Bop

Bebop on vinyl: Charlie Parker, Monk and the birth of modern jazz

In short: Bebop is the jazz that left swing behind in forties New York: fast tempos, complex harmonies and solos that still set the standard today. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Max Roach are considered its inventors. The Vinyl Room currently has 346 bebop records.

What is bebop?

After hours, young musicians met in clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem and later on 52nd Street. Instead of dance music they played music for listening: melodies at high speed, new chords over familiar standards, drums that did more than keep time. Almost every later style grew out of bebop – cool jazz, hard bop and post bop. Many bebop musicians later also played on records for Blue Note and Prestige.

Shellac, 10-inch, 12-inch

The first bebop recordings came out on shellac 78s, among others on Savoy and Dial. In the early fifties they moved to 10-inch LPs, for example in Blue Note’s 5000 series, and from the mid-fifties to the 12-inch LP that is standard today. An early 10-inch edition is therefore often the oldest vinyl of a recording. Later compilations and reissues, on the other hand, make the music affordable.

From our stock

First pressings

Bebop on Blue Note & Prestige

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FAQ

Who invented bebop? Above all Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Max Roach, in New York in the forties.

What’s the difference between bebop and swing? Swing was dance music for big bands. Bebop was played by small groups for listening, faster and harmonically more complex.

Why is there bebop on 10-inch records? Because the 10-inch LP was the usual format in the early fifties, before the 12-inch LP took over.