“Jazz might be the stupidest thing anyone ever came up with. The band starts a song, but then everything falls apart and the musicians just play whatever they want for as long they can stand it. People take turns noodling around, and once they run out of ideas and have to stop, the audience claps. I’m getting angry just thinking about it.

Sometimes we would run through the same song over and over again to see if anybody noticed. If someone did, I don’t care.

There was this one time, in 1953 or 1954, when a few guys and I had just finished our last set at Club Carousel, and we were about to pack it in when in walked Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. We must have jammed together for five more hours, right through sunrise. That was the worst day of my life.”

Sonny Rollins: In His Own Words

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

Black Lexicon: The Origins of “Bop” (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
For #JazzAppreciationMonth, we explore the term “bop” — a word often used today to describe a song with a good groove. I
ts musical reference origins however, are rooted in the early 1940s when “bop” was used to describe an new and exciting intricate form of jazz. To read about it, read on. To hear about it, press…

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Lee Morgan in the Blue Note Records stockroom at 47 West 63rd Street, NYC (1957).

If the numbers marked on the boxes are accurate, the records are fresh from the Plastylite pressing plant and waiting to be married with jackets.