"I see little connection between five Black cats playing 3 chord songs featuring brass instruments back in 1923, and the White guy in a Las Vegas lounge in the 1970s playing slick electric guitar using chord progressions so advanced that Stavinsky would have to think hard about them."

I'll sum that connection up in two words: Louis Armstrong.

He is the bridge between that early jazz and what came about in the bop and post-bop eras. He never claimed the credit because he was above all else a traditional jazzman. He just happened to be an extremely innovative traditional jazzman. So much so that jazz would not likely have survived into the 1930s without him.

In 1928, Louis recorded "West End Blues" in Chicago--a piece by Clarence Williams and King Oliver (Louis's main teacher). The opening trumpet intro is the start of bop. No, this is not a bop piece, obviously, but it was this intro that inspired a whole new music, a whole new approach, a revolution in jazz and in music as a whole:

West End Blues

While Louis disparaged bop, he knew he was a hero to the boppers and he was okay with that. He was close friends with Dizzy Gillespie. Diz never denied the importance of Louis when he uttered his famous, "No him no me" statement. In addition to bop, Diz went on to co-found Afro-Cuban jazz. So Louis's legacy is a powerful one.

Here's Louis in 1924 playing in New York with Fletcher Henderson. Henderson knew how special Louis was and after a bit of an intro just lets Louis cut it loose. Again, you hear the makings of bop in Louis's solo although it's not as developed as it would become when he returned to Chicago but it's equally obvious that Louis's trip to New York was essential to his development especially when we realize that he was playing the same orchestra with Don Redman (became perhaps the greatest big band arranger ever), Coleman Hawkins (the man who made the tenor sax what it is to jazz to this day) and Buster Bailey.

Shanghai Shuffle