York.Minton'spositionas delegate exemptedhim from the
ban.67
Minton'sclub invitedcompany.He flankedhis dining room in frontby
a bar, where duringthe day local patronsplayed the juke box and danced,
and in back by the cabaretbandstand,so small that a dozen playersmade it
feel like rush hour on the subwayrumblingbelow. When he turnedthe club
over to band leaderTeddyHill in 1940, Minton's became an ideal place for
New York'sexperimentaljazz musicians.Hill extendedthe Mondayevening
welcome jam sessions by forminga house band for the usual good food/no
pay policy. Hill's personnelin the early 1940s includeddrummerKennyClarke
and pianistTheloniousMonk.Dizzy Gillespie,who had firstplayed with Hill
in 1937, joined them wheneverhe appearedin New York,as did Parker.
When Minton'sclosed each morning,KennyClarkerecalled,"We'dall
head for Monroe's"to continuethe night's playing and talking.68Locatedon
West 134th Street,ClarkMonroe'sUptown House lacked Minton'sfood and
elegance but served as a nightlyhangoutfor musicianslooking for action. A
true after-hoursclub, Monroe'spresenteda floor show and featureda house
bandthatallowed guestmusiciansto sit in.69At the 6:00 A.M.closing time, the
jazz playerspassedthe hat.On a good nighta shareof the takemightapproach
the seven dollarsa week that the nearbyCollins' roominghouse chargedfor
room and board.70Or it might buy the next day's heroin.
Duringthe war Monroe'sand Minton'sbecamelegendaryHarlemafterhoursplaces.But the neighborhoodcontaineddozensof jazz barswhereyoung
musicianshung out and experimentedwith the new music. They served as
stations,offering musiciansa place to rest on their journey.71 Minton's (or
Monroe'sor even DanWall'sChiliHouseon Seventhand 140th),wroteEllison,
"as a nightclubin a Negro community... was partof a nationalpattern."Each
re-createdthe atmosphereof a KansasCityjam session, "butwith new blowing
tunes."72
Charlie Parker,the centralfigure in the bebop revolution,had worked
in and out of New Yorksince 1938. Constantlyat odds with the pressureto
entertain,Parkerwashed dishes and played the alto saxophoneat Wall's in
December1939. "I was workingover 'Cherokee,'and, as I did, I foundthatby
using the higherintervalsof a chordas a melody line and backingthem with
relatedchanges,I could play the thing I'd been hearing.I came
appropriately
alive."73Parker'smusical epiphany,whose harmonicstructurehe expanded
duringthe nexttwo years,resultedin two fragmentary
recordingsof "Cherokee"
in 1942.Parker,Gillespie,Clarke,andMonk,individuallyandcollectively,built
on thatinnovationandin 1945tookit downtown,finallycomplete,as "Ko-Ko."
In the mid-1930s,hangingaroundthe bars and clubs that honeycombed
KansasCity, CharlieParker,bornin 1920 of working-classparents,firstmet
LesterYoung. "I was crazy aboutLester,"he once said, "he played so clean
and beautiful.But I wasn't influenced."Stylistically,the up-tempo,mature
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THE KENYON REVIEW
soundof Parker'salto appearedfar removedfromYoung'ssmoothlybeautiful
phrasing.But each had his rootsin the wide-openpolitics and the blues-based
musicof KansasCity. KansasCity's reputationfor hot music andtimes was an
aspectof the machinepoliticsof Boss TomPendergast,whose numbersrunners
and bookmakersmadethe city "Depressionproof."74KansasCity's jazz joints
became even more prosperousfollowing the repeal of Prohibition,and they
were known across the Southwestas places for musiciansto meet, to jam, to
experiment,to sit in and cut. Customerscame less to dance thanto listen.75
Parkerleft school at age fourteenwhen he tradedhis marchingbandtuba
for an alto saxophoneand mimickedthe way Young, who held his tenor up
and off to the side, played his. Marriedat age fifteen,fully grown physically,
Parkerburnedwitha desireto excel. On a memorableeveningin the summerof
1936 YoungencouragedParkerto sit in. The sessionresultedin Parker'spublic
humiliationwhen drummerJo Jonescrashedhis cymbalat Parker'sbecausehe
could not keep pace with the band.76Parkerlicked his woundsand reportedly
mutteredto Jones, "I'll be back."77Withina year he had masteredthe scales
and blues runs of all twelve keys, experimentingwith idiosyncraticfingering,
cuttinghis own reeds,and movingfromone set of chordpatterns,or changes,
to the next, in the middleof a solo.78KansasCity jazz, which relied more on
improvisedsolos thanon orchestratedarrangements,fosteredexperimentation
whichsuperimposedthe harmonicallycompatibleriffs of one tuneon another.79
This kind of harmonicallyinventive quotationdependedon the musician's
abilityto retainandplay hundredsof blues riffs. Parkerpossessedthe uncanny
abilityto imaginethe possibilitiesof a tuneandthenexploreits variety,drawing
Between 1936 and 1939 Parker
on the richblues traditionhe hadinternalized.80
hours
"woodshedding"-an apprenticeship
spentan estimatedfifteenthousand
and
chili houses of KansasCity. Parker
honed in the dance halls, bars,grills,
with
whichto consolidatehis intuitive
theoretical
system
lackedonly a formal,
innovations.
