I found this channel because someone just asked me. "What is your favorite jazz genre?" I explained that it was 'Hard Bop' and in particular, I love listening to hard bop trumpeters. If I'm in a store and some comes over the speaker system, I immediately stop to listen and appreciate it. Art Blakey is mentioned here. He always hired great trumpet players for his group. To hear some Clifford Brown or Nat Adderly is still a thrill.
The last time I heard jazz in a record store was in the early nineties. I was in a D.C. Tower records and they played Frank Gambale's Robo Roo, which I bought.
Back in the late sixties Bill Evans played in Ronnie Scotts Club in London, with his trio , and as a regular customer, I was given a front row seat about six feet from the piano keyboard, which was the best seat in the house. A mutual friend named Syd Hadden, who had a band playing in a nearby hotel, introduced my to Horace Silver, who sat down beside me for the three forty five minute sets during which Bill Evans showed the audience how to play his version of cool jazz. Naturally enough the conversation was confined to the breaks between the music, but it was great to talk with Horace Silver, over an extended period in the Jazz epicentre of Europe. Bill looked over his shoulder occasionally, as he could see and hear the chat between us during the breaks between the music. On one occasion when Bill played " Someday My Prince " he looked over his shoulder and smiled as we together gasped with joy as the tune broke through from the verse to the chorus, it was a magical night never to be forgotten.
Would love a video on Post Bop. I'm a huge Mingus fan and have heard his bands described as Hard bop and post bop and would like to clarify the differences.
This was fantastic! I could have watched another hour of this. I absolutely loved Ken Burns' documentary on Jazz but felt it didn't cover the later period enough so this was really good and helped me understand why I like this style whilst not being a huge jazz fan.
really well made, but a part of me wishes that you would've elaborated more on "hard bop's" innovations on the bebop style. one of those examples that couldve been mentioned was the furthering of contrafacts. The presence of rhythm changes and other contrafacts is something that's a really important point to elaborate on, especially post 50s versions of these contrafacts. Also mentioning how key players evolved over the course of this era with playing examples wouldve made things really captivating.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and thanks for watching! When I made the video back in university I had to cut content in order to meet my deadline. The video is focussed on hard bop style through the lens of the music by members of the Jazz Messengers. That's why I didn't end up mentioning other important contributors to the hard bop style. Regarding contrafacts, in my research I didn't come upon much discussion of contrafacts and hard bop. To me contrafacts have always been more associated with bebop. If you've got some great hard bop examples of contrafacts or sources discussing them, do send some my way as I'd love to check them out :D
I just increased my jazz education significantly - well done. I dismissed jazz, most of my life, as incomprehensible pseudo-music...through my studies, however, I have begun to appreciate the thoughtful complexity of this genre.
Epic video. This will always be my favourite style of jazz (mainly due to Hank Mobley). Thank you for making a video about hard bop, since nobody else has really tried to ( on youtube) before.
Hey mate, your video just turned up on my recs and ofc I had to watch it. Please please please do more of these, they are evey bit as entertaining, succint and easy to follow as Lee Morgan's solo on Moanin' (not to mention, there's nowhere near enough good video essays about jazz on this God-forsaken platform). Also, the buttery Aussie voice makes everything even smoother 😁
There are two Jazz stations on the FM dial in Southern California KLON (now KKJZ) Long Beach and KSDS San Diego and both have for years featured hard bop on weekends especially and I remember visiting my friend who was working at the Cadillac dealership in town where they had one of these stations playing over their speakers throughout the lobby and car lot and the music was so perfect for the festive atmosphere and was what made me begin to love that sound. For years in my mind whenever I'd hear it I would call it "Cadillac Jazz" because of where I was when I first took note of it but now I have a lot of the albums and CDs.
Please go on with more Videos. You have definitely a great talent for explaining musical styles. I am a musician and freelancing music critic since 1998 and I really enjoyed your video.
I found your channel the day you released prologue, I can hear the influence. It's so interesting to hear an artist break down the art that inspires there own. I hope that this gets the attention it deserves, and you've earned yourself a life long listener.
Excellent work! You clarified the matter fully - a totally on-the-spot analysis! Hard bop is my favorite jazz genre, by far. And "Moaning" may well be the best hard-bop album ever recorded!
