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THE INSTRUMENTS, THE SOUNDS, THE PERFORMERS |
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Miles Davis, a bop trumpeter whose work at first seemed as much like Gillespie's as the earlier Dizzy had resembled Eld-ridge, reduced the searing flame of his mentor's style to a low-glowing, more introverted manner that retained the harmonic innovations of bop. Davis* strings of eighth notes or sixteenths would roll off the horn crisp and staccato, in a manner that led Barry Ulanov to compare his sound with that of a man walking on eggshells. Since he is capable of playing with considerable volume and intensity it may be confusing to the layman to categorize Davis as a founder of the "cool jazz" school, yet it is true that his quieter and- more withdrawn moments offer the most representative and influential aspects of his work.
Some of the Davis underemphasis can be discerned in the work of "Shorty" Rogers, a West Coast arranger whose trumpet style was originally patterned, like that of Davis himself, after Gillespie's. Davis' influence is also apparent in the solos of Chet Baker, who catapulted to fame almost overnight with the Mulligan Quartet in 1953. Baker's tone, however, is generally a little fuller and more cornet-like than Miles', marking a full-circle return to some of the early characteristics of Beiderbecke.
In a more direct line from Gillespie, bop found its way into the jazz of the 1950s most eloquently through the trumpets of the late Clifford Brown (killed in an automobile accident in 1956), Conte Candoli, Don Fagerquist, Art Farmer, Joe Gordon, Thad Jones and Joe Wilder; Jones and Wilder have demonstrated that in tone and style they may well find a completely personal language- Joe Newman, who like Wilder and Thad has been heard with Basie, switched from bop to a mainstream style. Another potent non-bopper is Ruby Braff, often likened to Buck Clayton.
Lately some trumpet players have taken to doubling on the fluegelhorn, an instrument similar to the trumpet but slightly larger in appearance and fuller in sound. The fluegelhorn, heard in jazz as far back as 1936, when Joe Bishop played it in Woody Herman's band, today is most frequently used by Shorty Rogers, also from time to time by Roy Eldridge, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones and others. |
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