THE HARD BOP ERA
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The Mainstream of Jazz - 1954-1968
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Calvin
H. Neal, Jr.
August 19, 2015
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ORIGINS OF HARD BOP
Hard
bop was the mainstream sound of jazz from around late 1954 until 1968. An
outgrowth of the bop being played by Dizzy and Bird of the late 1950’s and
early 1950’s, hardbops’ more lyrical, gospel inflected brand of jazz was
starting to take a hold by 1954. I trace the first recorded session that is
more hard bop than the bop of old, to a live Blue Note recording from 1954,
though the first recordings of Horace Silver and Art Blakey in a Jazz
Messengers aggregation date to an October 31, 1953 live recording session at
Birdland, which featured Silver and Blakey joined by trumpeter Kenny Dorham,
Lou Donaldson on alto and bassist Gene Ramey. And the first Blue Note recordings
of The Jazz Messengers make up the classic album, Horace Silver and The
Jazz Messengers. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack home studio
November 12, 1954 and February 6, 1955, Silver and Blakey are joined again by
trumpeter Dorham, as tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and Doug Watkins on bass are
welcomed. This is the set that yielded the hard bop standards, The Preacher and Doodlin’, both
penned by Silver. Upon Silver’s departure in the summer of 1956, Art Blakey and
The Jazz Messengers recorded for Atlantic, Calliope, Cadet, Pacific Jazz and
RCA Bluebird records before making their first Blue Note recording. Blue Note
recorded Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers on October 30, 1958 for the
historic, Moanin’
session. The first in a legendary run of excellent recording sessions for Blue
Note, this quintet was comprised of Blakey’s drums, Lee Morgan on trumpet,
tenor saxophonist and composer extraordinaire Benny Golson, Bobby Timmons on
piano and Jymie Merritt on bass.On the night of February 21, 1954, Blue Note
Records recorded a live session at New York’s famed Birdland Club, which featured Art Blakey and his
Quintet, recorded live by Rudy Van Gelder,
this night music, released as Art Blakey Quintet: A Night At Birdland Vols. 1
& 2, is the session that
started the reign of hard bop. That night, the Art Blakey Quintet consisted of
a front line of alto
saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who would becoming one of Blue Notes longest signed
recording artist, and the
lamentable trumpet sensation, Clifford Brown, who would also prove to be a driving force behind the
birth of hard bop. Brown demonstrates why he was the rising star among trumpeters. His sound was
articulate, muscular and fluent. Pianist Horace
Silver, longtime Blakey collaborator, was another of the leading exponents of
hard bop, leading his own groups after his 1956 split from Blakey. Silver, born
of Black and Portuguese descent in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1928 was discovered
by Stan Getz and brought to New York in 1950. He and Blakey started playing and
recording together in 1953 and co-led the original version of the Jazz
Messengers in 1953 nominally led then, by Silver. After parting ways with
Blakey in 1956, Silver led his own hard bop groups, usually quintet or sextets,
for Blue Note from the 1950’s until the late 1970’-early 1980’s. The names that
passed through the Silver camp are more than impressive. Blue Mitchell, Woody
Shaw, Carmell Jones, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Junior Cook, Clifford Jordan,
Michael and Randy Brecker all were at one time very integral parts of the
Horace Silver Quintet. Three Silver sets from the hard bop era feature three
different front lines and show the type of talent that Silver groomed. A
January 13, 1958 session, again from Van Gelder’s Hackensack studios, Further
Explorations by the Horace Silver Quintet, featured a front line of trumpeter
Art Farmer and Chicago bred tenor sax man, Clifford Jordan. Silver, Teddy
Kotick on bass and Louis Hayes on drums round out the rhythm section. The Outlaw and Pyramids are
standouts in this session. Following a trip to the Orient, the quintet,
featuring Silver’s longest tenured front line; Miami native Blue Mitchell on
trumpet and fellow Floridian, Pensacola’s own Junior Cook on trumpet, Gene
Taylor on bass and John Harris on drums, went this time to, the then new, Van
Gelder’s studios on July 13 & 14, 1958 and laid down, The Tokyo Blues.
Van Gelder having a few years earlier moved from his parent’s home in
Hackensack, into a full-fledged studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ Silver. Then, in
sessions that spanned October 31, 1963, January 28, 1964 and October 26, 1964,
all recorded in Englewood Cliffs, gave us perhaps Silver’s most well-known
project. Song For My Father is by far the most well recognized of Silver
compositions.Song For My Father
featured two different versions of the Silver Quintet. Six of the ten tracks,
including the intoxicating title track feature Silver, Carmell Jones on
trumpet, Joe Henderson, tenor sax, Teddy Smith on bass and drummer Roger
Humphries. The other four were Silver with his classic quintet, with the same
personnel as on Tokyo Blues, only Roy Brooks had taken his place as regular
drummer, replacing John Harris. Blakey as well groomed some of hard bops’
finest artists. Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard,
Curtis Fuller, Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett and
the brothers Marsalis, Wynton and Branford, were all graduates of Blakey’s
“Hard Bop Academy”. Just like Silver, Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, played
hard bop for almost 50 years. Throughout the hearty years of hard bop, Blue
Note Records was the top label in jazz and the leading proponent of the genre.
Blue Note was famous for it’s paid rehearsal sessions, all-star rosters, the
brilliant Reid Miles, who designed the artfully designed album covers and for
the remarkable sound of engineer Rudy Van Gelder. Other labels like Savoy,
Riverside, Milestone and Prestige also released albums by the days leading
artists; but it was inevitably the rich, crisp, magical sound that Van Gelder
brought to the table that separated Blue Note from the pack. And it’s all star
sessions didn’t hurt either. The session that immediatelycomes to mind, is a
session led by still under appreciated pianist Conrad Yeatis “Sonny” Clark.
Born in Herminie, PA, July 21, 1913, Clark played with Buddy DeFranco, Frank
Rosolino and Howard Rumsey’s Lighthouse All Stars in the early1950’s before
returning east, accompanying Dinah Washington. He became the in house pianist
for Blue Note sessions and led several memorable sessions of his own. The
session in question, January 5, 1958’s Cool Struttin’, has been hailed by some
as the session that defined hard bop in the 1950’s. Led by Clark’s bop
inspired, funky style, this set is hard bop heaven. Clark is joined by young
trumpeter Art Farmer and alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, who is beginning to
come into his own. Known then for his astringent, acid sound, McLean was never
as smooth and mellow as he is on this set. Farmer also was starting to take a
hold of the big mellow sound that would be his distinction both on trumpet and
flugelhorn. Detroit bassist and Blue Note mainstay Paul Chambers and the
inimitable Philly Joe Jones, on drums round out this legendary quintet.
Recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack, NJ studios, this is must have jazz.
From the session opening title track, a blues composed by Clark that swings
from the start, to the Miles Davis penned “Sippin’At Bells”, this is hard bop
at its finest.
