DeVeaux (Music/Univ. of Virginia) puts bop into a historical,
social, and economic context, using oral histories and musical
analyses as well as period materials to examine an epochal shift in
the jazz paradigm. Bebop, DeVeaux argues, is the the fulcrum on
which jazz history turns. More than that, he adds, it is the
"shadowy juncture at which the lived experience of music becomes
transformed into cultural memory," as the last witnesses to the
changes in the music die off. Did bebop represent an evolutionary
stage in jazz history or a revolutionary rupture? For the author
the answer is not so clear-cut as the question implies. He
constructs a richly researched and densely constructed history that
tries to understand the development of bebop as the result of
musical decisions, economic pressures, and the uniquely American
nexus of cash and race. He begins by tracing the career of Coleman
Hawkins, an astute choice, because Hawkins was one of the first
jazz musicians to expatriate himself to Europe for a significant
period, the first great tenor sax soloist jazz produced - an
innovator and one of the first to embrace the new sounds. Equally
important, at the height of the big-band period, Hawkins thrived as
a freelancer, thereby pointing the way for the young rebels to
come. Of course, it is Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie who are
most closely identified with the rise of bop, and DeVeaux gives
them full treatment, but one of the strengths of this excellent
book is the attention it devotes to the life of the working
musician, to the exigencies of the road and the economics of making
music as they impacted the less-fabled players. At a time when
shrill controversy is raging throughout jazz criticism and
historiography, this measured, thoughtful, and exceptionally
well-documented volume is a welcome antidote. Although there are
extensive and highly technical musical analyses, the less
sophisticated jazz fan will find much here to prize as well.
(Kirkus Reviews)
The richest place in America's musical landscape is that fertile
ground occupied by jazz. Scott DeVeaux takes a central chapter in
the history of jazz - the birth of bebop - and shows how our
contemporary ideas of this uniquely American art form flow from
that pivotal moment. At the same time, he provides an extraordinary
view of the United States in the decades just prior to the civil
rights movement. DeVeaux begins with an examination of the Swing
Era, focusing particularly on the position of African American
musicians. He highlights the role played by tenor saxophonist
Coleman Hawkins, a 'progressive' committed to a vision in which
black jazz musicians would find a place in the world commensurate
with their skills. He then looks at the young musicians of the
early 1940s, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and
Thelonious Monk, and links issues within the jazz world to other
developments on the American scene, including the turmoil during
World War II and the pervasive racism of the period. Throughout,
DeVeaux places musicians within the context of their professional
world, paying close attention to the challenges of making a living
as well as of making good music. He shows that bebop was
simultaneously an artistic movement, an ideological statement, and
a commercial phenomenon. In drawing from the rich oral histories
that a living tradition provides, DeVeaux's book resonates with the
narratives of individual lives. While "The Birth of Bebop" is a
study in American cultural history and a critical musical inquiry,
it is also a fitting homage to bebop and to those who made it
possible.
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