Reading Texts
 

"The Cult of Bebop"
 
 
 

ISSUES:
 

JAZZ

CULTURE

RACE
 
 
 
 

Lie number two was that only beboppers wore beards, goatees, and other facial hair and adornments.  I used to shave under my lip.  That spot prickled and itched with scraping.  The hair growing back felt uncomfortable under my mouthpiece, so I let the hair grow into a goatee during my days with Cab Calloway.  Now a trademark, that tuft of hair cushions my mouthpiece and is quite useful to me as a player: at least I’ve always thought it allowed me to play more effectively.  Girls like my goatee too.

I used to wear a mustached, thinking you couldn’t play well  without one.  One day I cut it off accidentally and had to play, and I’ve been playing without a mustache ever since.  Some guy called me “weird” because he looked at me and thought he saw only half a mustache.  The dark spot above my upper lip is actually a callus that formed because of my embouchure.  The right side of my upper lip curls down into the mouthpiece when I form my embouchure to play.

Many modern jazz musicians wore no facial hair at all.  Anyway, we weren’t the only ones during those days with hair on our faces.  What about Clark Gable?”