Download Hard Bop, Funky, Gospel Jazz Characteristics Hard (more driving

Hard Bop, Funky, Gospel Jazz
Characteristics
Hard (more driving)
Bop (return to the elements of the bop style)
Funky (rollicking, rhythmic feeling)
Gospel Jazz (funky + elements of early Gospel music)
The Hard Bop style was more improvisational and emotionally based
The Funky Hard Bop era was a return to the Bop style (vitality)
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The term funky was often used interchangeably with soul during this period
The term soul was connected to church and speaks of the emotional content of the music
The term funky had a more earthy association
Funky Jazz Characteristics
Used highly rhythmical melodies and less complex harmonies
Happy sound, lacked tension and frustration
Bop elements which were generally simplified
Borrowed elements from African American church music
Gospel Jazz
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Originally called “soul jazz”
Extension of the funky style
Gospel jazz used more triadic harmonies (like which is found in church hymns)
Rhythm and emotional intensity
Cool jazz and Hard bop
Cool Jazz
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European compositional techniques
Often called “West Coast jazz” - centered in California
Hard bop/Funky
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Adopted the truly American, and oral idioms found in gospel and blues
Centered in New York
Art Blakey
One of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming.
Formed a group called the “Jazz Messengers”
Blakey’s name became synonymous with hard drive and pulsating excitement
Along with pianist Horace Silver formed a group called the “Jazz Messengers”
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Over more than 30 years his band the Jazz Messengers included many young
musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz.
Blakey's group is equivalent only to those of Miles Davis in this regard.
His brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was, and remains, profoundly influential on
mainstream jazz.
Horace Silver
Pianist, composer
Known for his distinctive humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering
contributions to hard bop.
His quintet served as a model for small jazz groups during the 1950s – 1960s
Trained many young players
Excellent composer and arranger
Sonny Rollins
Tenor saxophonist/composer
Also studied piano, and alto sax
Known for melodic style of improvisation
Playing style shows the influence of cool and bop
Charles Mingus
Bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader
Influenced by Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Negro gospel music, Mexican
folk music
Had a strong approach to composition and performance
Excellent bass soloist
Bill Evans
One of the most famous and influential American jazz pianists of the 20th century
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His use of impressionist harmony, his inventive interpretation of traditional jazz
repertoire, and his syncopated and polyrhythmic melodic lines influenced a
generation of pianists
His works continue to influence pianists, guitarists, composers, and interpreters of
jazz music around the world.
Moved to the head of the jazz community when asked to join the Miles Davis group in
“Kind of Blue” album Video
Created a new sound for the piano that took the traditional chords and reshaped them
with his own trademark “voicings”
During his lifetime, Evans was honored with seven Grammy Awards and nominations.
In 1994, he was posthumously honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award.
Watch and listen to the harmonic, and rhythmic complexity of Bill Evans’ trio