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
Gdoodle: I happen to be listening to Mingus as I type this, and I have almost all of John Scofield's discography in my collection. He happens to be my favorite guitarist. I did not post all the jazz I enjoy listening to. I don't have any Ornette Coleman yet. I haven't heard much of his work and not been grabbed by what I have heard. No need to cringe Gdoodle, I'm not trying to pigeonhole these artists- I'm trying to understand these genres and how one differentiates them. I greatly enjoy what I hear; I'd like to be able to tell the differences as I move hear these genres. Re-reading my post, I think I did a poor job of communicating that. It would be slighting their art to try to pigeonhole them. That is definitely not it for me.
Hey that's cool - sounds like we like a lot of the same stuff. I was just trying to add a little humor (very little). Can someone really define a genre in words - withOUT just listing a bunch of players? I think at best you'll settle for is "periods" of music. I guess I learned a lot about jazz by reading album liner notes - wikipedia has a long entry for bebop and hard bop - and lists of musicians that might answer your question.

Check out Ornettes early stuff - "The Shape of Jazz to Come". Scofled is one of my faves - seen him 6-8 times...
Check out Grant Green, Nat Adderly, Cannonball Adderly, and Donald Byrd, just the artists that come to mind while I'm at work.
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Foster 9,
Check out some Bobby Hutcherson. His offerings ALWAYS have the big name jazz Artists as guests from Freddie Hubbard to Herbie Hancock. It's very soothing jazz,something about the vibes that strikes a chord with me.