In the fall of 1938, shortlyafterhis arrivalin New York,Parkerfirstmet
Dizzy Gillespie,thenwithCabCalloway'sband.A yearlaterGillespie,who did
not rememberthe earlierintroduction,returnedto KansasCity whereCalloway
performedat a theaterwhich permittedblacks to sit only in a segregated
balcony,a "buzzards'roost."Told by a fellow trumpetplayerthat he had to
meet a new alto player,Gillespiewent to the musicians'local, sat down at the
piano, and "CharlieParkerplayed.I never heardanythinglike thatbefore."8'
In 1940 Parkerlandeda job with KansasCity bandleaderJay McShann.
McShann'sband,a local successorto Basie, keptthe twenty-year-oldParkerin
the Southwestfor most of the next year and a half, Parker'slongest sustained
stintwith a single group.WithMcShann,Parkermasteredthe swing bandbook,
playingby the rules. Then, in January1942, weeks after PearlHarborforced
Minton'sto abandonits Mondayeveningspreadsas excessive, McShann,with
Parkerin attendance,opened at the Savoy, sharingthe bandstandwith Lucky
Millinder,whose band now featuredDizzy Gillespie.82
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOTT
I07
Three years older than Parker,John Berks Gillespie, born in Cheraw,
South Carolina,learnedto play the trumpetat a Negro industrialschool, the
LaurinbergInstitutein North Carolina,where he learnedmusic theory and
harmony.In 1937 he joined TeddyHill's band.At the age of twentyGillespie
traveledwith Hill to England,where Gillespie, "tryingmy best to sound like
Roy Eldridge,"found himself relegatedto thirdtrumpetchair. On his return
Gillespie, while waitingfor his 802 union card, scrambledfor work, playing
gigs for Communistpartydancesin Brooklynandthe Bronx.83He met Apollo
dancer LorraineWillis, earned seventy dollars a week working with Hill,
and settled into family life. Gillespie's hip expressivenessprovidedthe new
generationof jazz musicianswith a model of comportment,
just as the special
glint in Gillespie'seyes capturedhis spirit of devilish rebellion.84
Gillespie's two closest musical collaborators,bassist Milt Hinton and
drummerKennyClarke,foundDizzy irrepressible.Hinton,with whom Gillespie playedin the CabCallowaybandfor severalyears,rememberedthatDizzy
quickly picked up the band's particularbrand of slang, derived from Ben
Webster,whose linguisticinventionsequaledthose of LesterYoung.Together,
"TheJudge"-Hinton's namederivedfrom a joke he told regularly-and Diz
spoke of "cows"(hundreddollars),"lines"(fifty), "softs"(chicks), and "pin"
(dig), which enabledthem to say elliptically, "pin that soft." To Hinton, the
argotof the jazz musiciansimply extendedthe linguisticingenuity"of all of
black society."85
Dizzy's harmonicsophisticationseemed years ahead of the rest of the
musiciansin Calloway'sband,and HintonencouragedGillespie'sexperimentation. Often the two would drag Hinton's bass up the back staircaseto the
roof of the Apollo, the CottonClub, or the apartmentbuildingwhere Dizzy
lived to try out some of the changes, the chord progressions,that Gillespie
wantedto insertinto the music they played for Calloway.WhenHintoncould
not follow the complex harmonicsystems, Gillespie shoutedthe chords out
to him.86Gillespie recalled,with evident excitementencounteringa "weird"
change,"anE flat chordbuilton an A, the flattedfifth... Oooooman!I played
the thingover andover again.... I foundthattherewere a lot of prettyvoices
in a chord."87
Fromtime to time Hintonand Gillespie slippedtheir arrangementsinto
the band's performance,and Calloway, thinking somethinghad gone awry,
would stop and say, "I don't want you playing that Chinese music in my
band."88In September1941, with Hinton and Gillespie doing their music,
Hintonmissed one of the changesthey had practicedtogether-"Diz signaled
'you stink' with his handand sent a spitballmy way." Callowaythoughtthe
ever flamboyantGillespie had intendedthe missile for him. Gillespie said,
"Fes, I didn't do that."CallowayrefusedGillespie's explanationand slapped
him. WhenGillespiedrewa knife, Hintonsteppedbetweenthe two, deflecting
the blade. As Callowaygrabbedat him, Gillespie,to his horror,saw the knife
plunge into the band leader's leg, superficiallywoundingCalloway, staining
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THE KENYON REVIEW
his trademarkwhite tuxedo trousersbrightred. Calloway, woundedin body
and pride,firedGillespieon the spot, and when Dizzy latertriedto apologize
"Cabjust walked away."89Sometime later, reflectingon the fact than many
musicianscarriedweapons, trumpeterRoy Eldridgesaid, "Baby, if you go
down South,or even just here in New Yorkafteran extra-lategig ... then you
gotta have something."90
Throughoutthe early 1940s Gillespie'smusicalprowessgrew. He played
with Earl Hines, alongside Parkerin 1942-43, and with Billy Eckstine in
1944. Yet, swing bandsplayed commerciallysuccessfulmusic that bore little
resemblanceto the jazz that Gillespie and other nascentbeboppersplayed at
Minton's and Monroe's. Kenny Clarkeexplained,"We had no name for the
music. We called ourselves modem."'9'Like many of the other pioneers of
modemjazz who congregatedat Minton'sand Monroe's,Clarkegrew up in a
musical family. His fatherplayed the trombone,and Clarkestudiedmusic in
high school, masteringseveralinstrumentsand learningtheory.He firstplayed
for a local groupbeforejoining an East St. Louis band in 1934 thatfeatured
Threeyears laterClarke,an extremelyindependentyoung
CharlieChristian.92
player, moved to New York.He resentedthe humiliationof performingin a
raciallyprejudicedsociety whichforcedhim to acceptinferioraccommodations
and workingconditions.Living in Harlemonly reinforcedhis feistiness, and
for the next several years Clarke was hired and fired by Count Basie and
Louis Armstrong.He traveledand playedin Europefor eight monthsin 1938,
and finally found a place with Teddy Hill's band, where he met and played
with Gillespie.WhenHill moved to Minton's,he installedClarkeas the house
drummer.
