Flo-+4.Later+to+modern+day+jazz

**Late to modern day Jazz:** Cool Jazz and Hard Bop
It has become increasingly difficult to categorize modern jazz. A large segment of the music does not fit into any historical style; it is not as rock-oriented as fusion or as free as avant garde as other types of music but modern jazz is very much a mix of previous styles of Jazz with a flare of over types of influences such as R&B, soul and gospel. Today I will be focusing on two parallel post-Bop movements called cool Jazz and Hard bop.

__ **Cool Jazz** __

Cool Jazz is a restrained, fluid modern-jazz style that was developed in Los Angeles after World War II and was very often played by Caucasian males. Cool jazz is inspired by the previous Jazz style of bebop, but tends to be more calm and subdued compared to the hard bop movement that is also a dirivative of Bebop.

Cool Jazz was very often played for high class parties in L.A. and quickly cought on in New York. They were calm pieces that would allow the people to converse without having the music to be the main focus of the party. The word cool denotes a detachment, a less emotional approach to the Jazz music style. This style was marked by intricate harmonic structures, de-emphasized dynamics, and carefully controlled phrasing and ensemble playing, often with a slight lagging behind the beat. Cool Jazz arrangements tend to be more complex than those part of the Bop movement which was made up of head is played, followed by solos, then played again. Cool jazz consisted of complex harmonies often played behind the improvised solos it was a style that put the spot light on the composer and arranger rather than only the musicians.

This is the first cool Jazz album released in 1949 called //The birth of Cool// with Miles Davis and his band. This song is a perfect interpretation of a typical Cool jazz piece due the prominent stylistic feature of calm and slow and almost soothing feel. This piece has carefully controlled phrasing and ensemble playing and really showcases the arranger’s talent due to the complicated harmonies with different instruments when they all play together. Also this show cases Mile Davis’s incredible trumpet talent. Click here to listen! media type="custom" key="6016019"

**__ Hard Bop __**

Hard Bop is an aggressive, driving, hot style of modern jazz developed by East Coast musicians in the late 1950s as a rejection of the more relaxed, cool style of West Coast jazz. This music was a outgrowth from bebop. It also uses complex chord changes. However, hard bop mixes bebop with R&B, gospel, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano, providing a more "emotional" music.

Hard Bop was mostly developed by Horace Silver Clifford Brown, Art Blakey and Freddie Hubbard. The music was very much oriented around African American style music and sought to make jazz more appealing to dance audiences the way swing used to. The Hard Bop jazz groups would consist of piano, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, double bass and drums players.

One of the main stylistic features that separate Hard Bop from any other type of jazz is the length of the single pieces. The hard bop artists decided to elongate the pieces and some went to 40 minutes for a single piece! By doing this the soloists were therefore able to stretch out and build their improvisations slowly, rather than being forced to express all of their ideas in two choruses. Hard bop featured longer and simpler melody statements, much more freedom for string bassists who sometimes played catchy lines rather than being restricted to four-to-the-bar timekeeping, stronger interaction from the drummers, and generally a bluesier and more soulful approach than classic bebop.

The piece you will hear next is called //Art blakey and the Jazz Messengers Moanin.// This peice is a perfect example of a typical upbeat hard bop piece due to the length and building improvisational solo's by all musicians.

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= Bibliography = //Cool Jazz//. (2008, March 22). Retrieved May 1, 2010, from History of Jazz: http://www.jazzitude.com/histcool.htm //Cool Jazz//. (2009, August 13). Retrieved May 1, 2010, from Sensagent encyclopedia : http://dictionary.sensagent.com/cool+jazz/en-en/ //Devired Bebop eras//. (2005, April 4). Retrieved April 14, 2010, from Jazz Through the Ages : http://airjudden.tripod.com/jazz/styles.html Gridley, C. M. (2008, October 24). //clarifying labels; Hard bop and Cool Jazz//. Retrieved April 31, 2010, from Soundscapes : http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/TRA/Clarifying_labels.shtml //Hard Bop and Cool Jazz//. (2009, November 2). Retrieved april 27, 2010, from History of Jazz: http://www.jazzitude.com/hardbophist.htm //New York: Hard bop and Soul Jazz//. (2007, January 15). Retrieved May 1, 2010, from encyclopedia.com: []