That's fair, and I agree. The Wayne Shorter compositions that everyone knows him for don't fit the hard bop categorisation in the video. I mainly included Witch Hunt because I was listening to the 1981 Jazz Messengers album, 'Album of the Year' on which a version of the song appears and I thought the intro would be perfect for the video. Given that this version was played by the Jazz Messengers, and Shorter had been a member of the group, I figured I could get away with the connection. Especially since I can hear the hard bop / Jazz Messengers influence in that intro. Fun fact: Shorter's album Speak No Evil, on which Witch Hunt appears, was recorded in December of 1964. This was two months after Shorter left The Jazz Messengers in September to join Miles Davis band.
Nicely done, sir. Your point about the melodies, I agree. The "heads" on hard bop tunes are indeed stronger (more singable/thus memorable) than classic bebop. I think that's why hard bop is a gateway to jazz for folks raised on, say, rock music (with the drums being the #2 reason.) Are you aware of this: of the 4 big jazz labels, Blue Note, Impulse, Atlantic, and Riverside, that Blue Note would pay the musicians for a day of rehearsal, before they cut the record, where the other labels just paid for the recording session. They wanted the heads tight, more polished sounding, to differentiate them from the competition. So they'd pay for a rehearsal day. The other labels, the players might just show up for the recording session, so they're just reading it down or learning on the fly. (All this according to Berklee prof Jeff Stoudt from his Jazz History class). I really think that's a big part of why Blue Note was so successful. Just thought you'd dig that bit of trivia if you didn't already know it.
Was definitely true for me in terms of coming in to jazz from rock. Hard Bop is sonically the easiest transition probably because of its heavy emphasis on the blues. I actually don’t like early Bebop too many chords for my tastes.
Trumpeters carried it on. Clifford Brown. Freddie Hubbard. Woody Shaw. If you haven't heard Shaw's album "Stepping Stones, Live at the Village Vanguard" you should check it out. I haven't listened to enough Blakey and your expose highlights the Messengers' impact. So much great music, so little time. Great vid.
Shaw's music is considered more post bop than hard bop, but I agree that Shaw's music is very intense and worth checking out. He's one of my favorite trumpeters!
Interesting and informative. What makes this a great thesis is the clarity with which you described and illustrated the departures from bebop including more solid rhythm section grooves (like so many of the ostinato left hand piano figures heard here), arrangement and compositional strategies, and improvised line styles. Thanks, I enjoyed learning from this and feel inspired to delve deeper into the artists you mentioned.
Julian Lage may not use a strictly hard bop vocabulary but I believe he is the only guitarists to truly capture the tone and aesthetic essence of hard bop.
This is a great video! It's an accurate description of this arcane historical aspect of jazz. What's known as hardbop or post-bop was a response to the less melodic unpopularity of bop. As hard as it was for jazz, it would have been worse for jazz popularity if not for the advent of hardbop. Indeed Horace Silver and Blakey were two of the most prominent pioneers of hard bop or post-bop. Miles, too was a pioneer of hardbop.
I’d never even heard the term hard bop until about a week ago yet most of the jazz I’ve been listening to and liking the most falls into this category, but it’s good to know what to look for in future, thanks
Excellent video. Great job giving a brief overview and summation of the genre and it's origin. Fantastic examples showing typical elements. 10/10; this totally fucking rocks!
I've never knew this was a genre. I always thought it was more big band or sextets that happened to play like this cus it sounds good. I've always if anything considered this good jazz
It would be good to hear a Herbie Hancock pre-Headhunters video. I am a big fan of those many Blue note recordings where you could here what he learned playing with Miles and evolving.
I found this channel because someone just asked me. "What is your favorite jazz genre?" I explained that it was 'Hard Bop' and in particular, I love listening to hard bop trumpeters. If I'm in a store and some comes over the speaker system, I immediately stop to listen and appreciate it. Art Blakey is mentioned here. He always hired great trumpet players for his group. To hear some Clifford Brown or Nat Adderly is still a thrill.
Totally agree! Hard bop trumpet players are something special!
What stores are you hearing hard bop in?
Most stores I go in these days are playing obnoxious computerized teen pop. Seriously what stores are you going in?
@@sethcampbellmusic Right! I'm guessing he's not in the U.S.
The last time I heard jazz in a record store was in the early nineties. I was in a D.C. Tower records and they played Frank Gambale's Robo Roo, which I bought.