Many Harlemnightclubs,like the Savoy, frequentlyrequiredone fast
dance numberafter the other, and Clarkefound that the unrelentingdoubletimepace of these "flagwavers"worehim out.Whenswingdrummersassumed
the role of timekeeper,they did so primarilythroughthe right-foot-driven
bass
drum.Clarkesoughta rhythmicalternativeto the repetitive,tiring,and boring
poundingof eight beatsto the measure.93
Alreadyexperimentingwithjumping
in on the open beat, and dreamingof liberatingthe drummerto become an
accompanistas well as a rhythmicanchor,Clarkeshiftedthe responsibilityof
keeping time from the bass drumto the right-handcymbal. Otherrhythmic
variationsfollowed. Musicians complainedthat they no longer had a clear
sense of the rhythm."Dependon yourself,"Clarke responded,"becauseif
you're playingmusic, the tempo that you're playingis in your head."94
Clarke freed band musiciansto follow their own rhythmicvariations.
But not until Clarkeplayed with Gillespie, however, did he find a musician
who appreciatedthe opportunityhis rhythmicinnovationshad created. By
transferring
keepingtime to the righthand,Clarkealso liberatedthe bass drum
to provide off-beat accents, or what he and his friends called "bombs"or
"klook-mops."Withthis reversalClarkereleasedhis left foot to play the high
hat andhis left hand,whichmanydrummersignoredexceptas an afterthought,
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
lO9
to work on the snare. In diminishingthe timekeepingrole of the drummer,
Clarkeexpandedthe polyrhythmicand instrumentalpossibilitiesof the entire
jazz ensemble.
Hill did not think Clarke's innovationsworked for a swing dance
band and fired him. Yet, as soon as Hill took over Minton's with plans
to make it a musicians' hangout, he rehiredClarke saying, "You play all
the re-bop and boom-bams you want."95Dizzy understoodimmediately.
Clarke's work on the cymbal fit wonderfullywith the trumpetas well as
with Gillespie's rhythmicadventurousness.
When he perfectedhis technique,
Clarkerememberedthinking,"Well,it worked."96
GillespiemasteredClarke's
multirhythmicdrum innovations sufficientlyto teach other musicians after
Clarkejoined the armedforces in 1943. Similarly,Gillespie'spassion for the
new musicled him to the elbow of Minton'sresidentpianist,TheloniousMonk,
whose crypticand oblique personalityand far-outideas about chromaticism,
guided and reflectedhis skills as composerand performer.Gillespie credited
Monkwith showinghim the oddly chordedconfigurations
thatinspirednotjust
Gillespie'sharmonicexperimentation,
but servedas the foundationfor Monk's
bop anthem"RoundMidnight."
TheloniousSphereMonklived for mostof his life in a spareapartmenton
WestSixty-thirdStreetin the SanJuanHill neighborhood.Monk,bornin North
Carolina,cameto New Yorkin 1922. He startedplayingthe pianoat the age of
six, apparentlylearninghis way aroundthe instrumentby himself sufficiently
to give lessons to neighborhoodkids for seventy-fivecents an hour,to perform
at local rent parties, and to win an amateurnight contest at the Apollo in
the mid-1930s.97Playingstridepiano in the style of Willie "TheLion"Smith,
Monkjoined an itinerantfaith-healer'sband("Sheprayed,we played,"he once
stated)and returnedto New York at age seventeen,accomplishedbut hardly
flush. Scuffingfor any work, non-unionjobs thatpaid twentydollars a week,
Monkspecializedin gigs whose contractscouldbe brokenin a minute'snotice.
Monkspreadhis unusuallysmall fingersflat,not arched,when he played.
He cultivateda non-technique,one which later incorporatedhis elbow or
forearm,to complementhis theoreticalexplorationsas part of his search for
chromaticalternativesto traditionalharmonicstructure.Refusingto drawany
distinctionbetweenlife andart,Monkplayedthe pianowhereverandwhenever
he could, eating and sleeping irregularly,dependingfor financialstabilityon
his wife Nellie, who called him "MelodiousThunk."98
Yearslater,performingwith John Coltrane,Monk began a set with his
own solo. When someone yelled from the back, "We wannahear Coltrane,"
Monkresponded,"Coltranebustup his horn."Failingto satisfythe disgruntled
customer,Monk extemporized,"Mr. Coltraneplays a wind instrument.The
soundis producedby blowing into it and openingdifferentholes to let air out.
Oversome of these holes is a felt air pad. One of Mr. Coltrane'sfelt pads has
fallenoff, andin orderfor him to get the soundhe wants,so thatwe can make
bettermusic for you, he is in the back makinga new one. You dig?"99
IIO
THE KENYON REVIEW
Monk could be equally direct, though usually less sarcastic with his
colleagues. He and Clarke together composed an extraordinarybop tune,
"Epistrophe,"and Clarke recalled, "I was hung up on the last two bars. I
couldn't figureit out, what chords would be best.... I showed it to Monk."
