Post-Bop Jazz Style: A Guide to the History of Post-Bop

Post-bop, a term conceived retrospectively, refers to the genre of small-group jazz music that emerged in the early 1960s and combined elements of bebop, hard bop, modal jazz, avant-garde jazz, and free jazz. The goal of post-bop jazz was to move away from the traditional limitations of bebop while maintaining the form found in free jazz.

Post-bop is sometimes used to describe any genre of jazz music that arose after the bebop era, but post-bop denotes a specific period and style of jazz.

• Origins: In the late 1950s, the avant-garde and free jazz movements emerged in full force. These movements emphasized a structure-free jazz style heavy on improvisation and unconventional sounds. Many bebop and hard bop artists combined free jazz trends with their own conventions. Thus, the post-bop movement was born, integrating some experimental elements into bebop without completely succumbing to the avant-garde and free jazz styles.
• Golden age: Between 1964 and 1968, the second Miles Davis Quintet—featuring saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams, and bandleader Miles Davis on trumpet—recorded six studio albums that were essential to the rise of post-bop and cemented the quintet as one of the most exceptional groups in modern jazz history.
• Decline and revival: Post-bop thrived into the late 1960s, but its popularity waned throughout the 1970s due to the emergence of jazz fusion, a combination of jazz, funk, blues, and rock music. In the 1980s, composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, along with a camp of jazz players dubbed the Young Lions, helped spark a post-bop revival called neo-bop. In addition to Marsalis, some of the other neo-bop Young Lions included Wallace Roney, Terence Blanchard, and Roy Hargrove.

Post-bop music is an amalgam of multiple types of jazz, but some general characteristics unify post-bop compositions.

1. 1. Original compositions: While bebop ensembles typically play non-original songs or songs based on pre-existing chord progressions, post-bop ensembles tend to play highly conceptual material that is completely original.
2. 2. Harmonic progressions: Post-bop chord progressions are typically non-diatonic, and, while they are still technically tonal (like the chord progressions in bebop), they tend to have an ambiguous tonal center.
3. 3. Rhythm section: In post-bop, the rhythm section plays a supporting role, but it has more freedom to improvise than in bebop or avant-garde jazz. In particular, bassists can time shift to a different pattern besides the standard walking bass line, and drummers have leeway to add more than just rhythm to a song.
4. 4. Mixed meter: Instead of the 4/4 time signature common in traditional jazz, post-bop musicians play with mixed and irregular meters.

The leaders of the post-bop jazz movement include Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, and the second Miles Davis Quintet:

1. 1. Herbie Hancock: Herbie Hancock is a multi-talented pianist, composer, and bandleader who helped shape the post-bop sound. As a member of the second Miles Davis Quintet, he reinvented the role of the jazz rhythm section. He and saxophonist Wayne Shorter co-wrote most compositions on the quintessential post-bop album, Nefertiti (1968).
2. 2. John Coltrane: Coltrane was one of the most iconic jazz musicians of the twentieth century and one of the most influential saxophonists in the history of music. Coltrane frequently collaborated with pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter Miles Davis.
3. 3. Charles Mingus: A virtuoso double bass player, composer, pianist, and bandleader, Mingus was one of the few bass players to emerge as a leader among his contemporary jazz musicians. His masterpiece composition "Epitaph" is one of the longest jazz pieces ever written, consisting of over 4,000 measures and taking over two hours to perform.
4. 4. Bill Evans: One of the great jazz pianists of his generation, Evans came on the New York jazz scene in the mid-1950s. In 1959 he joined the Miles Davis Sextet and recorded the album Kind of Blue, which remains the highest-selling jazz record of all time.
5. 5. Miles Davis: Bandleader Miles Davis led a group of jazz giants consisting of pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Tony Williams, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. The group recorded six studio albums that were essential to the rise of post-bop, including E.S.P. (1965), Miles Smiles (1967), Sorcerer (1967), Nefertiti (1968), Miles in the Sky (1968), and Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968).

Other prominent post-bop jazz musicians include Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Eric Dolphy, and Freddie Hubbard.

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