Word: bop
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...cover artist first met this week's cover subject, neither quite knew what to make of the other. Painter Boris Chaliapin, son of the late, famed Russian basso, is somewhat more at home in the hot world of opera than in the cool domains of latter-day bop. In answer to requests, Jazz Pianist Thelonious Monk would mutter, "All reet," greatly confusing Chaliapin. When he finally caught on, Chaliapin replied in Russian-accented retaliation: "All root." During four sittings Thelonious had a disconcerting habit of dropping off to sleep. Chaliapin would yell at him, "Monk, Monk, wake up!", then...
...Sound. All the best players of the time would drop by to sit in at Minton's. Saxophonist Charlie ("Bird") Parker, Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Drummer Kenny Clarke and Guitarist Charlie Christian were all regulars and, in fitful collaboration with them, Monk presided at the birth of bop. His playing was a needling inspiration to the others. Rhythms scrambled forward at his touch; the oblique boldness of his harmonies forced the horn players into flights the likes of which had never been heard before. "The Monk runs deep," Bird would say, and with some reluctance Monk became "the High Priest...
...jazz vocabulary like a teacher running a spelling bee; posing questions in rhythm and harmony, she would close her eyes to listen for the answers on bass and drums. Often she seemed concerned with cliches. But somehow, when her fingers sounded the familiar oo-bla-dee and ba-ree-bop, the old phrases rang like new coinage. Which was only right, since Mary Lou minted them first. In the old days when she played "zombie music" and early bop, her style was constantly in transition, constantly a skip ahead of jazz. Now, "playing in the tradition" is a high ideology...
...jazz world puts all its heroes in "bags"-tight little schools of artistic similarity that confine each jazzman to his own musical neighborhood: Funk, Freedom, Groove, Bop, Soul. Only three great players have managed to avoid classification-Thelonious Monk because he is inimitable and Monkishly alone, Duke Ellington because he is a kind of president emeritus, and Count Basie because he so perfectly swings. Last week, in a wild and woolly engagement at Manhattan's Basin Street East, the Count's pigeonhole at last be came apparent: he's in the New Year...
...Except for the brazenly modern harmonies and voicings of his new arrangements, the "Basie sound" has remained steadfastly the same all along. With Benny Goodman his main competition, Basie was a swing king in the '30s, and his style is still defiantly prewar. In the first years of bop, Basie was considered so sadly reactionary that his band endured a long eclipse. Then, after four years' touring with a small combo, Basie collected a new 16-piece ensemble in 1952, and within a year it was fully established as the swingingest band in the land...