Monk looked at the sheet for a moment,sat down at the piano and playedthe
two missing bars, and said, "Thereit is."'??
During Monk's tenureat Minton's a young studentat ColumbiaUniversity, JerryNewman, a jazz enthusiastand amateurrecorder,occasionally
performedat the informalfloorshows thatHill organized.Newmanapparently
lip-synched the words of celebrities, from FDR to Bob Hope, which he
had recordedfrom the radio. For compensationHill allowed Newman to
set up primitive equipmentto record the jazz sessions. With the cabaret
stage flanked on either side by the "Gents"and "Ladies"rest rooms, the
historicNewmanrecordingsfrom 1941 and 1942, releasedin the early 1950s,
frequentlyregisteredthe soundsof slammingdoors. Newmantold Down Beat
writerGeorgeHoefferthat Monk played brilliantlyat Minton's, workinghis
compositionsseatedat the piano,over andover again,developinga succession
of new ideas,pushingthe limitsof his composition.'0'Newman,however,cared
little for Parker'swork,and only an unexplainedquirkof fate accountsfor his
historicrecordingof Parker's"Cherokee"at Monroe'sin the summerof 1942.
Parkerhadjust left McShann'sbandandsettledin New York,makingthe
roundseach night, looking for gigs and drugs. One evening tenor sax player
Ben Websterasked Monroe about "thatcat" Parker"blowing weird stuff."
Monroepromisedto put Parkeron the next night to play "Cherokee,"which
Newmanthen recordedon a paperdisc.'02The 1942 "Cherokee"at Monroe's,
togetherwith a second version that Parkerrecordedseveral weeks later with
a pick-upband in KansasCity, revealedthe extent to which Bird had blown
past his fellow musicians.'03
The band opened with a two-chorusstatementof the tune's theme, a
swing statementtypical of those played in a hundredcocktail lounges, while
the unknownpianist slipped in the "Teafor Two" theme that Parkerwould
repeat ironically in "Ko-Ko."As Allen Tinney, one of the musicians who
playedregularlyat Minton'sandMonroe'srecalled,the musicianshad"already
developed a 'Tea for Two' thing in the middle... and he dug this and right
away startedfitting in."104Parker'ssolo, sudden and strong, shatteredthe
song's conventionalthematicstatement.Not yet the howling and emotionally
intense alto playerhe would become, Parkertook his audience'sbreathaway
with a displayof up-tempoimprovisation,a series of riffs that challengedhis
band to keep pace. Pulling the band in the slip streamof his performance,
Parkernegotiatedthe bridge, and returnedthe tune to the band for a final
'05
restatement.
Parkerplayedas smoothlyas his mentor,LesterYoung,andyet the virtual
double-timequality of the piece delivered a completely different rhythmic
effect. For if Youngplayed ever so slightly behind the beat, holding a song
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOTlT
III
back as if to pull out every ounce of emotional meaning, Parker remained
insistentlyin front,pulling the song with him, redefiningit in his own terms,
making it into his music.
"Cherokee" served as more than Parker's signature song. It became the
test for aspiring musicians in Harlem who wanted to play with Parker,Gillespie,
Monk, and Clarke.Wordof Parker'sperformancesspread,makingthe latenightsessions at Minton'scrowdedaffairswith as manyas eighteenmusicians
packedonto the small stage, each vying for attention.The jam seemed to be
becamea way to catchthe neophytes."Because
gettingout of hand."Cherokee"
it was moving in half steps and [in] the differentkeys," the song determined
who went back to the woodshed.'06
Bebop Uptown
Minton's and Monroe's provided a critical junction in the history of
modern jazz in New York. In the wake of the first successful effort to
integrate jazz, a movement initiated and sustained by John Hammond, a
younger generation of black musicians seized the day to reinvest jazz with
the blues. Bebop owed its slow emergenceto the circumstancesof its birth.
Parker,Gillespie, Clarke,and Monk each worked on both sides of musical
street.Featuredmembersof conventionalswing bandson one side and fiercely
proudinsurgentson the other,they made bebop into a new form of AfricanAmericanjazz. As Ralph Ellison wrote of the bebop musicians,"They were
In musicaltermsParker,Gillespie,
concerned... with art,not entertainment."'07
Monk,and Clarketransformedpopularpieces into jazz throughharmonicand
melodic substitution.Together,between 1942 and 1945, Gillespie and Parker
workedto completethe innovation.In 1942 after hearingthe Nat King Cole
trio's version of "How High the Moon," Gillespie played it for Monk, who
substituteda more complex set of chord changes that freed the soloists to
expandtheir improvisationalrange. The new piece-named "Ornithology,"
punning on Parker's shortenednickname,Bird-adhered to the harmonic
structureof the original,but no longer resembledit.108
WhenParkerandGillespiefoundbandwork,they signedon together,first
with EarlHines then with Billy Eckstine,learningeach other'sbooks, passing
musical ideas back and forth. Parker'sfacility and intuition complemented
Gillespie's disciplinedand theoreticalapproach.Each played with astonishing
speed,displayingtechnicalvirtuositythatstunnedeven the most professionally
accomplishedcolleagues.ParkerandGillespieacknowledgedthe other'scontributionto the formationof bebop.Gillespielatersaid of Parker,"Heplayedfast.
