Can you explain the difference between cool jazz and bebop?

Answer 1

Be-Bop is a STYLE of Jazz which began in the early forties. During WWII Big Bands (who played a style of Jazz called "SWING") lost many members to the draft, and a shrinking number of venues could afford to pay large ensembles. A small coterie of young players (including trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianist Thelonious Monk, guitarist Charlie Christian, drummer Kenny Clarke and bassist Oscar Pettiford) began experimenting together with new musical ideas. They, and other like-minded individuals (mostly young, but including some progressive elder statesmen like Coleman Hawkins) included complex harmonies of the sort used by Ravel and Debussy as well as virtuosic technique which they developed on their own. While the discipline of highly-arranged big-bands required restrictions of every sort, the small form factor of be-bop groups allowed for a great deal of interplay and freedom of communications among the rhythm section and soloists. Drummers now "dropped bombs" accenting and inspiring horn soloists, and pianists or Guitarists were relieved of timekeeping duties. Instead of complicated arrangements, be-bop musicians primarily improvised on variations of the 12-bar blues form or well-known popular "tin-pan-alley"show tunes (especially Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm") with absurdly complicated melodies superimposed over those structures. Extreme tempos were also the norm, elevating be-bop Jazz from dancing music to "art" music. because arrangements (and the original melody of the tune) were now superfluous, soloists would "stretch out" improvising much longer over several choruses of a tune's structure. The ability to spontaneously invent creative new melodies became far more important than beautiful tone, hitting high notes, or other important attributes for "swing" players.

Charlie Parker arguably contributed the most to the genre, innovating at every harmonic, melodic and rhythmic level. A genius akin to Mozart "Bird" was widely imitated both for his musical contributions and hedonistic lifestyle (as an alcoholic and heroin addict.) Unfortunately, many "hero-worshipers" followed his example, leading to a near-epidemic of heroin addicts among be-bop musicians.

Bebop has since been absorbed into modern jazz, and what was once considered wild and revolutionary is now heard everyday on car commercials. Branches of be-bop known as 'hard-bop" which absorbed more bluesy gospel elements and "cool jazz" where bebop was interpreted by mostly white West-Coast musicians have both been accepted as "mainstream Jazz" by the '70s.

Answer 2

Audio: "The reason we call it cool jazz was because this was a reaction to be-bop. Be-bop was a very energetic and a very exciting music and the idea was to knock people over with the music but this sort of brought everything down. Cool brought everything down to the unaccompanied phase."

I found this audio online. Cool jazz was a break-off from be-bop. Cool jazz is more mellow and usually only one main (or a couple) instrument. Look up on youtube be-bop and cool jazz and you'll hear the difference.

Answer 3

The chord progressions are more complex and, in general, the tempos at which the tunes are played are substantially faster.