HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE                       HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE                     HOME   Reading Texts   "The Cult of Bebop"       ISSUES:   JAZZ CULTURE RACE

JAZZ HISTORY and Bebop   Audience & the Performer Bebop musicians have been cast as disdainful of the dance-hall performers of the Swing era.  This was associated with a new attitude towards jazz as an art, in which the musician, rather than the audience, had the primary role.  Jazz musicians were less communicative with the audience.     INTERPRETATIONS QUESTIONS OTHER SOURCES INTERPRETATONS DeVeaux:  Jazz musicians including Beboppers were primarily performers rather than composers or artists.  It is an idealised view of  history that portrays jazz as aiming towards art.   Rather, commercialism and contracts were always a part of the jazz and music industry.   Bebop musicians sought to establish their own musical niche to bring them greater economic reward and control over the indusry. LeRoi Jones:  Bebop developed as an art since it was outside of the mainstream.  By taking it there, the African American musicians removed middle-class African Americans as a potential audience. Linking Issues Culture: Avant-garde Jazz History: Industry   QUESTIONS  How does Dizzy represent the professional nature of jazz industry? IntroLie Four  Lie Four LieSixLieSixLie Six Lie Eight Lie Eight Lie Nine Lie Ten   Were Bebop players more concerned with aesthetics or economics? Economics IntroLie Four  Lie Four Lie Six  Lie Eight  Lie Ten Aesthetics  LieSix  Lie Eight   OTHER SOURCES  & DISCUSSIONS See Howard S. Becker's article "The Professional Dance Musician and His Audience" for a contemporary academic analysis of professional jazz musicians in the lates 1940s.  Contains interviews about musicians' relation to 'squares' and their self-isolation.