Postbop

Abstract

Innovations in postbop jazz compositions of the 1960s occurred in several dimensions, in the areas of harmony, form, melody, and cadence. Postbop composers abandoned or muted many techniques of tonal jazz, the jazz standards and original compositions that defined small-group repertory through the 1950s: single-key orientation, schematic 32-bar frameworks (in AABA or ABAC forms, often with tonal cadences at the ends of constituent 8-bar sections), and tonal harmonic progressions. Attributes of postbop compositions rely on a series of family resemblances that include axis progressions (harmonic, melodic, or bass sequences by a single interval, such as major third or minor third); absence or suppression of functional harmonic progressions; common structure progressions; bass pedal points beneath shifting harmonies; and harmonic rhythm with chord changes every half-measure, measure, or every two measures. The last feature distinguishes postbop jazz from that of so-called modal jazz, which relies on a slower harmonic rhythm. One of the significant precedents for postbop jazz is to be found in John Coltrane’s 1959 composition “Giant Steps,” which provided potent alternatives to more conventional tonal designs.