Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bebop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States, characterized by fast tempos, complex chord progressions, and virtuosic improvisation. Unlike swing, which featured orchestrated big band arrangements and was designed for dancing, bebop was played by small combos and emphasized improvisation over ensemble arrangements. The classic bebop combo consisted of saxophone, trumpet, piano, double bass, and drums.
The most influential bebop artists include alto saxophonists Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, and Miles Davis, pianists Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, and drummers Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Guitarist Charlie Christian and tenor saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, and James Moody were also central figures. Parker and Gillespie are most closely associated with defining the style.
The term "bebop" derives from nonsense syllables used in scat singing, with the first known recorded use in McKinney's Cotton Pickers' "Four or Five Times" from 1928. Dizzy Gillespie recalled that audiences coined the name after hearing musicians scat the then-nameless compositions. Thelonious Monk claimed the original title "Bip Bop" for his composition later known as "52nd Street Theme" was the source. Charlie Parker himself never used the term, feeling it demeaned the music.
The first formal recording of bebop was "Woody'n You", recorded on the 16th of February 1944, on the Apollo label. Coleman Hawkins led the session, which included Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas, with Clyde Hart on piano, Oscar Pettiford on bass, and Max Roach on drums. Earlier informal recordings from sessions at Minton's Playhouse in 1941 also survive, including recordings featuring Charlie Christian from the 12th of May 1941.
The American Federation of Musicians barred its more than 130,000 members from recording on major labels from 1942 to 1944, a period when much of bebop's critical development was taking place. The strike caused larger swing bands to disperse into smaller combos better suited to experimentation, and it meant bebop's evolution during those years went largely unrecorded. Singers were exempted from the ban, but instrumentalists were not.
Hip-hop artists including A Tribe Called Quest and Guru have cited bebop as an influence on their rapping and rhythmic style. Bassist Ron Carter collaborated with A Tribe Called Quest on their 1991 album The Low End Theory, and vibraphonist Roy Ayers and trumpeter Donald Byrd appeared on Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 in 1993. Bebop samples, especially bass lines, ride cymbal swing clips, and horn and piano riffs, appear throughout the hip-hop catalog. The Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, also drew directly on bebop, with Kerouac describing his writing in On the Road as a literary translation of Charlie Parker's and Lester Young's improvisations.