
Bebop (Bop) 3
Due to World War II, economic pressures further complicated matters and led to the rationing of shellac-a key material in producing 78 rpm records-and stress on the jazz market. The AFM ban also created a historical schism in the development of bebop. Many young musicians associated with bebop's emergence made their first recordings while playing with popular dance bands before the ban. An emerging stylistic shift is evident during occasional solo sections of swing arrangements in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Unfortunately, the crucial years of 1942 through 1944 went largely undocumented on recordings. When the "Petrillo ban" was lifted in 1944, bebop "suddenly" appeared on recordings, creating the illusion that it sprang to life fully formed and thereby masking its gradual evolution toward small ensembles and new melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic sensibilities.
Leading up to and during this period, several new companies, such as Capitol Records and the Royale and Varsity imprints of the U.S. Record Corporation challenged the market share of the three most prominent jazz-oriented record labels-Decca, Columbia, and Victor. These and smaller boutique labels like Dial, Hit, Commodore, Blue Note, Savoy, Bluebird, Signature, and others were more accommodating to the new bebop style. In addition, some of the labels, such as Ross Russell's Dial, were focused explicitly on releasing bebop recordings.
Soon after the emergence of bebop a lively debate emerged in the jazz press and among specific musicians about its legitimacy as a viable jazz style. Despite the vital role that older jazz musicians played in its evolution, this debate was typically generational. It pitted beboppers, or "moderns," against the so-called "moldy figs," musicians, critics, and listeners who felt strongly that jazz styles from the Swing Era and the 1920s were musically superior. Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and other well-known jazz figures publicly criticized bebop, deriding it as unmusical and cult-like. In a 1948 interview for Down Beat magazine, Armstrong described the "weird chords" played by the beboppers and highlighted a seeming lack of audience appeal, encouraging the musicians to play in a more historically conventional way. Although widespread, such criticisms had little effect on the evolution and endurance of these new performance practices.
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way
He had a boogie style that no one else could play
He was the top man at his craft
But then his number came up and he was gone with the draft
He's in the army now, a blowin' reveille
He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B
Heebie Jeebies
Say, I've got the Heebies
I mean the Jeebies
Talking about
The dance, the Heebie Jeebies
Do, because they're boys
Because it pleases me to be joy