1940s Post War Revolution, Bebop and The Traditional Revival

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After the Second World War (1939-45) new generations of young musicians in American and the UK jazz would create their own artistic revolutions.

Big bands were out of fashion and the ‘commerciality’ of their output was now seen as spurious to young post-war players bent on personal expression of new ideals. In America the revolution had already begun around 1940 with the arrival of ‘bebop’, created in the music’s Bauhaus; the nightclub called ‘Minton’s’ in New York’s Harlem. Here young musicians including trumpeter John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie, alto-saxophonist Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker, pianist Thelonius Monk, electric guitarist Charlie Christian and drummer Kenny Clarke were among the central creators of a new way of playing; concentrating on new complex melodic lines on old chord-sequences (the venerable pop-song ‘Whispering’ from1920 became Bebop’s ‘Groovin’ High’ in 1945) and use of extended scales in solos. The ‘bebop revolution’ – jazz’s first intellectual move away from public popularity – caused temporary violent resentment in older jazz communities but it would be one of the two principal languages in post-war jazz. And from 1948-9 it would be followed by the young Miles Davis whose ‘Birth of the Cool’ recording sessions modified its fire but did nothing to dim its creativity. In Britain too young pioneers including Johnny Dankworth and Ronnie Scott would create their own bebop revolution in London’s legendary ‘Club 11’.

After the war – in direct (if inadvertent) opposition to the Bebop revolution - came the Traditional Jazz Revival. Jazz commentators and entrepreneurs went in search of the musical honesty that, for them, had been left behind in New Orleans after the commercial excesses of Swing. During the course of writing their book ‘Jazzmen’ (1939) Frederic Ramsey, Charles Edward Smith and Bill Russell had contacted New Orleans veteran trumpeter William Gary ‘Bunk’ Johnson who told them he could play again if he had new teeth and a trumpet. A collection was taken up by writers and musicians; he was fitted with both and made his first recordings in 1942 for Jazz Man Records. From there until his death in 1949 Johnson continued to record successfully, but his clarinettist-partner George Lewis (1900-68) forged an equally legendary career on and off the record achieving international renown for twenty more years. In Britain one of his partners was trumpeter-bandleader Ken Colyer – later known as ‘The Guvnor’ - who championed New Orleans jazz from 1949 and led his own bands from 1954 until shortly before his death in 1988. Prior to Colyer however a huge Traditional revival in the UK was spearheaded by pianist George Webb’s Dixielanders from 1942. Webb’s band (later featuring British jazz icon trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton) was followed by others led by Lyttelton, Chris Barber, Cy Laurie, Freddy Randall, Mick Mulligan and more.

Click the button below to listen to the podcast by Andy Sparling, author of the book ‘Dance Through the Darkness: The Untold Story of the R.C.A.F. Streamliners’.