5 – THE BLUES

The BluesThe blues was 17th century in origin. The music of the alienated, it was probably born at the exact moment the first African was enslaved. An outgrowth of earlier sorrow songs in which the singer bemoaned his fate, the blues is not so much a challenging form of music but one of reconciliation. Musically, it is completely black and wholly folk. There is no more personal music in existence.

The term "blues" is considered to be an abbreviation of "the blue devils," an expression describing a state of melancholia as in being possessed by the blue devils.

After 1863, when the slaves were given their freedom and segregation began, the blues flourished in the Delta area of the Mississippi and had completely formed to a distinct pattern by around 1880. And by the 1890's, there was evidence of the classic blues progression among the guitarists of the Mississippi Delta. It gradually became a widespread music force in the South, gaining as much prominence in New Orleans as ragtime or jazz and influencing both. After World War One when the population shift occurred and the notorious Storyville area of New Orleans was closed down, many of the outstanding black musicians migrated north to the larger cities such as Memphis and Chicago, taking with them the well defined style of southern blues.

The blues is a socio-ethnological minority music, dominated by African influences and social and personal lyric subject matter often expressed in black Southern language patterns.

As a commercial music product, the blues invaded Tin Pan Alley (the composer/publishing district of New York City) in 1914, brought there by W. C. Handy who reputedly composed the very first commercial blues ever published. Many resident white songwriters immediately picked up on the trend, fashioning their own conception of the genre. Although gaining popularity, it went unrecorded until the 1920's.

The most common blues progression is the 12 bar blues (each 12 bar sequence being called a chorus), but it must be noted that there are definitely no constrictions. Almost anything goes.

THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE BLUES

  1. A 12 bar, 3 line verse.
  2. The first 2 lines are usually, yet not always lyrically the same.
  3. The third line is often the summary or clarification. The AAB stanza had replaced the traditional African AAA stanza.

EXAMPLE:

       "My man don't love me, he treats me awful mean
       My man, he don't love me, he treats me awful mean
       He's the lowest man that I've ever seen"

       "Fine And Mellow" by Billie Holiday

The blues involves the flattening of the third and seventh notes of the diatonic scale, creating so-called "blue notes." The pause between the lines allows the vocalist to improvise with exclamatory fills or gives musicians the opportunity to embellish the melody with decorative figurations.

The blues was the most liberating of all black music forms, a way of recognizing one's problems and singing or playing them away.

There were two different blues forms - big city or Urban Blues (originating in New Orleans and featuring brass instrumentation) and Rural Blues (originating in the American South featuring a guitar/vocal combination). The Blues is definitely the root of almost all modern popular music.

W. C. HANDY

URBAN BLUES

The blues as a pure music form has only once enjoyed mass popularity and that was during the 1920's. The particular blues style which dominated the period was termed "classic blues." It was a big city style featuring female vocalists generally accompanied by a pianist and sometimes augmented by a small jazz combo. It originated in small clubs, gradually moving into larger venues as its popularity grew. In fact, many artists travelled in tent shows with other variety acts. Although country style blues had been in existence long before the turn of the century, classic blues predated rural blues on record by at least 5 years.

The classic blues vocal style was actually an inspired combination of the blues and vaudeville theatrics. Performers were often labelled "comediennes" by their record companies and their recordings were saddled with the "race music" categorization. The lyric subject matter, quite often extremely risqué, liberally spiced with double entendres and innuendo was so personal or regional that the major record labels naturally assumed that national sales would be improbable and would appeal only to the black community. They were proved wrong in 1920 when Mamie Smith's landmark recording of "Crazy Blues" took the country by storm. The market was soon flooded with blues product. Record companies made a killing, praying on the ignorance of the artists, offering poor compensation if any. The idea of royalties was completely unheard of. Unquestionably, the greatest of all classic blues singers was the incomparable Bessie Smith. It was she who took the blues to its pinnacle of popularity.

By the end of the 1920's, the black female artist was faced once again with racism, this time from within her own community. Darkness of skin tone was becoming more of an issue than ever before. Lighter skinned females were considered more socially acceptable while those of darker colour were dubbed "Ma Raineys" in reference to the legendary singer who was thought to be unattractive. From that time on, the lighter the skin, the more desirable the female. In fact, the world famous Cotton Club in Harlem hired only females of a specific skin tone for its chorus line (see The Cotton Club - Jazz). Commercially, the closer to white, the better her chance of success. Appalled by the situation, many blacks called the lighter skinned women "high yallers" in retaliation.

By the beginning of the Great Depression, the public was seeking escapism and classic blues ultimately became passé. Blues greats such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, whose popularity in the 1920's was astounding, saw their recording careers fly out the window.