Whennot playingfor Hines
He playednotes othersdidn'thear.He attacked."'109
on theoretical
worked
the
two
meticulously
or Eckstineor jamming uptown,
different
chordal
with
new
and
modes,
fitting
scales
exercises,experimenting
relationsonto old tunes,improvising,alwaysexploringnew lines of expression.
II2
THE KENYON REVIEW
Duringone session Gillespie workedat the piano improvisingon chord
changesbasedon "athirteenthresolvingto a D minor,"andnoticedan emergent
melody which he thoughthad a Latin feel, a special syncopationin the bass
line. The tune, a compositionbased on improvisationalexercises, remained
untitleduntil band leader Earl Hines thoughtto call it "Night in Tunisia,"
in recognitionof the North Africanlandingsin the fall of 1942.'' Gillespie
wrote, "My music emergedfrom the war years... fast and furious with the
chord changes going this way and that.... Sometimeswhen you know the
laws you can breakthem. But you've got to know it first.""'
MiltHintonrecounteda particularly
vivid summernightat Minton'swhen
Parkerdroppedby to talk and "reallyblow."The musiciansjammedall night
with the windows of the groundfloor cabaretopen to allow some breathof
cool air. Neighborscame by to drinkout of papercups or to complainabout
the late night racket."Thatwas a great night. I rememberthe great feeling,
the freedomof just blowing.""I12
As this small core of innovativemodemjazz musiciansdefined themselves, they created a distinct body of work so personal others found it
difficult to copy. Mary Lou Williams suggested that the musicians stayed
in Harlembecause they feared"thatthe commercialworld would steal what
they had created."Downtowners,she noticed, often came into the clubs to
scribblenotationson papernapkins."3 Monk often complained,accordingto
Nat Hentoff,"We'll never get creditfor what we're doing here,"concluding
thatthe musicianshad to "createsomethingthatthey can't steal becausethey
can't play it. 114
"Whatwe were doing at Minton's,"said Gillespie proudly,"was playing .., creatinga new dialogue among ourselves, blending our ideas into a
new style of music." Yet, Gillespie intentionallymade his music difficult,
fooling newcomersinto playingin B flat while actuallyplayingin F sharp."5
Similarly,JerryNewmanpridedhimselfon being one of the few white persons
presentduringthe Minton's-Monroe'ssessions. (Another,Jack Kerouac,then
a footballscholarshipplayerat Columbia,often sat at the bar drinkingbeer.)
JohnnyCarisi,an Italian-American
whose successfulplayingmet withreluctant
acceptance,believedthatsome at Minton'sandMonroe'sresentedhim, feeling
6 Caught between
"you oafys come up here and you pick up our stuff.""l
theirbelief thatthe white commercialmusic establishmentwas an exploitative
systemthatcondonedsegregatedrecording,publishing,andperforming,andthe
"Tomming"
attitudesof olderjazz musicians,the modernjazz beboppersplayed
and createdfor each other.They developeda complex and rich subculturein
language,dress, attitude,a politics to complementtheir music.
Monkand Gillespiecultivatedthe bebop-hipsterimageof the mid-1940s.
In contrastwith swing band performerswho wore scarlet or iridescentblue
dinnerjackets, beboppersadoptedGillespie's adversarialstyle that included
beret,darkglasses or horn rims, cigaretteholders,and wide-lapeled,tailored
suits. Parkerremainedthe exception.Miles Davis, in 1945, wanderedup and
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOTT
II3
down Fifty-secondstreetlooking for Parkerwhen ColemanHawkinstold him
to try the Heatwaveup in Harlem."Ilookedaroundandtherewas Bird,looking
He was dressedin these baggyclothesthatlooked
badderthana motherfucker.
like he had been sleepingin themfor days. His face was all puffedup and his
eyes all swollen and red."'7
Abouta year earlierMaryLou Williamsraninto Monk,who could look
regal wearingsweat clothes, admiringa pair of sunglassesin a shop window
next door to the musicians'unionbuildingon Sixth Avenue.He told her that
he plannedto have a pairmadeand appearedseveraldays laterwith "his new
glasses and,of course,a beret.He hadbeen wearinga beretwith a smallpiano
clip on it for years.Now he startedwearingthe glasses and the beret,and the
others copied him.""118
The boppers'stylistic avant-gardism,which mimickedand satirizedthe
middleclass, had its slang counterpart.
Jazz musicianshad alwaysused slang,
partlyfor amusement,partlyto identifyoutsiders.Gillespie's use of what he
called "pig Latin"followed the historical pattern.In additionto the more
common term "hip"(expresseduniquely by HowardMcGhee, who said of
Parker,"He hippedme to Stravinsky"),bebop musiciansinventednew slang
terms."Cool"and"wig"joined "mezz,"theirwordfor pot, whichderivedfrom
Mezz Mezzrow,who always seemed to have the best supply,and "razor,"a
draftwhose chill cut into one's back. As Gillespieput it, echoingMilt Hinton,
"As blackpeople we just naturallyspoke thatway. As we playedwith musical
notes, bendingthem into new and difficultmeaningsthatconstantlychanged,
we played with words.""9
Mose Allison, who later played with Miles Davis, describedParkeras
heir to the black musicalexperience,an embodimentof the blues and gospel
tradition.Jay McShannsaid succinctly, "Bird could play anything,because
primarily,Birdwas the greatestblues playerin the world."'20Whenhis friends
attemptedto shakeParkerfromthe effects of drugsand alcohol,they appealed
to his sense of racial and political pride. Max Roach, drummingprotege of
Kenny Clarke,who played with Parkeron "Ko-Ko"and then at the Three
Deuces on Fifty-secondStreet where he often found Parker"shootingshit,"
told him "howmuchhe meantto us, how muchhe meantto blackpeople,how
much he meant to black music."'12'
Parker's gifts extended well beyond the bandstand.Like Monk, he
indulged in comic outbursts,putting on Oxonian accents, turningthe old
minstrelroutineof travestyinsideout, informingslightlyboredpatrons,"Ladies
and gentlemen,the managementhas sparedno expense this evening to bring
you the CharlieParkerquintet."'122His sense of humorand irony, however,
barelyconcealedhis political and racialconsciousness.
