Jazz guys: Bebop, Hard Bop etc.


I've been seriously into Jazz since I seriously became interested in high end gear (about 4 years). I listen primarily to jazz and primarily to Miles, Monk, Coltrane, and Rollins. I have many of the classic discs by these guys as well as some discs by Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Gene Ammons, and Wayne Shorter. I have discs by Clifford Jordan, Andrew Hill, Dexter Gordon and Eric Dolphy. I think of these guys primarily as hard bop players. I also now that their playing spanned the genres of bebop, hard bop, and post bop. But as a jazz novice, I wonder, do the jazz classics by these artists generally fall into the hard bop genre or a combination of these other genres? Thanks for your insights.
foster_9
Qdrone; I'm not a fan of the vibes although I have several discs where they are played (Milt Jackson among others). Bianci27, yes, I already have some Cannonball and Dexter Gordon. Rhljazz, I never listened to Grant Green, or Nat Adderly, but love Donald Byrd's work with the Blackbirds in the 70's. I will check out some of the earlier work of Donald Byrd.
When I think of Hard Bop I think of Coltrane Blue Trane and lots of the Blue Note records from that period in the mid to late 50s, mainly East Cost players.

Bebop, Diz and Bird in the 40s.

Post Bop, 60s Wayne Shorter, Herbbie Hancock, 60s Coltrane.

I also agree with Pbb.
Thanks Davemitchell: I recently purchased Blue Trane on SACD. As usual for Trane, it's incredible. From your breakdown, as I thought, my collection which is primarily Miles, Coltrane, Rollins and the other greats I mentioned, from the time frame of mid to late 50's. I seem to lean more towards Hard Bop as my Jazz preference.
You can definately define styles without simply listing artists. There are several good books on understanding jazz styles. In fact listing artists is not really very useful. Miles for example began in bop, helped create cool jazz (birth of cool), recorded one of the first real hard bop ( walkin) albums, had the most significant contribution to modal jazz (kind of blue), mastered post bop ( miles smiles), and led the vangaurd of fusion. The very best place to start in my opinion is to read 'Louis Armstrongs New Orleans' which came out recently. For anyone interested in the genesis of American popular music , styles ,influences ,and a whos who from Jelly Roll Morton to Robert Johnson read the book. It helped me see why the blues ran so deep in Armstong ,Bird,and Young but not Dizzy or Hawk . Just my opinions as always. - Jim