501 Critical Reading Questions

Critical Reading Questions

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Questions 299–303 are based on the following passage.
The following passage describes the transition from the swing era to bebop in
the history of jazz music.
Jazz, from its early roots in slave spirituals and the marching bands of
New Orleans, had developed into the predominant American musical
style by the 1930s. In this era, jazz musicians played a lush, orchestrated
style known as swing. Played in large ensembles, also called big bands,
swing filled the dance halls and nightclubs. Jazz, once considered risqué,
was  made  more  accessible  to  the  masses  with  the  vibrant,  swinging
sounds of these big bands. Then came bebop. In the mid-1940s, jazz
musicians strayed from the swing style and developed a more improvi-
sational method of playing known as bebop. Jazz was transformed from
popular music to an elite art form.
The  soloists  in  the  big  bands  improvised  from  the  melody.  The
young musicians who ushered in bebop, notably trumpeter Dizzy Gille-
spie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, expanded on the improvisational
elements  of  the  big  bands.  They  played  with  advanced  harmonies,
changed chord structures, and made chord substitutions. These young
musicians got their starts with the leading big bands of the day, but dur-
ing  World  War  II—as  older  musicians  were  drafted  and  dance  halls
made cutbacks—they started to play together in smaller groups.
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Music
1 5 5
(1)
(5)
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These pared-down bands helped foster the bebop style. Rhythm is
the  distinguishing  feature  of  bebop,  and  in  small  groups  the  drums
became more prominent. Setting a driving beat, the drummer inter-
acted with the bass, piano, and the soloists, and together the musicians
created fast, complex melodies. Jazz aficionados flocked to such clubs as
Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem to soak in the new style. For the young
musicians and their fans this was a thrilling turning point in jazz history.
However, for the majority of Americans, who just wanted some swing-
ing music to dance to, the advent of bebop was the end of jazz as main-
stream music.
299.
The swing style can be most accurately characterized as