Parker,along with Gillespie, Clarke,Max Roach, Milt Hinton,and Art
Tatumformeda core of musicianswhose political and intellectualawareness
playedan importantrole in theirmusicallives. HintonandClarkebothrecalled
that Parkerspoke as passionatelyas he played about social and political
II4
THE KENYON REVIEW
issues. "He was always talking deep things about race or conditionsin the
countryor aboutmusic. It was such a joy to talk."'23GillespieengagedParker
in discussionsabout Baudelaireand radicalcongressionalrepresentativeVito
Marcantonio.Gillespie,who focusedhis angeron Americanracism,refusedto
serve in the military,fearfulof barracksconditionsin the South.Knowingthat
his work left him constantlyon the move, Gillespie figuredthe draft would
never catch up. He later wrote:
We werecreatorsin an artformwhichgrew fromuniversalrootsandwhich
provedit had universalappeal.... We refusedto acceptracism,poverty,or
economicexploitation.But therewas nothingunpatriotic
aboutit. If America
wouldn'thonorandrespectus as men,we couldn'tgive a shitaboutAmerica.'24
Hinton and Parker were inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.
On the road the two often talked of Du Bois's message to black people. When
they arrived at a new destination, "We'd get off the bus and be sure we got
to this place to hear W.E.B. Du Bois and this would be the focal point of
our conversation."'125To Hinton and Gillespie, Paul Robeson symbolizedthe
social aspirations of African-Americans at a time when his reputation had been
tainted by his Communist party affiliation. Fearful of red-baiting, the politically
minded jazz performers reacted cautiously, meeting Robeson on one occasion
in Cleveland to talk about music and race relations, but keeping their distance.
Hinton and Gillespie believed that federal persecution prevented the majority of
African-Americans
from listeningto him.'26The AmericanCommunistparty
proved no less troublesome. Trying to woo black artists and intellectuals into
its ranks, the party played on racial-sexual stereotypes, using white women to
recruitthemto meetings,anxiousto "geta TeddyWilsonor a CharlieParker."
In the end, however,the musiciansknew thatjazz itself best expressedtheir
political values. "We played,"said Hinton. "Thatwas the kind of militancy
that we exercised."'27
The tensionbetweenartandpoliticsfoundits resonancein a conversation
betweenGillespieand Clarke,each respondingto the question,"Didthe music
have anything to say to black people?" Gillespie answered with his usual
directness, "Yea, get the fuck outta the way." Clarke, who later moved to
Europe after discovering a racially benign society when stationed in France
and Germany in 1944-45, thought bebop spoke the same message as Jackie
Robinson's presence on the ball field. Jazz, Clarke said, "was teaching
them ... there was a message in our music .... Whatever you go into, go into it
intelligently."Severalyears laterwhen Parkervisited Clarkein Parishe found
him at peace with himself. In Europe, Clarke explained, a black musician could
live as an artist without the additional burden of solving the dilemma of racial
prejudice. WarnedClarke, "You're committing suicide in the United States."'128
Parker's "Now's the Time," recorded at the 1945 "Ko-Ko" session, clearly
demonstratedParker'spoliticalawareness.Writtencoincidentwith the doubleV campaign-for victoryabroadandagainstJim Crowat home-in the wake
PETERRUTKOFFand WILLIAMSCOTT
I I5
of the postponedcivil rightsMarchon Washingtonmovementand againstthe
residualanger from the Harlemriots of 1943, "Now's the Time" revealed
Parker'spolitical concerns: its title a call for action by and for AfricanAmericansat a momentwhen society struggledto returnto pre-warbusiness
as usual. The tune's rather lyric introductionbecame in Parker'shands a
moderatelypaced blues, slow enough to allow Davis to accompanyParker.
But its melody, syncopatedand snappy,providedthe energy for subsequent
rock and roll covering."Now's the Time"was greetedby a studio filled with
admirersas an activiststatement.The song complementedthe musicalferocity
of "Ko-Ko,"each a counterpointto the perspectiveof the other.'29The implicit
stridencyof "Now's the Time"matchedthe claim of artisticindependenceof
"Ko-Ko"from the control of the music industry.Togetherthey spoke to the
angerand pride of the musicianswho played them.
In New York the original segregatedsystem of recording,publishing,
and performinghad been loosely enforcedas long as musicians,agents, and
entrepreneurs
respectedthe colorline. In contrast,thecity of New York,through
the Police Department,adopteda policy which far more severely infringed
on the livelihood and civil rights of the African-American
jazz musicians.
In 1931 the city had requiredthe licensing of all cabarets,defined by the
combinationof alcohol and entertainment.In 1940, however,the NYPD took
over the licensingprocedureand extendedit to performers,requiringthat the
musiciansthemselves be registered,fingerprinted,and given ID cards. The
notorious"cabaretcard" could be held back from anyone deemed of bad
character,largely defined as possession of marijuanaand heroin. Musicians
found themselveshostage to a bureaucracyand an enforcementagency they
knew to be fundamentallyhostile, if not simply racist.