Back in the late sixties Bill Evans played in Ronnie Scotts Club in London, with his trio , and as a regular customer, I was given a front row seat about six feet from the piano keyboard, which was the best seat in the house. A mutual friend named Syd Hadden, who had a band playing in a nearby hotel, introduced my to Horace Silver, who sat down beside me for the three forty five minute sets during which Bill Evans showed the audience how to play his version of cool jazz. Naturally enough the conversation was confined to the breaks between the music, but it was great to talk with Horace Silver, over an extended period in the Jazz epicentre of Europe. Bill looked over his shoulder occasionally, as he could see and hear the chat between us during the breaks between the music. On one occasion when Bill played " Someday My Prince " he looked over his shoulder and smiled as we together gasped with joy as the tune broke through from the verse to the chorus, it was a magical night never to be forgotten.
Fantastic story. Do you still go to Ronnie’s much?
Thank you for sharing this great story.
Wonderful story! :)
I'm sure he was a fan of Horace too 😊
Envious of this experience, beautiful story.
Hard Bop, Avant-garde, Free Jazz, and Fusion are my favorites
This is amazing. Please do more of these on different genres and styles of jazz.
Hard bop got me into jazz and the great musicians that played it . lt remains my favourite style of jazz all these years later .
Me too! But Bud Powell and Barry Harris brought me back to bebop. Nothing beats the hood classics
The handoff from the trumpet solo to the tenor solo in Moanin makes me jump out of my seat every time.
Would love a video on Post Bop. I'm a huge Mingus fan and have heard his bands described as Hard bop and post bop and would like to clarify the differences.
Horace Silver was the man!
Agreed ! Ronnie Scott introduced me to him one night along with Phil Seaman, we had a great conversation. Phil was a bit wrecked though as ever.
Been searching for this sound all my life. Now I know what it is. 😍
This was fantastic! I could have watched another hour of this. I absolutely loved Ken Burns' documentary on Jazz but felt it didn't cover the later period enough so this was really good and helped me understand why I like this style whilst not being a huge jazz fan.
really well made, but a part of me wishes that you would've elaborated more on "hard bop's" innovations on the bebop style. one of those examples that couldve been mentioned was the furthering of contrafacts. The presence of rhythm changes and other contrafacts is something that's a really important point to elaborate on, especially post 50s versions of these contrafacts. Also mentioning how key players evolved over the course of this era with playing examples wouldve made things really captivating.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and thanks for watching! When I made the video back in university I had to cut content in order to meet my deadline. The video is focussed on hard bop style through the lens of the music by members of the Jazz Messengers. That's why I didn't end up mentioning other important contributors to the hard bop style.
Regarding contrafacts, in my research I didn't come upon much discussion of contrafacts and hard bop. To me contrafacts have always been more associated with bebop. If you've got some great hard bop examples of contrafacts or sources discussing them, do send some my way as I'd love to check them out :D
Thanks to TH-cam algorithms, I’ve stumbled across this channel.
Thanks TH-cam I’ve just subscribed.
Thanks for the upload, very interesting content
my favorite subgenre of jazz has always been hardbop
I just increased my jazz education significantly - well done.
I dismissed jazz, most of my life, as incomprehensible pseudo-music...through my studies, however, I have begun to appreciate the thoughtful complexity of this genre.
Dude, your channel needs to blow up. This is one of the best music-themed videos I've seen in quite awhile. Thank you
Epic video. This will always be my favourite style of jazz (mainly due to Hank Mobley). Thank you for making a video about hard bop, since nobody else has really tried to ( on youtube) before.
Excellent presentation, thank you !
Bill P.
This has to be one of my favourite video essays on youtube.
Rewarching to stay inspired while disabled and unable to play my bass. More on jazz, just like this, please !!
Hard bop and West Coast Jazz love 50’s Jazz
Please do more of this stuff. Subscribed and shared.
All hail the TH-cam algorithm for suggesting this video.
