mbracing of bebop:Bop? Man, I aint never heard of bop! What is bop? . . . I dont know any bop music. I only know one music the music thats played. Theres no such thing as bop music, but there is such a thing as progress. What you are talking about is probably a commercial phrase, huh? A phrase that has been used to make something sell . . . Its just music, and we go along with it.(DeVeaux, 447) Hawkins continued to lead recordings with such relative new-comers as Miles Davis, J.J. Johnson, Fats Navarro, Hank Jones, and Milt Jackson. Around 1948, Bean recorded the amazing unaccompanied solo, Picasso, a feat way beyond most of his contemporaries and successors. As bebop declined rapidly in the early fifties, Hawkins found it difficult to find gigs and personal satisfaction in the regular work he did find in the United States and Canada. In 1954, as he turned fifty, he complained that while the musical language of jazz continued to progress, the publics understanding failed to follow: The state of the music business now is just as bad as, or even worse, than its ever been. The musicians today are fine . . . but I dont think we have a listening public.(DeVeaux, 448) By the late 1950s, Hawkins had hardened his tone and developed a fierce approach to the blues. His playing had gradually become more harsh, a transformation vividly shown by his extraordinarily violent solo in Marchin Along from Tiny Grimes Blues Groove,(Sadie, 322) and culminating in his rhythmically complex treatment of Body and Soul in 1959.(Kernfeld, 506) Hawkins continued to appear at all the major jazz festivals began in the mid-fifties, often leading a group with Roy Eldridge, if the money was right. Eldridge later complained: That mans done me out of a lot of work. If Hawk dont like the bread, he wont take the gig. And he dont know no word but thousand dollars!(DeVeaux,448) Other than the festivals, Hawk found a substitute for the 52nd street o...
