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Part II: Jazz Greats and Great Jazz: An Evolutionary Riff
Some of Moody’s early bop solos can be heard on the 1948 album Dizzy
Gillespie and His Big Band (GNP). Among Moody’s own albums, look for Hi-Fi
Party (Original Jazz Classics), Last Train from Overbrook (Argo), Never Again
(Muse), Young at Heart (WEA/Warner), and Moody Plays Mancini (WEA/Warner).
Moody’s 2004 CD Homage (Savoy Jazz) proves that he’s one of jazz’s survivors.
Sonny Rollins
On tenor saxophone, Rollins, who cites Coleman Hawkins as a primary influence
(check out Chapter 6 for details on Hawkins), played some of the most
vital hard bop of the 1950s and 1960s.
Rollins’ method of improvisation included a “thematic” approach, wherein he
took pieces of a song’s melody and cycled them through several variations.
As of 2006, Rollins (born 1930) is one of the last living legends from the bebop
and hard bop eras. Take a listen to his CDs Saxophone Colossus (OJC), Tenor
Madness (OJC), and Way Out West (OJC).
Horace Silver
Horace Silver (born 1928) co-founded the Jazz Messengers, the leading hard
bop band, with drummer Art Blakey.
He was a central figure in hard bop, playing in a bluesy style driven by rhythmic
left-hand chord patterns and lyrical right-hand improvisations. He is also
a prolific arranger/composer and was among the first jazz players to bring
soul and funk flavors into the music.
Los Angeles and West Coast cool
Jazz recording and publishing have been based mostly in New York City (and,
to a lesser extent, Chicago) since the 1930s and ’40s, with the West Coast
viewed as a smaller, secondary scene. In fact, Los Angeles has a rich history
of hosting jazz and jazz musicians, dating back to visits by Jelly Roll Morton,
King Oliver, and Kid Ory during jazz’s formative years (see Chapter 5 for
details on these musicians).
In the 1940s and ’50s, Los Angeles had a vibrant jazz scene along Central
Avenue and in other neighborhoods. The scene included black hard bop
clubs like Billy Berg’s, the Finale, and Shepp’s Playhouse — all places where
Charlie Parker and other East Coast greats performed, as well as locals like
Sonny Criss, Teddy Edwards, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, and Frank
Morgan.