Hey mate, your video just turned up on my recs and ofc I had to watch it. Please please please do more of these, they are evey bit as entertaining, succint and easy to follow as Lee Morgan's solo on Moanin' (not to mention, there's nowhere near enough good video essays about jazz on this God-forsaken platform). Also, the buttery Aussie voice makes everything even smoother 😁
There are two Jazz stations on the FM dial in Southern California KLON (now KKJZ) Long Beach and KSDS San Diego and both have for years featured hard bop on weekends especially and I remember visiting my friend who was working at the Cadillac dealership in town where they had one of these stations playing over their speakers throughout the lobby and car lot and the music was so perfect for the festive atmosphere and was what made me begin to love that sound. For years in my mind whenever I'd hear it I would call it "Cadillac Jazz" because of where I was when I first took note of it but now I have a lot of the albums and CDs.
Please go on with more Videos. You have definitely a great talent for explaining musical styles. I am a musician and freelancing music critic since 1998 and I really enjoyed your video.
Thanks, I knew I liked hard bop but didn't know exactly how it was distinguished from earlier bebop. Very nice video essay.
I love hard bop! Thank you for this video!
I found your channel the day you released prologue, I can hear the influence. It's so interesting to hear an artist break down the art that inspires there own. I hope that this gets the attention it deserves, and you've earned yourself a life long listener.
Very kind words! Thanks so much, I really do appreciate it!
Listened to jazz passively my whole life but this video is helping me learn actively!
Excellent work! You clarified the matter fully - a totally on-the-spot analysis! Hard bop is my favorite jazz genre, by far. And "Moaning" may well be the best hard-bop album ever recorded!
Great video! I dont see Wayne Shorters music as hard bop though, thats just something else.
That's fair, and I agree. The Wayne Shorter compositions that everyone knows him for don't fit the hard bop categorisation in the video. I mainly included Witch Hunt because I was listening to the 1981 Jazz Messengers album, 'Album of the Year' on which a version of the song appears and I thought the intro would be perfect for the video. Given that this version was played by the Jazz Messengers, and Shorter had been a member of the group, I figured I could get away with the connection. Especially since I can hear the hard bop / Jazz Messengers influence in that intro.
Fun fact: Shorter's album Speak No Evil, on which Witch Hunt appears, was recorded in December of 1964. This was two months after Shorter left The Jazz Messengers in September to join Miles Davis band.
@@regiashman I see, but using witch hunt is just confusing. Why not start with something obvious like Moanin?
This is great, would love to see more videos on other jazz genres
Bro you started an essay about hard bop with probably one of the most iconic post bop tunes lol . Great video by the way.
Haha good point! It's the Jazz Messengers playing it so I figured I could make it work for the sick opening 🙂
Nicely done, sir.
Your point about the melodies, I agree. The "heads" on hard bop tunes are indeed stronger (more singable/thus memorable) than classic bebop. I think that's why hard bop is a gateway to jazz for folks raised on, say, rock music (with the drums being the #2 reason.)
Are you aware of this: of the 4 big jazz labels, Blue Note, Impulse, Atlantic, and Riverside, that Blue Note would pay the musicians for a day of rehearsal, before they cut the record, where the other labels just paid for the recording session. They wanted the heads tight, more polished sounding, to differentiate them from the competition. So they'd pay for a rehearsal day. The other labels, the players might just show up for the recording session, so they're just reading it down or learning on the fly. (All this according to Berklee prof Jeff Stoudt from his Jazz History class). I really think that's a big part of why Blue Note was so successful. Just thought you'd dig that bit of trivia if you didn't already know it.
Thanks! I didn't know about labels paying for rehearsal days but it makes perfect sense. Rehearsal time makes a world of difference.
Was definitely true for me in terms of coming in to jazz from rock. Hard Bop is sonically the easiest transition probably because of its heavy emphasis on the blues. I actually don’t like early Bebop too many chords for my tastes.
Trumpeters carried it on. Clifford Brown. Freddie Hubbard. Woody Shaw.
If you haven't heard Shaw's album "Stepping Stones, Live at the Village Vanguard" you should check it out.
I haven't listened to enough Blakey and your expose highlights the Messengers' impact. So much great music, so little time. Great vid.
Shaw's music is considered more post bop than hard bop, but I agree that Shaw's music is very intense and worth checking out. He's one of my favorite trumpeters!
Excellent. I've been listening to a lot of Hard Bop lately and it great to deepen my understanding of the music, as a non-musian.
Interesting and informative. What makes this a great thesis is the clarity with which you described and illustrated the departures from bebop including more solid rhythm section grooves (like so many of the ostinato left hand piano figures heard here), arrangement and compositional strategies, and improvised line styles.
