Merry Christmas to you and everyone here, O-10.
While I'm not sure that I'm prepared to say that that great clip of "Night In Tunisia" is the ultimate jazz, it sure is a great clip. I would, however, be willing to say that an argument could be made that bebop is the central point in the evolution of jazz. To me, the development of bebop is probably a bigger departure from what came before it (swing) than any other earlier or later stylistic move in that evolution. Hard bop is obviously a logical extension of bebop, modal jazz a logical extension of hard bop on its way to free jazz and fusion. Bebop could be seen as the "eye of the storm" and there were probably more "what the fu@k?"'s uttered when first hearing bebop than at any other point; if only because there were probably more jazz listeners at that time than at any other. Even Louis Armstrong, the granddaddy of jazz, famously said "Bebop is Chinese music".
From this standpoint, I can understand how one of the greatest bebop performances by the best practitioners of the style could be considered the "ultimate jazz". That clip is fantastic and Bird's solo break alone could make it the ultimate. Another "ultimate" moment:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLC9h9deIXsDsBiB50lJRZjdPkU51c1gfF&v=h6NCx0wcrC4
While I'm not sure that I'm prepared to say that that great clip of "Night In Tunisia" is the ultimate jazz, it sure is a great clip. I would, however, be willing to say that an argument could be made that bebop is the central point in the evolution of jazz. To me, the development of bebop is probably a bigger departure from what came before it (swing) than any other earlier or later stylistic move in that evolution. Hard bop is obviously a logical extension of bebop, modal jazz a logical extension of hard bop on its way to free jazz and fusion. Bebop could be seen as the "eye of the storm" and there were probably more "what the fu@k?"'s uttered when first hearing bebop than at any other point; if only because there were probably more jazz listeners at that time than at any other. Even Louis Armstrong, the granddaddy of jazz, famously said "Bebop is Chinese music".
From this standpoint, I can understand how one of the greatest bebop performances by the best practitioners of the style could be considered the "ultimate jazz". That clip is fantastic and Bird's solo break alone could make it the ultimate. Another "ultimate" moment:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLC9h9deIXsDsBiB50lJRZjdPkU51c1gfF&v=h6NCx0wcrC4