Today's NYT Strands Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 8 #523

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Today’s NYT Strands puzzle assumes you have deep knowledge of a very specific musical genre. Could be tough. I knew some of the answers, but not others. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Kings of swing and bebop

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Musical legends

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CHAD, CHAR, SAID, CANT, CHAW, WARD, FAST, STUD, COAT, LATE, SLATE, INCH, DRAT, DRATS, STAIR, FATE, COTS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

DUKE, FATS, HAWK, COUNT, DIZZY, YARDBIRD, CANNONBALL (Duke Ellington, Fats Navarro, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie “Yardbird” or “Bird” Parker and Julian “Cannonball” Adderly)