By the late ‘50s, jazz was no longer ‘popular’ hit music, but those fans who followed the music’s development became incredibly dedicated, and jazz from this era is what we might now refer to a ‘classic’ jazz.

Part 8 in our series dedicated to this Smithsonian collection brings us to the brink of the ‘60s, and you can hear that whatever qualified as jazz before the ‘40s is now virtually abandoned, while the popular and melodic developments of the ‘40s and early ‘50s are also being pushed away. At this point, song structure and thematic development are still playing a role in these recordings, but they are pointing in a direction toward the unknown. As the bands got smaller, it allowed a freedom that broke down prearranged recordings that once made jazz so popular only a decade earlier.

Featured tracks include:

I Should Care- Thelonious Monk

Moon Rays – The Horace Silver Quintet

Summertime – Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra

Haitian Fight Song – Charles Mingus Quintet

Django – Modern Jazz Quartet

Pent-Up House – Sonny Rollins Plus Four