The development of Jazz music in the United States, like many forms of music, is derived from African American musical style. The Jazz music scene incorporated not only African American musical styles, but presented European characteristics during performances, and shows origins reaching as far back to ragtime music. As we see a progression of this musical genre, branches of Jazz such as the Bebop style begin to show popularity during the late 1930’s, only after obstacles surfaced. Artists such as Charlie Parker and Carmen McRae gained popularity through this new style of Jazz, which allowed for intricate expression through musical characteristics. Bebop allowed Parker and McRae to use their musical influences of previous successful artists they looked up to, as well as their own musical knowledge to relay messages of social stratification and feelings. Parker and McRae show parallels in their musical styles by displaying differences in melody, texture and harmony to  justify their messages through music, characterizing their identity as well as using music as a medium of expression.
Charlie Parker is seen as one of, if not the main pioneer of the bebop music style, helping shape the course of twentieth century music (Larkin, 415). This bebop music style sees its beginnings in the early 1940’s, and doesn’t become what we now refer to as ‘modern jazz’ until the 1960’s (“Jazz”). This twist of jazz music was driven by a younger generation of musical talent that parker was a part of, as the artists of the time were striving to make a version of jazz that showed great virtuosity. This new style shifted away from the swing of jazz music, and shifted towards the emphasis on improvisation, driving the tempo of music to be faster. This allowed for more variation within the tempo of the music, underlined by the characteristics of the melody that shapes the music being played. Parker and other performers played with the different speeds and functions of the layers as we see the dynamics and articulation within each layer become more pronounced, ultimately leading to the expression and identity of this playing style.

To start, let’s take a look at the piece, “Groovin’ High” by Charlie Parker. This is an iconic piece that Parker and Dizzie Gillespie collaborated on. Gillespie is heard playing the trumpet in this piece alongside Parkers saxophone playing, in one of the most iconic bebop pieces that came about right as bebop was seeing its origins. In this piece, Parker in particular steers away from the typical Jazz swing music. Parker speeds up the tempo of this song, which allows for distinctive improvisation alongside the bass pulse heard. In this piece, Parker is able to create a distinct harmony by altering the dynamics of the song, with the help of his punched articulation through scales. This is the main contributor in his virtuosity when he displays his emotion through his music. The melodic structure also contributes to this by his addition of motives, an extremely wide range of notes in his scales. These elements are driven by his improvisation and twist away from traditional jazz, characterizing bebop. Parker’s emotional expression in this song is a gateway to his creation of his identity in bebop. Not only did parker want to shape bebop so it expressed the artists musical talent, but he wanted to change the social stratification of African Americans in this genre. He saw this as a gateway for other African American music artists including himself, to display their musical talent, which drove their social status. Charlie Parkers musical style also paralleled that of Carmen McRae who flourished in this genre as well.

Carmen McRae, much like Charlie parker, grew up for a heavy passion in jazz music. Since her childhood and teenage years, she was influenced by one of the all time jazz greats, Billie Holiday, who she considers to be her primary influence (Armstrong, 162-164). As Armstrong expressed in an excerpt from Contemporary Musicians, “Growing up in the culturally rich environment of Harlem in New york City gave McRae a strong background in blues”. Jazz music is derived, as many styles are, from the blues scene. McRae worked with influential artists throughout her early years as a pianist and jazz singer in New York City, and found herself linked up with Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie. McRae performed with Parker and Gillespie in a club called Minton’s, linking their musical talents in the jazz scene. In McRae’s musical style, we see similar elements to Parkers birth of bebop. Most notably, in the song “Dear Ruby (Ruby, My Dear)”, we see a slower version that resembles more of a jazz feel, compared to Parkers intense virtuosity. McRae not only sings in this piece, but also plays piano. Similar to elements heard in parkers playing, the saxophone solos present distort the melody, by expanding the range of the notes, and creating an unequal subdivision between the notes. A unique characteristic of this piece is the motives that create the melody. There are levels consisting of McRae’s piano playing, saxophone solos, and a string bass maintaining the pulse. This song shows characteristics of the jazz swing style, accompanied by the knowledge of musical range in the birth of bebop. The messages that we saw parker relay in his piece, were musically driven in the sense of using his saxophone as a medium of expression for his message. Comparatively, we see McRae use her singing and voice as her form of expression. The same musical qualities are present in both, as McRae distorts the notes by bending and blending them. McRae drives her emotional message through these elements, sending a message again, of her social status.

Similarities between parker and McRae are drawn by the characteristics in their musical styles. Charlie Parker and Carmen McRae, both African American artists, use music as a form of expression that drives their identity. Historically, African American artists weren’t always placed towards the top of the social stratification, however parker and McRae are using their musical abilities and unique style of expression to drive their status upward.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Robin, and Julia Rubiner.Contemporary Musicians – Profiles of the People in Music. Gale Research. 162-164. Print.

Larkin, Colin, ed. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 4th ed. Vol. 6. Oxford UP, 2006. 415-417. Print.

“Jazz.” African American Music. Ed. Mellonee Burnim and Portia Maultsby. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015. 163-188. Print.