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Chapter 7: Bebop to Cool: The 1940s and 1950s
Bebop’s Cuban connections
Jelly Roll Morton talked about the “Latin tinge” in
his music, but Dizzy Gillespie was the first jazz
musician to give Latin rhythms — Afro-Cuban, to
be exact — a major role in his music. In the 1940s,
Gillespie collaborated with three famous Cubans:
composer Mario Bauza, conga drummer Chano
Pozo, and bandleader Machito. Through the rest
of his career, Gillespie employed a variety of Afro-
Cuban rhythmic combinations on his recordings
and in his live performances. Meanwhile, Latin
jazz musicians like Machito led bebop bands of
their own (see Chapter 9). There was a healthy
give-and-take between jazz musicians such as
Gillespie who began using Latin rhythms and
Latin musicians who took inspiration from bebop.
In the 1950s, vibraphonist Cal Tjader was an
innovator in combining Latin and jazz elements.
Trumpeter Kenny Dorham, pianist Horace Silver,
and pianist George Shearing employed Afro-
Cuban elements in a serious way in the 1950s. Of
course, Latin musicians made some of the most
important contributions. For more on Latin jazz,
see Chapter 9.
Your collection should include at least a handful of Gillespie CDs. Here are a
few suggestions:
� Dizzy’s Big Four (OJC): Dizzy hooks up with three great players including
bassist Ray Brown (see Chapter 6) for a rousing session that shows a
range of moods and tones, including splashes of Latin flavors.
� Odyssey: 1945–1952 (Savoy): Ride along as Dizzy evolves from frantic
bebopper to seasoned master.
� The Dizzy Gillespie Story: 1939–1950 (Proper): Three discs of Dizzy’s
best bop, from the prime Parker years, as well as with Cab Calloway,
Lionel Hampton, and other collaborators.
� Sonny Side Up (Polygram): Dizzy goes to town with two great saxphonist
Sonnys: Rollins and Stitt.
Thelonious Monk, the quirky genius
Fragmented chords and off-kilter melodies lend Thelonious Monk’s playing a
strange charm. Unusual harmonies and melodies and teetering tempos are
Monk’s distinguishing traits as a bebopper who bent jazz beyond the rules
of swing. Combining wild imagination with a dark sense of humor, Monk
(1917–1982) has the most recognizable style of any jazz pianist. Embedded
within his version of the Cole Porter song “Sweet and Lovely,” for instance,
is “Tea For Two,” and he often reworked older tunes into new ones, such as
the popular song “I Got Rhythm” became Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning.”
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