A British Revival of Hard Bop

The members of The Jazz Defenders (from the ITI Music post to their Facebook Web site)

Around the beginning of this month, I became aware of a British combo calling itself The Jazz Defenders. What they are defending is the legacy of the hard bop movement. Their latest step towards achieving this goal is the release of the album Scheming, consisting of ten original tracks. The group is led by pianist George Cooper. The “front line” is provided by trumpeter Nick Malcolm and Jake McMurchie on tenor saxophone. The rhythm section is filled out by Will Harris on bass and Ian Matthews on drums.

The hard bop Wikipedia page describes it as a “subgenre” of bebop, which emerged in the mid-Fifties. That places it ten (or perhaps more) years after bebop became a genre, best known through practitioners such as Charlie Parker on alto saxophone, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist Bud Powell. Their performances tended to involve lengthy improvisations that, in the words of the Wikipedia page, “explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies.” My personal take on hard bop is that the “hard” refers to a hard-driving rhythm which contrasted with the flexible rhythms that allowed inventive bebop improvisations. The press release for Scheming specifically singles out four major hard bop musicians: Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, and Art Blakey.

From a personal point of view, I am delighted that this new combo has decided that hard bop needs defending. The hard bop albums in my personal collection make for a relatively generous supply; but that collection has grown far too large to give any genre the attention it deserves. As a result, I end up going back to hard bop when some new archival anthology is released, such as the Morgan album Complete Live At The Lighthouse.

In other words, The Jazz Defenders risk being overshadowed by history. Those that remember the past prefer to revisit it. Those that don’t may not appreciate the motivation behind the efforts of this new combo. Personally, I think these five guys are off to a good start; and, should they ever find themselves within the San Francisco city limits, I would definitely be interested in listening to the spontaneity of performance rather than any tracks that have been “frozen” for recording purposes. After all, none of those four “icons” that motivated the group are with us any more; so I, for one, am very interested in how effectively the torch is being passed.