Rise of hard bop

Hard bop was a style of jazz that developed in the United States in the mid-1950s as an extension of bebop. Musicians such as Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Max Roach and later Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley brought stronger influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues, with more soulful melodies, driving rhythms and more prominent bass lines. Many of the leading groups were based on the East Coast, especially New York and Philadelphia, and labels such as Blue Note and Prestige recorded them. Hard bop was often seen as a reaction to the calmer, more arranged cool jazz of the West Coast. It dominated much of jazz in the late 1950s and influenced later soul jazz.

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