East Coast Hard Bop
funk
Music - Gospel had moved North with the black Diaspora. The churches and the blues singers were in the big cities. Still moving down a fifth via the flat 7th 5th and 3rd, and including plagal Amens flirting with the subdominant. The music 'preached' with close 'Barbershop' harmonies and secondary dominants giving the music a smooth flow. The Bop lines were simplified and the rhythm more basic and the harmonies less advanced. In hard bop, blue notes were being replaced by minors.
Chronology - In 1950 the swing musicians seemed confused. Bird's Bop revolution couldn't kill Swing nor Dixieland they both continued with Ellington, Basie and Armstrong. The Dixieland revival had bloomed and although Bop was still king, 'Cool' jazz was on its way. Things were looking up for jazz. Schools across the U.S. had Dixieland bands and jazz was starting to be considered more legitimate. A good jazz player could make a decent living and people were less and less opposed to mixed coloured bands. However, by 1952 not much new had happened and Bop was getting old and fragmented into 'Hard' and 'Cool' schools.
1955 Art Blakey formed The Jazz Messengers and recorded for Blue Note - a reaction to the white West Coast too 'Cool' music which was immensely popular but was breaking away from the black jazz traditions. Art Blakey rescued Bop from estrangement and reintroduced earthy, thunderous gospel blues back into the music, always filled with joy, always foot tapping stuff. Folk who could not relate to Bop were dancing again. Bringing the kids back to jazz from 'Rhythm and Blues'.
Blakey was a teacher and mentor to many, the best University around - Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Jackie McLean, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Benny Golson, Woody Shaw, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarret, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis ...
Funk - Horace Silver (1928 - )
Charles Mingus developed 'Hard Bop' into compositions but had only fleeting and temporary success.
But it was Sonny Rollins who carried the Bop inheritance forward.
Hard Bop backlash against cool 1950's. maintaining the rhythmic drive of bebop while including blues and gospel
Funky jazz uses simpler harmonies, an emphasis on rhythm, easily recognizable tunes, and anything else that players like Horace Silver could invent to increase the audience¹s involvement and pleasure. Gospel jazz is an extension of funky jazz. Funky jazz can be heard in the performances of Bobby Timmons with Art Blakey, as well as with Cannonball Adderly. The adoption of gospel idioms by Les McCann could place his performances in the church as easily as on stage or in the night club.