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Something Blue originally aired 08/29/98 - Bebop with Leon McEntire
Tal Farlow, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Miles
Davis, Kenny Burrell, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Dizzie Gillespie
play - Tal Farlow, The Love Nest
Welcome to Something Blue, This is Hairy Larry and I've got the Blues,
... for you.
play - Thelonius Monk, Hackensack
larry
All right, Thelonius Monk, playing "Hackensack". Kicking us off tonight
we heard the Jazz guitar of Tal Farlow. We're doing a show on Bebop and
the Blues. With me tonight is Leon McEntire, a well known Jonesboro
guitarist, who is also an enthusiastic collector of jazz and blues music
and information.
leon
Thanks Larry. Tal Farlow got his start in the Red Norvo trio with
Charles Mingus and was a major innovator throughout the forties. He's
also a very disciplined player whereas most of his comtemporaries tended
to use a looser approach to the early single-string guitar style. Monk,
on the other hand was more of a creative genius in the area of
composition, but his improvisatational style was also copied by many
Bebop players. The tune we just we heard was Monk at his peak.
larry
Blues and Jazz grew up together as siblings. Since the early 1900s Blues
and Jazz have influenced each other but one was not derived from the
other. Bebop, however, is a jazz idiom based on the blues. Many bebop
changes come right out of the blues and the idea of jazz riffing is
essential to bebop playing.
leon
As the Dixieland style brought many players North to such places as St.
Louis, Kansas City and even New York City, the young musicians were
soaking up everything and the time was right for a revolution in music.
Bebop was the result and it got it's start with a little help from a
young rebellious Kansas City Alto Sax player named Charlie Parker. After
a job in Jay McShann's Big Band and a lot of woodshedding, "Yardbird",
as he would later be called, changed the world with his harmonic
explorations.
The first song Bird played in his new extended style was "Cherokee". He
called it Koko and after he and Dizzy Gillespie, (the co-founder of
Bebop), play the opening riffs, you can hear "Cherokee" underneath the
substitutions quite clearly.
larry
Let's play it now. Here's Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie with "KoKo".
play - Charlie Parker, Koko
play - Charlie Christian, Guy's Got To Go
larry
And that's Charlie Christian playing a bluesy jazz song called "Guy's
Got to Go". Joining him in this improvisational set are Dizzy Gillespie
on trumpet and Thelonius Monk on piano.
leon
Charlie Christian was the guitarist for the Benny Goodman Orchestra and
sextet. He and some of his peers always used to jam at Minton's, the
after-hours club and was featured in that last song playing some of the
most adventurous guitar riffs that anyone had ever heard in all of Jazz.
All of the best players would go there because they were involved in
changing the direction of popular music from Big Band sounds to the
intimate sounds of the small groups.
Because of the devotion of the fans to Bebop, it became a huge success
as an artform. Dizzy, Bird, Monk and Miles were not alone. Bud Powell,
was the most delicate pianist in Bebop and they all played in such a way
that as a result of their efforts, every musician today is influenced by
their collective genius.
Here are a couple of my favorite Bird tunes from a 1949 set live at the
Royal Roost.
play - Charlie Parker, Ornithology
play - Charlie Parker, Groovin' High
larry
And that's Bird, Mr. Charlie Parker, "Groovin' High" from "Bird at the
Roost, The Savoy Years" a four volume set.
leon
When Charlie Parker had a chance to record his own band on the Dial
label, he chose Miles Davis to play trumpet. Miles toured with Parker
for a while then Charlie went through several musicians before he had to
be hospitalized in a mental institutuion in Camarillo, California to
recuperate from his excessive lifestyle.
When he came out, he played with a vengeance, even making it to Carnegie
Hall with Dizzy and then eventually back down the path that killed him
at age 35. Due to the fact that Miles had a plan of his own and wanted
to lead a band, Dizzy and Bird were heralded as the two Kings of Bebop.
Miles went on to create the "Cool Jazz" movement that took over after
bebop's heyday. Fortunately, there is plenty of room for both styles as
they are both blues related and can be manipulated by modern musicians
to create the new Jazz for the future.
larry
Miles first came to the forefront during the bebop era and since then
has been a leader in modern jazz, cool jazz, free jazz, fusion, and
even hip-hop. Now from "Cookin with the Miles Davis Quintet" Miles
Davis, trumpet; John Coltrane, tenor sax; Red Garland, piano; Paul
Chambers, bass and Philly Joe Jones, drums; here's "Blues by Five".
play - Miles Davis, Blues By Five
play - Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane, Freight Trane
larry
And that's Kenny Burrell on guitar and John Coltrane, tenor sax, doing
one called "Freight Trane". Coltrane also cut his teeth on bebop and
then went on to be a leader in several jazz styles. His playing has a
raw energy that has to be compared to the blues.
leon
Kenny Burrell sort of ties all these musicians together. He recorded
and toured with Bird during the `50s on the Verve label and later went
on to do sessions and release many albums that are considered to be
"must haves" today, like the one we just heard. Coltrane's backup band
on that session was The Tommy Flanagan Trio. They were used by Ella
Fitzgerald and many others after their stay with Coltrane. All of the
musicians we have been listening to tonight are some of the most
important figures in Jazz. I'm sure they will always influence future
generations with their amazing talents.
larry
And thanks Leon for helping us out on this special "Something Blue"
focusing on bebop and the blues.
leon
Thank you Larry for the opportunity to provide the listeners with a
branch of the Blues that has had a great impact on many people.
Everybody has their favorites and tonight we have been listening to some
of mine. I don't care if the music was recorded in the `40s and `50s.
I have loved it for almost 30 years and I never get tired of listening
to different versions of all the classics. Bebop is the most
technically challenging of all the Jazz styles and yet somehow it's also
the most personal.
larry
Leon McEntire writes the "Delta Pickins" music reviews on Delta Boogie.
To read his reviews log on to the internet at www.deltaboogie.com/leon.
You can also find out about Something Blue, read Calendar Lore, or check
out the Delta Musicians pages on Delta Boogie. Leon is the founder of
the bebop chat room on DALNet and can also be found chatting in blues
and rocknroll. Learn more about chat at www.deltaboogie.com/blues.
Now here's Charles Mingus playing his own composition, "Noddin Ya Head
Blues".
play - Charles Mingus, Noddin Ya Head Blues
play - Miles Davis, Airegin
Closing the show here's the Miles Davis Quintet and "Airegin".
Something Blue is a production of KASU at Arkansas State University. I'm
Larry Heyl your producer and host. If you have enjoyed the show cantact
us at www.deltaboogie.com. Until next week this is Hairy Larry,
reminding you once again, Blues is the Mainstream. Thanks for listening.
