TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz.
After World War II, jazz entered a bold new chapter. The big band era had largely faded, and in its place, small combos and jam sessions took center stage. Musicians who had experimented during the war years brought bebop into full bloom—complex, fast, and virtuosic. Musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie reshaped jazz into an art form meant as much for listening as for dancing.
At the same time, jazz was breaking barriers. Integrated bands became more common, challenging segregation on stage and in audiences. The G.I. Bill also gave returning veterans—many of them musicians—new opportunities to study and refine their craft.
By the late 1940s and early 1950s, cool jazz and hard bop carried the music forward, blending sophistication with soul. Postwar jazz set the stage for everything that followed.
This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of ColaJazz and South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.