Modern jazz: bebop, cool, modal, free, fusion

In the early 1940s swing was America's popular music. But some young musicians felt cramped: in the big bands they played written arrangements with little room for solos. After their gigs they met in small Harlem clubs such as Minton's Playhouse for jam sessions where they tried out new ideas. Within some twenty years jazz would reinvent itself several times.

Bebop (1940s)

Saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, with pianist Thelonious Monk and drummer Kenny Clarke, invented bebop. Tempos got faster, tunes became winding lines played in unison, and harmonies filled up with extended chords and substitutions. The drummer kept time on the cymbal and punctuated freely on the bass drum. People no longer danced: they listened. Pianist Bud Powell carried this language over to the keyboard, with a horn-like right hand and a left hand reduced to a few notes. Monk cultivated a unique style made of silences, dissonances and humour.

Bebop rests on the ii–V–I progression, which musicians race through. Under the soloists the double bass plays a walking bass: one note per beat, linking the chords as it walks. Here is a line invented for this lesson over Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7 (notice the chromatic notes that "aim" at the next chord):

M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=140
K:C clef=bass
"Dm7" D, F, A, ^G, | "G7" G, F, D, ^C, | "Cmaj7" C, E, G, B,, | "Cmaj7" C,4 |]

Cool and hard bop (1950s)

In 1949 and 1950 trumpeter Miles Davis recorded softer sessions with arranger Gil Evans and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, with muted colours (French horn, tuba); they were later collected under the title Birth of the Cool. Cool jazz favoured restraint and subtle arrangements; on the West Coast Chet Baker and Dave Brubeck offered elegant versions of it (in 1959 Brubeck's album Time Out dared to use metres of 5 and 9 beats).

In New York at the same time hard bop pushed the other way: more blues, more gospel, more energy. Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, pianist Horace Silver and trumpeter Clifford Brown were its leading figures.

Modal jazz (1959)

In 1959 Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue, with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and pianist Bill Evans, proposed another way of improvising: instead of following constantly changing chords, the musicians stay on one mode for a long time. Space opens up and the music breathes. The Dorian mode (the white keys from D to D) is the most used. Here is a generic example: the scale, then two chords swaying without leaving the mode.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=120
K:C
"Dm7" D E F G A B c d | "Dm7" [DFAc]4 "Em7" [EGBd]4 | "Dm7" [DFAc]8 |]

Bill Evans, with his trio (bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian), invented a three-way conversation between equal voices, and rootless left-hand voicings that still shape pianists today.

Coltrane, free jazz and fusion (1960s–1970s)

John Coltrane pushed harmony to the extreme with Giant Steps (recorded in 1959), then turned to modal, spiritual music with A Love Supreme (1965). Saxophonist Ornette Coleman (The Shape of Jazz to Come, 1959; Free Jazz, 1961) and pianist Cecil Taylor abandoned the chord progression: this was free jazz, improvisation freed from set forms. In the late 1960s Miles Davis, once again, plugged the instruments in: with Bitches Brew (1970) he opened the way to jazz-rock or fusion, carried on by Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and the band Weather Report. In 1975 Keith Jarrett improvised a solo piano concert in Cologne whose recording became one of the best-selling jazz albums.

What to listen for

• Bebop: small group, fast tempos, angular unison tunes, long virtuoso solos.
• Cool: soft sounds, moderate tempos, careful arrangements.
• Hard bop: energy, blues and gospel, powerful drumming.
• Modal: few chords, long stretches on one mode, a meditative atmosphere.
• Free: no set chords or tempo, cries, textures.
• Fusion: electric piano, synthesizers, electric bass, rock and funk rhythms.

Listening list

• Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie (1940s), Thelonious Monk solo.
• Miles Davis: Kind of Blue; Bill Evans Trio at the Village Vanguard (1961).
• John Coltrane: A Love Supreme; Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come.
• Herbie Hancock: Head Hunters (1973); Keith Jarrett: The Köln Concert (1975).