The name seems to have first been in print as the title of a tune recorded by the Dizzy Gillespie Sextet in New York in 1945. A few years later, jazz musicians shortened the term to "bop." When it emerged, bebop was unacceptable not only to the general public, but also to many musicians. The resulting breaches, first, between the older and younger schools of musicians and, second, between jazz musicians and their public, were deep, and the second never completely healed. Bebop developed at a period in the history of jazz when some musicians were trying to create a new elite and exclude their number all who did not meet planned artistic standards. Barriers, real and artificial, were put up, not only between bebop musicians and the public at large, but also between themselves and other jazz artists. Experimentation in jazz raises the question of criticism. Critics and the media were quick to put down the new music of the 1940's. Many of the jazz critics who had already put down bebop found themselves in an uncomfortable position after bop had proven itself as a major force in music. We must think that bebop was a concept so completely foreign, compared to the music of the past, that not even all the professionals agreed with it, and critics usually look at the opinion of current professionals. Both Roy Eldridge and Louis Armstrong, two of the top jazz musicians of the period, stated in public their disapproval of Bebop. Bebop musicians became separated from their own audience, from their own employers, from non-jazz musicians, and even from other jazz musicians. The most important reason for this split was that bebop musicians were trying to raise the quality of jazz from the level of utilitarian dance music to a chamber art form. At the same time, they were trying to raise the status of the jazz performer from entertainer to artist. Their attempts were not successful at first, and when their music was dropped, the bebop musicia...
