Growing up in 50s...I heard the music of Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Nat King Cole and other dance bands from the 30s and 40s. Listeners could tap their foot and move to the rhythm.
___This music was popular in America___
When Rock & Roll from Buddy Holly, Elvis and others hit the scene...in the mid 50s “Swing” music slowly evaporated from the airwaves.
Jazz was still being created but it was something different. The drummers that created the pulse of swing music were getting older. The 4 on the floor groove they had been playing would disappear...for the “new jazz” and bebop style.
Gene Krupa, Baby Dodds, Big Sid Catlett, Zutty Singleton, Papa Joe Jones and others were not replaced...but the music of Charlie Parker and other Bebop musicians required something else.
___The word/folklore is...Kenny Clarke stopped playing 4 on the floor and started “dropping bombs” with the bass drum... he started playing ding-ding-a-ding----on his ride cymbal___
In the bass player-less Benny Goodman quartet...Gene was responsible for the 4/4 pulse. The tuba was eliminated. Bebop required the acoustic bass player to walk quarter notes...what the drummer played in swing music. [Pulse and Bottom]
___In my opinion...this is where it went bad for “Jazz” as a popular style of music___
Bebop tempos became very fast. [Semi-difficult for drummers to play on the bass drum pedal of the late 40s] Drummers were also moving from playing time on the snare and hi-hat to the ride cymbal.
Papa Jo Jones and Chick Webb controlled [and swung] those bands with hi hat cymbals...playing great dynamics and accents.
Certainly the noted bebop players of that generation were great, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Kenny Clark.
___There seems to be a lost transition from Swing to Bebop___
Again in my opinion-Thelonious Monk is the only musician that bridged the gap into bebop.
In fact, I’ve stopped describing Monk as a Bebop player. Most of his tunes were written during the 40s.
His music became the anthem of bebop players, but Monks style always retained the strongest foundation to swing. His tempos were not fast...there was a very distinct pulse.
Art Blakey, Max, Dizzy, Bud and others played Monk’s tunes at the faster tempos associated with [be-bop] Monk “usually” didn’t.
Not in his groups.
Monk was still a Jazz musician playing Swing. His pulse and tempos were always deep into the 4 on the floor groove. He hired his drummers not for their technique...but their ability to play his music...with a certain style.
Both...Ben Riley and Frankie Dunlop were very melodic form players. Their solos occasionally started Monks tunes.
If you look at the popularity of music...Bebop was a hard sell. It was hip in the small jazz clubs...with exceptions...wasn’t as well attended and accepted as the earlier jazz style known as swing.
So what’s my point?
___Monk isn’t a Bebop player...He’s a one of a kind originator___
Because Monk’s instrument [the piano] evolved from “STRIDE” he always had a steady pulse. Horn players, because of the instrument could play faster. ‘Well you needn’t” etc....Monk didn’t play those things in his band at fast....Dizzy, Clifford Brown, Max tempos. (Did he? Monk played traditional swing tempos...If it wasn’t too fast...grooving, he’d get up and dance...if not...[he’d lay out]
Yeah, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Oscar had chops. They could play fast lines. But they’re groove was different than Monk.
It would have been interesting to hear Krupa, Big Sid, Zutty Singleton, Baby Dodds, Ray Bauduc...Even Buddy...
[Older swing drummer’s play with Monk] ___That’s my opinion and I’m [sticking] to it_