Post-Bop
tagStarted late 1950sPeak 1964–1974Last big hit still active
Post-bop keeps swing and improvisational rigor but expands beyond stock bop formulas into modal harmony, freer phrase structure, ambiguous forms, and more open rhythmic design.
History
It emerged when musicians who had mastered bop and hard bop stopped treating those idioms as closed systems. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, the second Miles Davis Quintet, Joe Henderson, Andrew Hill, Freddie Hubbard, and others built a more elastic modern-jazz language that remains central to serious contemporary jazz.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- post-bop histories
- modal/post-bop surveys
- major-artist discographies.