THE CLASSIC BLUES SINGERS

Sometimes known as "The Dark Divas"

MAMIE SMITH

MA RAINEY

BESSIE SMITH

ALBERTA HUNTER

IDA COX

VICTORIA SPIVEY

CLARA SMITH

TRIXIE SMITH

SIPPIE WALLACE

LUCILLE HEGAMIN

ADA BROWN

ETHEL WATERS

RURAL BLUES

During the 1920's, the females dominated the big city blues scene while the rural blues style was generally associated with the solitary male singer/guitarist. This particular kind of blues, evolving long before the turn of the century, was a single musician's art form and lifestyle, travelling from town to town. Most venues featuring rural blues were usually small clubs, taverns or brothels. It had always been popular in rural areas but it really didn't hit its stride until the 1930's with the emergence of artists like Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy.

Most song lyrics were extremely personal and autobiographical and could often be sexually explicit. One unique guitar technique perfected by these performers was called bottleneck or slide guitar. Sounds were achieved by plucking a chord while simultaneously sliding a flat object (usually an empty bottle - hence the name) up and down the neck of the guitar.

During and after the Great Depression, the genre found its way to the larger centres where it got citified and eventually electrified.

CHARLEY PATTON

ROBERT WILKINS

FURRY LEWIS

MEMPHIS MINNIE

BUKKA WHITE

LEADBELLY

ROBERT JOHNSON

SON HOUSE

TAMPA RED

T-BONE WALKER

BIG BILL BROONZY

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON I

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON

SONNY TERRY

BROWNIE McGHEE

ELMORE JAMES

JOHN LEE HOOKER

LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS

LOWELL FULSON

BIG BAND BLUES

Big band blues flourished mainly in Chicago and Kansas City. The latter was the home of The Bennie Moten Orchestra, Count Basie (Moten's successor), Walter Page's Blue Devils, Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy featuring pianist Mary Lou Williams, and The Jay McShann Orchestra featuring saxophonist Charlie Parker. Slow paced, earthy, dominated by droning brass, these orchestras featured lead instruments which emulated the vocal style of the 1920's classic blues singers. In the 1930's, Kansas City was definitely the place to be with its numerous clubs and music venues. Kansas city jazz and blues featured a mania for the saxophone and strong head arrangements (see Swing).

Other major units included Fletcher Henderson, Jimmie Lunceford, Charlie Johnson, The Charleston Chasers and The Little Chocolate Dandies (see Jazz and Swing). Basically, the style reached its commercial peak in the late 1930's and early 1940's.

Blues was an important facet of many of the great black swing bands repertoire. During the 1940's, many popular outfits featured blues shouters such as the charismatic Jimmy Rushing and Big Joe Turner, both who spent time with Count Basie's Orchestra. The blues shouter style was an aggressive, bellowing nasal vocal originating predominantly out of Chicago and Kansas City. Later, several big band blues shouters applied their vocal technique to R&B and rock and roll with varying degrees of success. Big Joe Turner remained popular from the big band era through early R&B and well into the rock era, later returning to his jazz roots.

JIMMY RUSHING

BIG JOE TURNER

THE BLUES/R&B CONNECTION

After The Great Depression, many blacks moved north to the large industrial centres seeking work. Musicians also migrated north, the overwhelming majority of the blues artists basing themselves out of Detroit and Chicago. The Windy City became a mecca for blues and R&B in the early 1950's. It was here that the blues was electrified and amplified, sometimes in its purest form and also as the basis for the new rhythm and blues.

In Chicago, one of the great contributing factors in the promotion of electric blues and R&B crossovers was the emergence of Chess Records, based at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue. Phil and Leonard (1917 - Oct. 16, 1969) Chess were Polish immigrant brothers who launched their Aristocrat label in 1947. One of their first artists was Muddy Waters. In 1950, they changed the label's name to Chess. However, it was not until 1955 that they achieved commercial success with the release of Chuck Berry's "Maybellene." The number of truly remarkable blues artists promoted by the label is staggering.

The following artists often crossed the boundaries between blues, R&B and rock and roll. All were a significant influence on the music scene in general as well as being giants in the realm of the blues.

WILLIE DIXON

MUDDY WATERS

HOWLIN' WOLF

LITTLE WALTER

ARTHUR "BIG BOY" CRUDUP

BIG MAMA THORNTON

SLIM HARPO

OTIS RUSH

ALBERT KING

KOKO TAYLOR

BUDDY GUY

BOBBY "BLUE" BLAND

JIMMY REED

JUNIOR WELLS

B. B. KING

ALSO SEE

BIBLIOGRAPHY