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(1912-1984). The man who set the band's style, trumpeter-arranger Sy

Oliver (1910-1988), later went with Tommy Dorsey.

A newcomer on the national scene was Count Basie's crew from Kansas

City, with key soloists Lester Young and Herschel Evans (1909-1939) on tenors, Buck Clayton (1912-1992) and Harry Edison (b.1915) on trumpets, and Jimmy Rushing and Billie Holiday (later Helen Humes) on vocals.

But important as these were (Lester in particular created a whole new style for his instrument), it was the rhythm section of Basie that gave the band its unique, smooth and rock-steady drive--the incarnation of swing,

Freddie Green (1911-1987) on guitar, Walter Page (1900-1957) on bass, and Jo Jones (1911-1985) on drums and the Count on piano made the rhythm section what it was. Basie, of course, continued to lead excellent bands, but the greatest years were 1936-42.

EXIT THE BIG BANDS

The war years took a heavy toll of big bands. Restrictions made travel more difficult and the best talent was being siphoned off by the draft. But more importantly, public tastes were changing.

Ironically, the bands were in the end devoured by a monster they had given birth to: the singers. Typified by Tommy Dorsey's Frank Sinatra, the vocalist, made popular by a band affiliation, went out on his own; and the public seemed to want romantic ballads more than swinging dance music.

The big bands that survived the war soon found another form of competition cutting into their following--television. The tube kept people home more and more, and inevitably many ballrooms shut their doors for good in the years between 1947 and 1955. By then it had also become too expensive a proposition to keep 16 men traveling on the road in the big bands' itinerant tradition. The leaders who didn't give up (Ellington,
Basie,

Woody Herman, Harry James) had something special in the way of talent and dedication that gave them durability in spite of changing tastes and lifestyles.

The only new bands to come along in the post-war decades and make it were those of pianist-composer Stan Kenton (1912-1979), who started his band in 1940 but didn't hit until `45; drummer Buddy Rich (1917-1987), a veteran of many famous swing era bands and one of jazzdom's most phenomenal musicians, and co-leaders Thad Jones (1923-1990), and Mel

Lewis (1929-1990), a drummer once with Kenton. Another Kenton alumnus, high-note trumpeter Maynard Ferguson (b. 1928), has led successful big bands on and off.

THE BEBOP REVOLUTION

In any case, a new style, not necessarily inimical to the big bands yet very different in spirit form earlier Jazz modes, had sprung up during the war.

Bebop, as it came to be called, was initially a musician's music, born in the experimentation of informal jam sessions.

Characterized by harmonic sophistication, rhythmic complexity, and few concessions to public taste, bop was spearheaded by Charlie Parker

(1920-1955), an alto saxophonist born and reared in Kansas City.

After apprenticeship with big bands (including Earl Hines'), Parker settled in New York. From 1944 on, he began to attract attention on
Manhattan's

52nd Street, a midtown block known as "Swing Street" which featured a concentration of Jazz clubs and Jazz talent not equaled before or since.

BIRD

Bird, as Parker was called by his fans, was a fantastic improviser whose imagination was matched by his technique. His way of playing (though influenced by Lester Young and guitarist Charlie Christian (1916-
1942), a remarkable musician who was featured with Benny Goodman's sextet between 1939-41), was something new in the world of Jazz. His influence on musicians can be compared in scope only to that of Louis Armstrong.

Parker's principal early companions were Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpeter of abilities that almost matched Bird's, and drummer Kenny Clarke

(1914-1985). Dizzy and Bird worked together in Hines' band and then in the one formed by Hines vocalist Billy Eckstine (1914-1993), the key developer of bop talent. Among those who passed through the Eckstine ranks were trumpeters Miles Davis (1927-1991), Fats Navarro

(1923-1950), and Kenny Dorham (1924-1972); saxophonists Sonny Stitt

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