Jazz in the post-war years: In the early 1940s, bebop-style performers began to shift jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging "musician's music." The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach. Divorcing itself from dance music, bebop established itself more as an art form, thus lessening its potential popular and commercial appeal. Composer Gunther Schuller wrote, "In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted
Jazz trombone driving force of this stylistic movement was J.J. Johnson, who is considered by some to be one of the most important figures in jazz trombone history. He followed the influences of bebop jazz innovators Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie while adding his own, smooth, slower form of playing over the fast tracks of bebop. Typically when playing jazz music, it is preferred to be played on a standard small or medium bore tenor trombone with no extra attachments, as it will give the brightest sound and is more comfortable to play for longer periods of time in the extreme ranges