Bebop music is an extension of swing jazz, but it differs from swing in the accentuation of the rhythm and how the solo is played.
Famed trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, both African-Americans, are considered the fathers of bebop; thus, at its inception, the African-American influence was the most significant.
Bebop was initially considered the musician's music and was played primarily for listening audiences. That opinion still holds true for today's audiences.
1930s--Most big bands favor the swing version of jazz and refer to themselves as swing bands. The uplifted rhythm is embraced by the public, and dancing to swing becomes the favorite American pastime.
1940--Swing musicians begin experimenting with the beat, melody and the chord structures, improvising new melodies outside the written melody line. They hone their skills in small groups in after-hours clubs and rehearsal halls. They name their new style of music bebop.
1945--Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker make the first bebop recording. The public launch of bebop takes the world by storm, and musicians everywhere embrace the innovative version of swing. It quickly becomes the public's music of choice.
1955--Bebop's popularity begins to wane as rock 'n' roll emerges. Bebop is relegated to cult status, and the mainstream public refers to it as beatnik music.
Present--Bebop is firmly seated in the jazz genre and is respected as an art form that requires virtuoso ability to play it well.
Bebop is fast-paced music. It's distinguished by playing long, improvised solos, using all forms of music scales and chromatic passages, including dissonant harmonies and augmented chords. These improvised solos are noted as head arrangements; the solos are not written into the music. Unlike big band music, in which the accent is on the second and fourth beat, bebop music flows without accent on any particular beat.
Drummers play the standard swing-style eighth-note beat on their ride cymbals but accent with fills on different drums to create excitement. Bass players typically play walking bass lines instead of anchoring the chord on the first and third beats.
Originally, bebop bands consisted of five instruments: trumpet. sax, piano, bass and drums. By the late 1940s, instrumentation had stretched to include guitars and vibraphones. In the present day, bebop is played on most all instruments.
Even when it began, bebop was destined to branch out into different ethnic cultures. Dizzy Gillespie used rhythms from African-American and Cuban cultures to create a style of bebop appropriately called Afro-Cuban. Musicians from Brazil fused it with Latin music, creating rhythms such as the samba and bossa nova.
Today's young jazz musicians are expanding the style further by resurfacing old bebop compositions and adding new grooves and beats; thus bebop's baby, neo-bop, is alive and beating.