The Bebop Era

The bebop era emerged in the early 1940s and marked a revolutionary shift in jazz toward harmonic complexity, rhythmic intensity, and improvisation. In this course, we explore bebop’s social, historical, and musical developments, focusing on the innovations that transformed jazz into a sophisticated art form. We examine how figures like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk broke away from the swing tradition with instrumental innovations across the rhythm and horn sections. Our exploration includes Minton’s Playhouse, a Harlem jazz club, where regular jam sessions became a significant factor in the development of bebop. We also trace bebop’s post-war historical context, analyzing how the movement served as a form of African American resistance against racial discrimination as well as the genre’s broader cultural impact, including how bebop alienated some traditional audiences while establishing jazz as a serious art music. This course will be recorded. Students will have access to the video for 30 days.