The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History
Brand: University of California Press
Categories: Books, Arts & Photography, Music



Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520205790
Publisher: University of California Press
Print length: 587 pages
Publication date: December 2, 1997
ISBN-13: 978-0520205796
Edition: First Edition
subtitle: First Edition
author: Scott DeVeaux
review: Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Review According to Scott DeVeaux, who has been called the Bud Powell of jazz historians, no single, completely inclusive definition of jazz exists; all that remains to define it is its vigorous evolution. Accordingly, jazz historians are "obsessed with continuity and consensus, even--perhaps especially-- when the historical record suggests disruption and dissent." Bebop, such a self-effacing, clownish term that in no way suggests the complexities of its sounds and rhythms, would become synonymous with a whole new musical sensibility, thought by some to herald nothing less than a revolution. DeVeaux succumbs neither to the evolution nor revolution analysis, but creates an intricate historical weave that sets bebop in the broader social and political contexts. Bebop burst onto the scene more than evolved out of it. Sundry other forms, musical and literary, also blew the minds of cultural conservatives; modernism was born, exemplified by James Joyce and Arnold Schoenberg . But, unlike literature and classical music, jazz before 1945 enjoyed no such classical standing. It was a form utterly dependent on and responsive to its audience. Suddenly, that relationship was reversed; jazz became avant-garde, newly inaccessible. DeVeaux offers the reader myriad such connections, asking questions that have large cultural repercussions in the artistic and commercial realms. What happened, for example, when the gap between composers and performers closed; who, then, would "own" the music; what was the impact of improvisation, the backbone of the form, on the recording industry? Not written for the casual jazz fan (although certainly a highly readable chronicle of popular, midcentury culture), The Birth of Bebop combines the historian's breathtaking overview, the scholar's insistence on detail, and first-person accounts of such greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Eckstine . The oral histories and in-depth analyses of jazz compositions edge bebop beyond its usual treatment; DeVeaux presents a more encompassing, more exciting argument than the more typical evolution/revolution theories. By addressing the impact of bebop on the commercial, political, and aesthetic aspects of American culture, DeVeaux reveals it in all its richness--as artistic movement, cultural ideology, and commercial breakthrough. From Library Journal DeVeaux (music, Univ. of Virginia) provides a fresh look at the social forces that helped foster bebop jazz. Concentrating on the years from the late 1930s through 1945, he first examines the growth of a national music market, which helped generate mass hysteria over big bands and their leaders. The second section describes such societal factors as the postwar economic slump, ongoing racism, the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, and the rise of small venues for performance as reasons for the shift from an interest in big bands toward more specialized music, including small combo jazz. The last section discusses the popularity among jazz aficionados of virtuosos such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, who deserted big bands for small combo bop improvisation. Despite some unnecessary music theory, the author has successfully presented a compelling rationale for bop as both an evolution and a revolutionary break from the musical past. Recommended for anyone interested in jazz or America during the war.?David P. Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus Reviews 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. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review ...a model of what such scholarship can and should be: I know of no other academic study of jazz that integrates musicology, biography and cultural history with comparable success. -- The Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout ...negotiating this difficult terrain, DeVeaux has written a useful, at times fascinating, account and accounting for the extraordinary American music that is bebop. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Phil Schaap A "fine history of jazz." -- The Economist From the Inside Flap "Authoritative and engrossing—the inside story, full of fascinating insights."—Sonny Rollins "Moving far beyond the old revolution-evolution paradigms, DeVeaux . . . demonstrates how the creators of this music negotiated a position on the shifting terrain of the American cultural landscape during World War II. In the process he provides a new model for how jazz history might be written."—Mark Tucker, author of Ellington: The Early Years "A work of scholarship as dizzying as bop itself. Deeply knowing and thrillingly written, The Birth of Bebop is nothing less than the most commanding work ever on its subject. DeVeaux is the Bud Powell of jazz historians."—David Hajdu, author of Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn From the Back Cover "Authoritative and engrossing (the inside story, full of fascinating insights." (Sonny Rollins) About the Author Scott DeVeaux is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Jazz in America: Who's Listening? (1995) and coeditor of The Music of James Scott (1992). Read more