Bud Powell’s Improvising and the Aesthetics of Bebop Rhythm

ABSTRACT This article explores the ways in which Bud Powell’s improvising embodies and contributes to the aesthetics of bebop rhythm. Special attention is paid to the relationship between Powell’s music and the textural developments of the rhythm section, especially advances in jazz drumming and the underlying harmonic rhythm as temporal reference. Topics include asymmetry of phrase placement and structure in relation to meter and cyclic form, irregular accents and left-hand “bombs,” beat-one avoidance and negative accents, harmonic displacement, phrasing “over the barline,” and cross-rhythmic groupings.