Bebop was music born during World War II, and many of its major performers had no military experience, but strikes, racism and various discriminations, and economic inequity. And they experienced living the homefront.

Many of the first black musicians who played Bebop came from the west and southwest, and their music developed under local culture and political climate.

Bebop’s band takes the form of a small knitting combo. They often play one unison with a trumpet and a saxophone.

Its purpose wasn’t solely for nightclub dancers and floor shows, nor was playing for the pop market.

Bebop’s melody phrases aren’t simply phrasing for pop singers or swing riff melodies (where the bar-by-measure phrases are arranged in a similar tone and balance). It is long and has few repetitions. Moreover, it has an uneven structure and irregular sound arrangement.

During this time, young singers such as Babbs Gonzales, Jo Carroll, and Sarah Vaughan brought the tradition of scat-style to the bebop style, rethinking the sound of the bebop rhythms and elegance.

 Mode jazz in the 1960s picked up pop songs and used boldly simplified chord progressions. Jazz is composed and played based on one scale or one or two chords.

There were even more minimalist performers, improvising with one chord, using a single note, a sustained bass (drone), or a repetitive form called a vamp.