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Music is reflected in the literature of every era in American history, and the soundtrack, indeed the heartbeat, of the Beat Generation was modern jazz. Specifically, it was the propulsive, adventurous and boundary defying sound of bebop, which had evolved during the early and mid-1940s out of the swing era of the previous decade, that captured the imagination of the Beat writers and their followers. With its concentration on small-group dynamics and solo virtuosity, bebop could be seen as a necessary reaction to big band swing’s stifling rigidity of form and structure. Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and other giants provided the rhythm for the work and a model for the lifestyle of the Beats, who adopted the “hep cat” lingo of the musicians and in many cases unfortunately, their taste for heroin, Benzedrine and other drugs.