BLUES

 Influences

• Field hollers
• Work songs
• Praise songs

Blues began in slavery, but so-called Emancipation and its subsequent problems dictated the path it would take. Posed a different existence:

--Immediate movement –Great Migration to cities, to the North. In South, they scattered.

Amiri Baraka states:

l) There was a solitude that hadn’t been present earlier

--now a new concept of “solo” in music

--field holler had ingredients of highly personalized solo

2) Change of speech patterns – more command of English language.
Blues moved toward English lyrics. But lines put together like proverbs in African music

3) More leisure time. Traveled everywhere not just for employment but recreation. More personal music.

4) Use of instruments on larger scale after Emancipation. Possession of instruments during slavery more rare. Guitar not used much until after Civil War—popular because strings could imitate the voice. Harmonica easy to carry

--Blues tradition likened to that of the ‘griot’. (itinerant musicians, perceived low status, declamatory style singing, preference for string instruments, songs of frank social commentary)

Call-and-response remained, but singer responded to himself either verbally or on accompanying instrument

INDIVIDUALIZED ETHOS took hold in song at same time as Booker T. Washington’s philosophy did among intellectuals.

But decline of sense of community poses a Paradox.

--Personalized solo elements indicate a move towards 20 th C. American consciousness, but style of blues indicates holding to the roots. Yet more worldly--In origin, blues is bi-cultural (African and European) as in W.E. B DuBois notion of “double-consciousness”.

First mention of blues in 1895

Race records – Commercial recordings sold exclusively to a black American market chiefly in the rural south. Produced in smaller quantities. Five to ten thousand was a hit. Unexploited market at first

--First race record by Mamie Smith, 1920, “That Thing Called Love” by Okeh company in NYC.

--Female “queens” blues singers soared in popularity in late 20’s-30’s.

--Classic city blues recorded first, then country blues singers discovered.

--Considered ‘sinful’ by religious-minded people who purchased sermon records

--Depression ruined race records industry (early 30’s).

--Race records became “rhythm and blues” in the 1940’s in black communities (strongest in 60’s)

Some Regions of the Blues

• The Mississippi Delta—Robert Johnson, guitar style, BB King, Muddy Waters
• The Piedmont (Virginia to Georgia) – finger picking technique
• East Texas blues (Ledbelly, Lightnin Hopkins – driving rhythms
• Memphis – WC Handy “St Louis Blues”
• Chicago – began on Maxwell St.
  The North Mississippi Hill Country

Country blues artists – distinguished from city blues artists by almost exclusive use of guitar accompaniment or other acoustic instruments (kazoos, harmonicas, etc.)

City/classic blues – accompanied by piano, guitar, bass, drums, etc. (for entertainment)

John Lee Hooker – “You can’t play the blues unless you’ve paid your dues”

Characteristics:

Blues “tonality”

Call and response

Verbal Aspects – spoken asides (“you know what I’m talkin’ about)

Use of falsetto

Double meanings

Other types of Blues:

Barrelhouse – piano blues with bass boogie woogie style

Jump blues – up-tempo blues with boogie woogie bass lines and shuffle rhythms

Boogie woogie piano style of 1930’s & 40’s – repeated bass figures (riffs) against syncopated improvised melody.Became more a part of jazz

Electric guitar – more volume allowed for new venues. Metal strings.

--Began to use electric guitar in late 1930’s. Prominent in 1940’s.

--Recently arrived southern musicians (Delta) in Chicago (Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf)

--Electric blues combos also from Texas and Memphis (T Bone Walker, BB. King).

1950s – a melismatic emotional, gospel-influenced singing style known as “Soul Blues” – Ray Charles, James Brown. Introduced organ.

Rock n’ roll – a derivative of R & B with gospel. Early rock performers had background in Country music which they fused with blues (Carl Perkins, Elvis)

1930’s-1950’s Combined with Western swing and Country Rock

Black performers who played blues-based rock n’roll (Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddly)

Thomas Dorsey introduced blues to gospel music.

George Gershwin used blues in classical compositions

1960’s – Audience expanded to White Americans –revivalist folk festivals, etc.

--rebelliousness (Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton/British).

Also used in Civil Rights Movement of 1960’s. Eased the social divide.

Rolling Stones – blues became more mainstream

Is blues the most influential American music genre of the 20 th Century?

Mississippi River Culture

The Mississippi is 2500 miles long (from Minnesota to Gulf of Mexico)

--at one point is 4 miles wide.

Steamboats employed Black musicians—although segregated in terms of passengers.

Davenport, Iowa – River culture museum

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African American Music
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Study Guide Exam 1

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