Thanks, I enjoyed learning from this and feel inspired to delve deeper into the artists you mentioned.
Oh dear, this is excellent. So many insights and clarifications. Couldn't thank you more.
Julian Lage may not use a strictly hard bop vocabulary but I believe he is the only guitarists to truly capture the tone and aesthetic essence of hard bop.
This is a great video! It's an accurate description of this arcane historical aspect of jazz. What's known as hardbop or post-bop was a response to the less melodic unpopularity of bop. As hard as it was for jazz, it would have been worse for jazz popularity if not for the advent of hardbop. Indeed Horace Silver and Blakey were two of the most prominent pioneers of hard bop or post-bop. Miles, too was a pioneer of hardbop.
Fuck yeah been waiting for someone to make a video like this about hard bop. Some of the hardest music out there imo
Hopping on the bandwagon of love and support for this video. Great work, hop you got an A ;P
Absolutely fantastic essay! Would love to see more!
A really nice and comprehensive summary, great!
I’d never even heard the term hard bop until about a week ago yet most of the jazz I’ve been listening to and liking the most falls into this category, but it’s good to know what to look for in future, thanks
oh, so it's the hard bop that I like.. thanks for sharing the knowledge. 👍
That was excellent! Love Moanin’ - without doubt THE Hard Bop anthem! I would add Dis Here, Dat Dere and Work Song.
That witch hunt smacked me right in the face like I like it.. sign of the start of a great video 💯
Great video - clear explanation of hard bop with excellent musical examples! I’m a subscriber now.
LOVE this video. I’m workin’ and lurkin’. Great voice overs, video content, and educational material here. Thank you 🙏
Very cool documentary! I really enjoy the way this is edited, feels refreshing and dynamic
The music speaks for itself!
Love this video! Would love to see some more music/jazz video essays from you :)
This was truly great. Thank you!
Thank you. This is an excellent video: informative, succinct, and well illustrated.
This video's brilliant! Would love to see more jazz history videos just like this. Thanks a bunch :)
Amen cadence + Amen break = I gotta song, Amen.
Awesome video! Hope to see you do more video essays :)
Excellent video. Great job giving a brief overview and summation of the genre and it's origin. Fantastic examples showing typical elements. 10/10; this totally fucking rocks!
well done :-) short, concise and very informative!
Lovely video. Thank you for sharing
This is a really well made video, I hope to see more.
Great video. Thank you.
Very cool looking forward to see more videos like this
Very well done. More of these!
Thanks for the good information.
Excellent video. As jazz progressed my interest went down the Hard Bop path, and this analysis showcases the best of it.
Just a big THANK YOU for educating us!
Lots of love from Chile. Suscribed!
Very Nice Presentation, Thank you!!!
I've never knew this was a genre. I always thought it was more big band or sextets that happened to play like this cus it sounds good. I've always if anything considered this good jazz
Great video
Thank you so much!
excellent
Thank you 🎵🙌🏽💖
Absolute, incandescent brilliance. I’m not a musician at all, but I know genius when I hear it. 😂
This was very enjoyable and well thought out!
Danke!!! Great!!!!
This is great! Hope you make more.
More of this🎶💪🏿!
Maravilloso video !
Wanna know what Hard Bop is?.......just watch this excellent vid...
Fantastic video, keep it up 👍
Superb
Pleaseeee make more!!
excellent production quality mate. Keep up these type of vids and you will only get bigger. Well done
It would be good to hear a Herbie Hancock pre-Headhunters video. I am a big fan of those many Blue note recordings where you could here what he learned playing with Miles and evolving.
Very well done, informative!
would love to see more videos like!
Love it Reg! great explanation of hard bop!
I love hard bop, great video thanks.
Very good video. Clear ideas very well presented. Thank you!
Nicely explained, exemplified, and presented.
Found ur vid off of Reddit
This was great! Hope you make some more on different jazz genres.
been wondering why people arent making content like this .. big up my guy
Super helpful and informative. Thank you! I found your video on reddit
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
This is great I hope you upload more stuff!
Very helpful, thanks 😀
I appriciate your postd
I'd like to learn more
about jazz😊
I did a paper on this at UNT a while ago. Good vid 🐬
Great work