Equally oppressive was the behavior of the AmericanFederationof
MusiciansLocal 802, led by JamesC. Petrillo.The 802 leadershipviewed the
jazz musiciansas "deviantand raciallyinferior."'30
In 1942 Petrilloordereda
recordingban, in effect a strikeby union membersagainstall studios, which
had devastatingeffects on blackjazz musicians.The union hoped to salvage
the losses of hundredsof live radiojobs to recordingsby pressuringthe record
companiesto pay royaltiesto a musicians'trustfund for every side playedon
radioor overjukeboxes.To blackjazz musicians,who dependedon sales from
the small labels that concentratedon jazz, the ban spelled financialdisaster.
Popularwhiteswingbands,who enjoyedcontractswithlargerecordcompanies,
had sufficientbacklogs to release previouslyrecordedmusic for the duration
of the strike, which lasted until 1944. While Petrillo's ban had not sought
to preventthe new jazz from being recorded,it had that effect. The union
organizedits delegatesto circulatethroughthe city to assurecomplianceand
to preventillegal jams. Only Henry Minton'soffice in the union enabledhis
club to remainexempt from the ban.13'
The recordingban of 1942-44had a dual effect. It seriouslyrestrictedthe
abilityof the musiciansto makea living playinga non-commercialized,
esoteric
i
i6
THE KENYON REVIEW
liberatingthemfromcommercial
jazz. Yet,it drovethe musiciansunderground,
constraint.When the union lifted the ban in 1944, bebop had matured.What
bebop's new listenersheardaftertwo yearsof silence seemed startlinglynew.
The generalpubliccontinuedto danceto thebig bandswingof BennyGoodman
was years ahead."'32
and GlennMiller,but bebop, "theunderground
Bebop, createdby a small group of black musicians who migratedto
the city during the Depression, anticipatingthe massive movement of the
second great migrationduringthe war, createdan expressive and technically
complex music that belonged to them. During the war they worked out a
new set of conventionsthat shapedjazz in its many variationsfor the next
generation.By restoringthe role of blues-basedimprovisation,these modem
jazz revolutionariesinsistedon receivingculturalas well as financialcreditfor
theirmusic.WhenParker,Gillespie,Davis, Roach,and Russell recorded"KoKo" in the late fall of 1945, they steppedout of obscurityinto the spotlightof
public notice. With the end of the war the time had come to take theirmusic
downtown,to unfurlits banneron The Street.
NOTES
'Jack Chambers, Milestones 1: The Music and Times of Miles Davis to 1960 (New York:
U of TorontoP, 1983) 36.
2JamesPatrick,"CharlieParkerand HarmonicSourcesof Bebop Composition:Thoughts
on the Repertoryof New Jazz in the 1940s,"Journalof Jazz Studies6.1 (1979): 12.
3"TheCharlieParkerStory,"Savoy, MG-12079,bands 14 and 15. Billed by Savoy as
"TheGreatestRecordingSession in ModemJazz in Its Entirety,"the out-of-printrecordhas been
rereleasedin CD format.
4James Patrick,"TheKo-KoSession,"Journalof Jazz Studies8.2 (1981): 78-81.
5Lawrence Koch, YardbirdSuite, A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker
(Bowling Green:Bowling Green UP, 1988) 67.
6DizzyGillespie,with Al Frazer,ToBe or Not to... Bop:Memoirs(New York:Doubleday,
1979) 233.
7Koch 68.
8Ira Gitler,Jazz Mastersof the Forties (New York:Da Capo, 1966) 27.
9Max Harrison, "Jazz," The New Grove Gospel, Blues, and Jazz (New York: Norton, 1980)
294. Says Harrison,"thepiece could almostbe describedas a pesto lamentoso."
10MilesDavis, with Quincy Troupe,Miles, the Autobiography(New York:Simon and
Schuster,1989) 75.
"lGillespie 231.
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
I I7
12Gillespie 210.
13Gillespie 299.
14Gillespie 299.
'5James LincolnCollier,DukeEllington(New York:Macmillan,1987) 225.
16Koch 68.
17Patrick 16.
18Ross Russell, Bird Lives! The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie Parker (New York:
Norton, 1973) 14.
'9LawrenceLevine, "Jazz and AmericanCulture,"Journal of AmericanFolklore 102
(1989): 7-8.
20Sanuel B. Chartersand LeonardKunstadt,Jazz: A History of the New YorkScene (New
York:Doubleday,1961) 102-61.
21Gillespie 109.
22JamesLincoln Collier,BennyGoodmanand the SwingEra (New York:Oxford, 1989)
97. See also John Hammond,On Record,an Autobiographywith IrvingTownsend(New York:
Ayer, 1977) 64-66.
23Hammond73.
24Collier98.
25JohnChilton,Billie's Blues: The Billie Holiday Story, 1933-1959 (New York:Da Capo,
1975) 14.
26GuntherSchuller,The SwingEra (New York:Oxford, 1989) 529.
27Chilton44.
28Chilton I 1.
29ScottDeveraux,"The Emergenceof the Jazz Concert, 1935-1945," AmericanMusic
(Spring, 1989): 8.
30Collier103.
31Charters 248.
32Collier153-54.
33Charters238-40.
34Collier214- 18.
