Hard bop

Hard bop was an extension of bebop (bop) music which incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues. It often used slower tempi than bop, and was in part intended to be more interesting to audiences unfamiliar with or not fond of bop. It also was probably, as David H. Rosenthal contends in his book Hard Bop, to a large degree the natural creation of a generation of black American musicians who grew up at a time when bop and rhythm and blues were the dominant forms of black American music. Its practitioners included Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, John Coltrane, Lou Donaldson, Miles Davis, Kenny Drew, Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, Blue Mitchell, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, and Horace Silver.

Hard bop was developed in the 1950s and 1960s and enjoyed its greatest popularity in that era, but hard bop performers, and elements of the music, remain popular in jazz.

Soul jazz developed from hard bop.

Website

The Hard Bop Homepage