Oop Bop Sh'Bam

Composed by Dizzy Gillespie, arranged by Gil Fuller

Oop Bop Sh'Bam, Billy Eckstine (1946)

Our chart is a David Berger transcription, based on a Gil Fuller arrangement recorded in 1946 by the Billy Eckstine Orchestra. Notice a young Miles Davis in the trumpet section. And Sonny Stitt, who was on the original recording with Dizzy earlier that year.

Miles Davis, Hobart Dotson, Leonard Hawkins, King Kolax (trumpet) Water Knox, Chippy Outcalt, Gerald Velentine (trombone) John Cobbs, Sonny Stitt (alto saxophone) Gene Ammons, Arthur Sammons (tenor saxophone) Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone) Linton Garner (piano) Connie Wainwright (guitar) Tommy Potter (bass) Art Blakey (drums) Billy Eckstine (vocals, valve trombone); Radio Recorders, Hollywood, CA, October 5, 1946

Here's the original sextet version, from 1946:

Oop Bop Sh'Bam, Dizzy Gillespie Sextet (1946)

Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet, vocals) Sonny Stitt (alto saxophone) Milt Jackson (vibraphone) Al Haig (piano) Ray Brown (bass) Kenny Clarke (drums); NYC, May 15, 1946

And here's an interesting tidbit on Kenny Clarke's influence on the lyric.

Clarke wrote a series of exercises for himself to develop the independence of the bass drum and snare drum, while maintaining the time on the ride cymbal. One of these passages, a combination of a rim shot on the snare followed directly by a bass drum accent, earned Clarke his nickname, "Klook", which was short for "Klook-mop", in imitation of the sound this combination produced. This nickname was enshrined in "Oop Bop Sh'Bam," recorded by Dizzy Gillespie in 1946 with Clarke on drums, where the scat lyric to the bebop tune goes "oop bop sh'bam a klook a mop."

Of course, Dizzy did his own take on it with his big band in 1947, albeit at a brisker tempo:

Oop Bop Sh'Bam, Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra (1947, from the short Jivin' in Be-Bop)