Hard bop

Style · 1954-1968 · New York, Detroit · Modern jazz (1940-1970)

A return to the blues, gospel and R&B within bebop. New York and Detroit. Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Blue Note of Francis Wolff and Rudy Van Gelder.

How to recognize it by ear

• Lineup: a quintet or sextet, with two horns (trumpet and saxophone) in front of the rhythm section. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers are the model.
• Color: the blues and gospel come back to the foreground. People sometimes say "funky" to describe this warmth.
• Theme: catchy, often built as call and response between the piano and the brass.
• Rhythm section: a walking bass and powerful drums. You hear the groove before the harmony.
• The sound of the records: the Blue Note label, its covers, and its recordings from Rudy Van Gelder's studio have become the image of the style.

Where to start

• Moanin' — Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (1958, Easy): A gospel call and response between the piano and the brass: the first track to listen to.
• Song for My Father — Horace Silver (1964, Easy): A theme with a Latin rhythm that Horace Silver dedicated to his father.
• The Sidewinder — Lee Morgan (1964, Easy): A boogaloo groove that became one of the biggest hits on the Blue Note label.
• Cantaloupe Island — Herbie Hancock (1964, Easy): An easy-to-remember piano riff, showing hard bop ready to turn toward funk.
• Giant Steps — John Coltrane (1960, Advanced): To save for later: the most dreaded chord progression in the repertoire.

Hard bop and modal jazz

Modal jazz, in the late 1950s, leaves behind hard bop's rapid succession of chords. It improvises on a few scales, with calmer tempos and more space. Listen to Moanin' then So What: the gap is measured in a few minutes.

What is still debated

Periodization debated: 1955-1965 for Rosenthal, 1955-1968 for Yanow. Start date used here: Art Blakey at Birdland, February 1954.

Where it comes from

• Blues, spirituals, work songs
• Bebop (Minton's, Monroe's)

What it gave rise to or influenced

• Modal
• Soul jazz, boogaloo
• Fusion, jazz-rock, jazz-funk
• Neoclassicism, Young Lions
• Israeli jazz
• Current scene (New York, Chicago, worldwide)

Artists

• Thelonious Monk (1917–1982, piano, composition)
• Max Roach (1924–2007, drums)
• Art Blakey (1919–1990, drums)
• John Coltrane (1926–1967, tenor and soprano saxophones)
• Sonny Rollins (1930–2026?, tenor saxophone)
• Charles Mingus (1922–1979, double bass, composition)
• Wayne Shorter (1933–2023, tenor and soprano saxophones)
• Horace Silver (1928–2014, piano)
• Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023, piano)
• Abbey Lincoln (1930–2010, vocals)
• Wynton Marsalis (1961, trumpet)
• Toshiko Akiyoshi (1929, piano, big band)
• Oliver Nelson (1932–1975, saxophone, composition)
• Alain Jean-Marie (1945, piano)
• Fred Nardin (1987, piano, organ)
• Les McCann (1935–2023, piano, vocals)
• Monty Alexander (1944, piano)
• Donald Byrd (1932–2013, trumpet)
• Roy Hargrove (1969–2018, trumpet, flugelhorn)
• Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra (big band)
• Stan Tracey (1926–2013, piano, vibraphone)
• Ray Brown (1926–2002, double bass, cello)
• Bobby Jaspar (1926–1963, tenor saxophone, flute)
• Kenny Dorham (1924–1972, trumpet, vocals)
• Kenny Barron (1943, piano)
• Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (1922–1986, tenor saxophone)
• Charlie Rouse (1924–1988, tenor saxophone, flute)
• Oliver Jones (1934–2026, piano)
• Steve Turre (1948, trombone, conch shells)
• Emmet Cohen (1990, piano, Hammond organ)
• Florian Pellissier (piano)
• Bobby Watson (saxophone)
• Ack van Rooyen (1930–2021, flugelhorn, trumpet)
• Hein van de Geyn (1956, double bass)
• Tineke Postma (1978, alto saxophone, soprano saxophone)
• Jesse van Ruller (1972, guitar)
• Marc van Roon (1967, piano)
• Peter Beets (1971, piano)

Sources

• EN : Hard bop

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The editorial sections of this page (how to listen, where to start, landmarks) are written by Jazzency and are being proofread.