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What is Be-Bop? (1948)
In the late 1940s, the Royal Roost
was an important bebop club where you could go
to hear "modern progressive jazz" several nights a week. Disk jockey Symphony Sid
Torin, at the time working for WMCA, had an all-night jazz show -- "the All-Night,
All-Frantic one, the Symphony Sid Show" -- during which he took listeners' requests
for records and alternated studio time with live broadcasts from the Roost, the
Apollo Theatre, and other jazz venues. To enlighten listeners, Sid and Monty Kay,
the producer at the Roost, asked Walter "Gil" Fuller to explain bebop. The resulting
pamphlet was available for free: "if you'd like to get this wonderful little pamphlet,
just drop a self-addressed envelope to your boy Symphony Sid, WMCA, New York 19,
and I'll send it for you free of charge -- all it'll cost you is just 3 cents."
This the text of that pamphlet.
Practically every music lover in the country has been curious, almost to the point
of hysteria, in an attempt to understand this new startling, and vital music which
has been introduced by Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, etc. It
is impossible in one session to give a complete and comprehensive picture of Be-Bop.
Having written several modern compositions and arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie,
Count Basie, and Buddy Rich ("Things To Come", "Oop-Bop Sh-Bam", "Manteca", etc.)
I think I can give you a verbal picture on the subject which will enable you to
talk with your musical friends and to discuss with your lay friends, the subject
of Be-Bop. If you feel something when you hear Be-Bop, you feel something because
something is there. No one has ever been quiet about Be-Bop, the either like it
or dislike it, violently. They never sit still on the question and I'll tell you
why.
BE-BOP IS THE NEW TREND IN MODERN JAZZ. Comparing it to Dixieland would be like
comparing Romanticism to Impressionism in classical music, or comparing a horse
and buggy to a jet plane. Harmonically and melodically Be-Bop is definitely advancing
to the level of contemporary serious music. The composers and arrangers of this
music can be, and have been, compared to Stravinsky, Hindemith and Schoenberg. The
average "bopper" has been accused of borrowing harmonic devices from De Bussy, Ravel,
Delius, and other composers of the Impressionistic Era. This isn't true simply because
the average bopper hasn't had the time to analyze the harmonic structure, nor does
he possess the theoretical background necessary to analyze the form, as well as
the abstract melodies employed in such compositions.
THE MELODIC LINE of so-called Be-Bop composition displays a definite lack of sustained
notes. This is accountable to the various changes in the harmonic structure. The
conventional accents falling on the first and third beats in common time in the
old two beat era has now been superseded by accents falling on the second and fourth
beats as well as the "and" beats of a measure. A further development of the rhythmic
structure appears by the super imposition of various meters upon the four quarters
or common time, known as polyrhythms. These accents usually stimulate the listener
because they have a tendency to drive. Several Be-Bop compositions have been written
having two, three, and four voice contrapuntal lines. And example of this can be
found in the arrangement of "Things To Come" a Dizzy Gillespie record on the Musicraft
label and Charlie Parker's "Scrapple from the Apple". Block form of writing is rarely
used in Be-Bop.
THE HARMONIC STRUCTURE of an ordinary pop tune when played by a "bopper" has usually
been altered. To the disappointment of many, all of the fifths, ninths, and elevenths
are not flatted as some writers would have us believe. The dominant, tonic, and
other diatonic chords in most cases are altered by adding the sixth, ninth, eleventh
and thirteenth. These notes may be chromatically raised or lowered depending upon
the taste of the individual. Diminished and whole tone chords are almost extinct
in Be-Bop and are rarely used. However, Neapolitan, French, German and Italian sixths
are used extensively in an altered form. A great deal of stress is placed on the
harmonic structure, polytonality (the simultaneous use of two or more tonalities
which may or may not be related) and technical proficiency that has been lacking
in early jazz.
Be-Bop at first had tremendous difficulty being accepted by the music loving public
because of its radical departure from conventional jazz. The first promoters to
successfully present "bop" to the public were Monty Kay, who produces the nightly
concerts here at the Royal Roost, and Symphony Sid, the WMCA all-nite disk jockey.
In 1945 they sponsored the concert debut of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at
Town Hall and since then have been active in the presentation and promotion of Be-Bop
in New York. Several other disk jockeys have been instrumental in bringing the new
music to a wider audience. Fred Robbins and Bill Williams of WOV, Leonard Feather
of WHN, Willie Bryant and Ray Carroll of WHOM, Jerry Roberts and Bill Cook of WAAT,
Wendy Woodard of WLIB and Dan Burley and Fred Barr of WWRL. Roberts has also made
a series of musical shorts for Columbia Pictures including one with Gene Krupa which
introduced Be-Bop to the screen. Then too, the sound is becoming more familiar to
people because of the progressive arrangers, bandleaders and instrumentalists, who
are injecting "bop" passages into arrangements and solos. Two short years ago the
only big band playing in this idiom was Dizzy Gillespie. Today Woody Herman, Stan
Kenton, Boyd Raeburn, Claude Thornhill, Count Basie, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich are
just a few of the name bands who reflect the influence of "bop" on their music.
Be-Bop is the new jazz form and it is rapidly developing and being accepted as a
truly great American Art Form. Since it is impossible to get the complete picture
in one session I recommend further research in the trade papers, Downbeat and Metronome,
and your attendance at the nightly "Bop" Concerts presented here at the Royal Roost.
I hope that in some small way this article has answered most of your questions.
If it has, then the purpose for which it was intended has been accomplished.
WALTER "GIL" FULLER
Here are some images of the pamphlet, thanks to Norman Saks:
[Front cover]
[Inside]
[Back cover]
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