What's the difference between jazz, blues and bebop?

Question

Could anyone maybe recommend one or 2 famous blues and bebop pieces to listen to? It would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Jazz is an incredibly broad, yet often very precise, musical genre. In the most simple terms, Jazz is a distinct musical genre/style/concept of largely American birth that began to be developed around the turn of the 20th century. The earliest roots of Jazz can be seen in spirituals, ragtime, blues (though Blues has since been counter-influenced by Jazz), classica, African and island, and religious music. Jazz is identified through its distinct rhythmic, melodic and harmonic structures. Since the the 'birth' of Jazz, it has developed into an incredibly diverse number of subgenres, including Bebop.

Bebop is a very specific Jazz movement that began to be developed in the 1940's. Bebop is distinct in that it was perhaps the greatest early manifestiation of the concept of virtuous soloing over structured, predictable chord progressions. (In this sense, Bebop is a direct precursor to what many people instinctively think of as "jazz"). Though Bebop does make use of melodies, such motifs are generally relatively simple and are used more for loose structure in solos. Some of the earliest pioneers of bebop include Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. (On a side note: Bebop can be seen as directly evolving into Cool Jazz and Hard Bop, with such famous Jazz musicians/composers as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, among others).

Blues is another distinctly American (by birth) musical form/genre. Though Blues does predate Jazz, both genres have greatly influenced the other. Despite the many characteristics of Blues, two of the greatest contributions it has given music are 1) the use of non-traditional tones (ie, those not regularly appearing in a traditional, westernn classical key); and 2) the "12-Bar Blues" musical form (a common example might be: I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-I7). However, like I have said, though blues did technically predate Jazz, many Jazz concepts (such as structure, soloing, chords, performance, instrumentation, etc) have since influenced Blues.

I would suggest a little more research into the various forms of Jazz. Bebop is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. You might want to look into Bebop, Hardbop, Big Band, Traditional, New Orleans, Chicago, Free Jazz, Dixieland, Latin Jazz, Sooth Jazz, Cool Jazz, etc.

Answer 2

Bebop Blues

Answer 3

Historically they are part of a continuum. Blues was music sung by blacks in the south and along the Mississippi River originally. The form was plaintiif, often based on African field music. You sing a line twice, and then sum it up with a rhyming phrase. The chord forms of blues relies on the 1, 4 and 5 chords: that's C, F and G in the key of C. Typically the seventh degree of all three chords was flat, and notes were bent, particularly the third and fifth, to achieve an aching mournful sound.

The main instruments of blues were harmonica and guitar, mainly because performers worked street corners from town to town.

Jazz grew out of a combination of blues and gospel music. The harmonic structure of jazz often has similarities to blues, but there is a greater reliance on all of the chords of a key, and in particular the diminished chords and scales define the shape of the melodies and chord structures. Early jazz was fairly simple, with a strong feeling of gospel thrown in, and highly syncopated. It was the piano and horns that defined the instrumentation; and the form because it was based on improvization, quickly branched in many directions from the quick tempo 2 step of dixieland to the more filled out and wilder forms of Chicago and Harlem.

The predominant forms of popular jazz were dixieland and swing, and the greatest artist of that era was perhaps Louis Armstrong, who spent years in the studio recording with jazz musicians from everywhere around the world. This music influenced the European players and so you got the hot club of France, with Gjango Rheinhart and Stephan Grapelli performing all over Europe during the thirties...

In the late forties and early fifties however jazz players started breaking some of the harmonic and melodic conventions of Swing. Reliance on a new harmonic structure began to emerge. Solos became more fragmented and abstract... The harmonic structures became more open and less predictable. This new music was called bebop, and it became the language of many serious players.

In the early sixties, Latin influence cross pollinated with Swing and Bebop and there was a renaissance of latin jazz, particularly in Havana and New York.

That's a nutshell history of jazz up to the fifties.

These days there are many serious jazz players, but the public seems to like a lite version, a la Kenny Gee and such. There are fewer venues for players to work in and improvise with one another, and as is true with every other kind of music except teenybopper music, the interest has declined so much that most musicians struggle to find any work anywhere.

I think it is pretty much true that music is fairly dead in the new media age. Most especially live and improvised music. There's simply no place to make a living doing it...

Answer 4

Scaruffi writes that jazz was always primarily an instrumental style, while blues was first and foremost vocal. Scaruffi notes that the main musical difference between jazz and blues is that jazz contains heavy syncopation, which was derived from ragtime music. Bill Dahl writes that blues music is technically defined by a I-IV-V chord sequence with a 12-bar motif. Herman adds that vocally, the blues is characterized by three-line rhymed stanzas with repeating verses. Flattening the third, fifth and seventh notes of the melody makes for a blues sound, Herman writes. With their distinct origins and geographies, the two musical styles developed their own stars. Scaruffi reports that the first jazz album was recorded by Edward "Kid" Ory and his Creole Orchestra. Early stars included Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone and George Lewis. In the 1950s and 1960s, legends like Miles Davis and John Coltrane became household names. The blues, in turn, boasted players such as Robert Johnson, who was known as "the King of Delta Blues," and Blind Lemon Jefferson. The Memphis band conductor W.C. Handy, and electric blues stars B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, retain a vast influence over contemporary blues artists.

Answer 5

The preeminently influential jazz musician of the 1940s was Charlie Parker, who became the leader of a new style known usually as bebop, but also as rebop or bop. Like Lester Young, Charlie Christian, and other outstanding soloists, Parker had played with big bands. During World War II (1939-1945), however, the wartime economy and changes in audience tastes had driven many big bands out of business. Their decline, combined with the radically new bebop style, amounted to a revolution in the jazz world.

Jazz, type of music first developed by African Americans around the first decade of the 20th century that has an identifiable history and distinct stylistic evolution. Jazz grew up alongside the blues and popular music, and all these genres overlap in many ways. However, critics generally agree about whether artists fall squarely in one camp or another.


Blues, type of music developed during the late 19th century by African American performers (see African American Music). Blues embraces a variety of styles, including downhome or country blues, boogie-woogie, classic blues, jump blues, and Chicago (urban) blues. Blues directly or indirectly influenced the vast majority of popular music during the 20th century, including jazz, rock, rhythm and blues (R&B), and gospel.

Answer 6

Jazz was a character on fresh prince, the Blues are a hockey team in St.Louis and Bebop was a villain in the Ninja Turtles.

Answer 7

Not sure; but, I'll give this one a try:

Jazz is improvised music, such as played by Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis.

Blues usually, (I think) includes a guitar, or a piano along with voice (think Billie Holiday, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters).

Bebop, I think, is defined by "skatting(sp?)" (think Louie Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald) scatting(sp?) being like making non-sensical voiced sounds in a rhymic fashion, thus using the voice like an instrument rather than a voice. That's my best shot.

Answer 8

jazz usaly is a little faster than bluse blues is slower than bebop

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

definitions are too subjective. Listen to some examples of each and decide for yourself, it's really the best way.