S.O.S.

Johnny Griffin (tenor sax), Wes Montgomery (electric guitar), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums). From the album Full House (1962).

Although it’s usually believed that hard bop was a response to the gentler style of cool jazz, in reality was an extension of bebop. The main differences between bebop and hard bop are that the melodies are simpler, the rhythm section is looser, the bassist is not required to play four notes per bar, there is a gospel influence and the saxophonists and pianists were familiar with rhythm and blues. Since hard bop came after bebop, these distinctions were a logical evolution and hard bop can be considered as bebop of the 1950s and 1960s.

In the second half of the 1960s, the influence of the avant-garde was very powerful and some hard bop musicians, such as Lee Morgan and Jackie McLean, stood between the two styles. With the arise of jazz fusion and the sale of Blue Note (the leading hard bop label) in the late 1960s, the style almost stooped being used, although it had a revival in the 1980s. The music played by the so-called Young Lions during that time was considered modern mainstream, although some groups have kept alive the language of the 1960s.

The theme is played by Griffin and Montgomery in unison and it’s very swift. The first one to make his solo is Griffin, whose phrases are dizzying and impetuous without having time to breathe. Every now and then Montgomery and Kelly play a riff. Montgomery follows him fast as lightning, with a frantic and unbridled discourse as Kelly and Griffin play the riff. Next Kelly enters playing at full speed while Griffin and Montgomery play the riff. Griffin comes back to exchange four-bar solos with Cobb alternating with Montgomery and the riff appears again until finally the group re-exposes the theme.