Rapp on Jazz: How the Carolinas helped shape bebop

Published February 13, 2026 at 6:36 AM EST

Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie performs with his group to a joint session of the South Carolina legislature, March 9, 1976. Gillespie, a South Carolinian, is from Cheraw. Other band members are unidentified. (AP Photo/Lou Krasky)

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Mark Rapp, and this is Rapp on Jazz.

Many of the innovators who shaped bebop’s explosive new sound had deep roots in the Carolinas. They brought with them the rhythms of the South, the spirituals of the church, and the blues traditions that defined their communities.

Dizzy Gillespie learned to swing in Cheraw, where church music and dance bands gave him his first stage. Thelonious Monk, born in North Carolina, carried the unique phrasing and soulful harmonies of Southern gospel into his revolutionary piano style. Max Roach and Percy Heath were shaped by Southern families before heading north.

Their migration didn’t erase their roots. Instead, those Southern sounds became the heartbeat of bebop—fierce, free, and full of home.

This has been Rapp On Jazz, a co-production of ColaJazz and SC Public Radio, made possible by Layman Publishing Partners, celebrating 50 years of expert content creation, authoritative information management, and standards-driven print and digital production.