I
I8
THE KENYON REVIEW
35Charters
257.
36Hammond200.
37Hammond201.
38Schuller 229.
39Koch22.
40Schuller 547.
41Schuller 564. See also Frank Buchmann-Moller,Lester Young(Washington,D.C.:
Greenwood,1988).
42Schuller440. See also Buchmann-M0eller
45, and Collier221.
45.
43Buichmann-M0ller
44Buchmann-M0ller
104.
45Schuller 548.
46Schuller 548.
47Schuller549.
48Buchmann-M0ller 44. Quotefrom Schuller549.
49Buchmann-M0ller
107.
50Chilton62.
51Chilton68-69.
52Schuller543; Chilton69; Collier 306.
53In July 1957 ten years following her convictionand jail termfor drug possession and
threemonthsafterthe deathof LesterYoung,EleanoraFaganMcKay,Lady Day, died, seventy
cents left in her savings account.Schuller546.
54Ira Gitler,Swing to Bop (New York:Oxford, 1985) 105.
55Charters
268. This "discovery"storyhas severalvariants,andit is not clear who inserted
the sartoriallyoutrageousChristianonto the bandstandthatnight,Hammondor severalmembers
of Goodman'sgroupwho felt sorryfor the newcomer.All versions,however,convergeon the
"he knockedtheir sox off" conclusionof Christian'splaying.
56Schuller564.
57RalphEllison, Shadowand Act (New York:Random,1972) 208. Ellison wrote these
middleessays on jazz for SaturdayReviewin the 1950s.
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
I I9
58Ellison235; Schuller563.
59Collier59, 263.
60Schuller572. See also RaymondHorricks,DizzyGillespie(New York:Hippocrene,1984)
14.
61Charters314.
62Leonard
Feather,linernotes,"TheHarlemJazzScene- 1941,"EssotericRecords,1957.
63Collier265.
64Horricks14.
65Davis52. See also Horricks13, and Feather.
66Ellison201.
67Gillespie140.
68KennyClarke, interview,Paris, 30 Sept. 1977. Institutefor Jazz Studies, Newark,
New Jersey (hereafterreferredto as IJS).
69DanMorgenstem,linernotes, "CharlieParker:FirstRecordings,"Onyx, 221.
70MiltHinton,interview,Washington,D.C., 1976. IJS.
71Ellison 205.
72Koch35.
73Quotedin many sources,includingKoch 20 and Ellison 229.
74Russell30.
75HarryReed, "TheBlackBar in the Makingof a Jazz Musician:Bird,Mingus,and Stan
Hope,"Journalof Jazz Studies9.1 (1982): 77.
76BrianPriestly,CharlieParker(New York:Hippocrene,1984) 15. See also Russell62.
77Russell85.
78Russell 75.
79JamesPatrick,"CharlieParker,"4.
80Russell 143. Patrickinvokes the idea of a contrafact,drawnfrom classical musical
analysis,whereinoriginalmelodiesarediscardedandnew ones createdon the basisof the original
chordstructure.This, he and manyothersargue,was the basis of the beboprevolution(1-5).
81Gillespie
116.
THE KENYON REVIEW
I20
"2Koch29.
83Gillespie 72-79; Horricks25.
84Horricks, photo, 55.
85Hinton.
86Hinton, interview2, 1977. IJS.
87Gillespie 92.
88Nat Hentoff,Hear Me Talking to You (New York:Dover, 1957) 343.
89Hinton,interview 1976.
9OHorricks
30.
91Hentoff350.
92GeorgeHoeffer,notes,"HotBox."Hoeffer,longtimecolumnistfor Downbeat,deposited
his notes and roughdraftsat the IJS.
93Hoeffer2/1/62. Clarke,interview.
94Clarke.
95Hoeffer2/1/62. Clarke,interview.
96Clarke.
97Monk's biographicalinformationderives from several sources, including Hoeffer
2/11/48; Time28 Feb. 1964 (Monkamazinglyappearedon the cover);Collier383. He actually
seems to have been born any time between 1917 (Grove)and 1920 (Hoeffer).
98Joe Goldberg,Jazz Mastersof the 50's (New York,Da Capo, 1965) 28.
99Goldberg35.
00Clarke.
'01Hoeffer2/11/48.
102DanMorgenstem,"CharlieParker'sFirstRecordings,"liner notes, Onyx, 221.
103GarryGiddens, RobertBergman,Will Freidwald,liner notes, "CharlieParker:The
Complete 'Birthof Bebop',"Stash.
104Gitler,Swing to Bop, 71.
'?5Koch30.
'6Gitler 69.
PETER RUTKOFF and WILLIAM SCOTT
I2I
'O7Ellison 210.
'08Gillespie 202-08.
109Gillespie 151.
"0Koch 36.
"''Gillespie 202.
"12Hinton 1977.
113Gillespie
149.
"14Hentoff 340.
l"5Gillespie
145.
116Gillespie
143.
"7Davis 57.
"8Hentoff 350.
"9Gillespie 281.
'20Koch 63.
'21Gillespie
235.
'22Russell 167.
'23Hinton.
124Gillespie 287.
125Hinton.
'26Hinton.
'27Hinton.
128Russell 274.
'29Russell 274. The main theme of "Now's the Time" became, in time, the "Hucklebuck."
130Paul Chevigny,
1991) 4-22.
131Gillespie
'32Koch 35.
140.
Gigs. Jazz and the CabaretLawsin New York(New York: Routledge,