Bebop

Bebop is a jazz style characterized by a fast tempo and ever-shifting chord changes.

It was developed in the early 1940s by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and other black musicians reacting against swing music.

According to Dizzy Gillespie, the audiences coined the name after hearing him scat the then-nameless tunes to his players and the press ultimately picked it up, using it as an official term: "People, when they'd wanna ask for those numbers and didn't know the name, would ask for bebop."

Many bop pieces were played at the fastest tempos yet heard in jazz. Bop featured many-noted solos and unusual, quickly changing harmonies.

The classic bebop combo consisted of saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums, and piano. This was a format used (and popularized) by both Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in their 1940s groups and recordings.

The famous jazz musician Miles Davis started out as a teenager playing bebop with Charlie Parker.

 

Below is Charlie Parker with (from left to right) Tommy Potter, Max Roach, Miles Davis, and Duke Jordan, at the Three Deuces, New York, circa 1945

On April 25, 1955, the United Nation's commission on narcotics releases a report stating "definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as bebop and rebop."

Even though bebop was difficult to sing, a few vocalists such as Sarah Vaughan had the necessary control and wide voice range. 

A biographical movie called Bird, about Charlie Parker, directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, was released in 1988. The film stemmed from Eastwood's enthusiasm for bebop. 

Source Songfacts