Hard Bop

The jazz style of the late 50s, engineered by Horace Silver, Art Blakey, etc. Still essentially Bebop, the style used hard-driving rhythmic feel, emphatic, biting lines, and harmony drenched with urban blues, rhythm ‘n blues, and gospel. Original compositions were stressed over the old standards used in Bebop. Hard Bop ranged from simple riff-based blues to elaborate compositions, sometimes using whole-tone scales. Hard Bop had a street flavor, a reaction, in part, to the intellectuality of the “Cool school”. Interestingly enough, the influences of Hard Bop found their way into contemporary rock via the band Steely Dan. Listen to the bass line and syncopated rhythm of the Dan’s song “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” and then find a copy of Horace Silver’s “Song For My Father, you’ll hear where the inspiration for the introduction of “Rikki” came from.