[Today: Blue Mitchell and the Hard Bop sound...]
Bebop shook up Jazz in the mid-40’s in the same way that Punk disrupted Rock in the mid-70’s. In response to the staid, predictable sound of Swing – think Glenn Miller and/or Benny Goodman – Bop was an electric take on Jazz that featured lightning fast solos and opened new vistas of musical possibility. Behind the musical genius and larger-than-life figures of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Bop gained a foothold in the Jazz community, influencing a new generation of artists and forcing everyone else to sit up and take notice. Unlike Punk, Bop was a more technically complex strain of music, featuring double-time playing, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies. But like Punk, Bop was pooh-pooh’d by an older generation of musicians, even as it swept their brand of music into the dustbin of history.
This new direction was a shot in the arm for Jazz, but it wasn’t very danceable. In reaction to the Dizzying spectacle of Bebop, a faction of musicians created what (confusingly) became known as ‘Hard Bop’ – a more melodic form of Bop that incorporated elements of R&B, Blues, and Gospel. For example, most of the Blue Note albums of the late-50’s and 1960’s are Hard Bop. It was a style pioneered by Art Blakey and Horace Silver with their legendary group The Jazz Messengers, and when Blakey and Silver split in 1956, each started groups that apprenticed some of the most important Hard Bop players. These included trumpeter Richard ‘Blue’ Mitchell, who played with The Horace Silver Quintet from 1958 until 1964.
During that time Mitchell also recorded a number of excellent albums with his own ensembles, foremost among them Blue’s Moods from 1960. This is the only of Mitchell’s seven Riverside albums that features him as the exclusive horn, and it’s a doozy. Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Roy Brooks (drums) are more than just accomplished sidemen – here they make music that would stand up on its own without Mitchell’s trumpet. But the moods alluded to in the album title are provided by Mitchell’s horn, whether he’s floating through a delicate melody (‘When I Fall In Love’), racing an offbeat tempo (‘Scrapple From The Apple’), or a little of both (‘I’ll Close My Eyes’). Blue’s Moods is an enjoyable, expansive listen, and a quintessential example of the Hard Bop sound.
Listen: I Wish I Knew
Listen: I’ll Close My Eyes
Tags: Art Blakey, Bebop, Blue Mitchell, Blue Note, Blue's Moods, Bop, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Hard Bop, Horace Silver, Jazz, Roy Brooks, Sam Jones, The Jazz Messengers, Wynton Kelly
