The Blues

A History
 What is the Blues?
Began as African American folk music
A secular or spiritual form of music
Documented as early as the 19th
century
Shaped Western music, influenced
Jazz, Rock and Roll, Pop, and other
styles of music
 Definition and Origins
A 12-bar musical form developed in the deep
south in the early 19th century by African
Americans
Having blues also generally refers to a state of
mind, feeling sad, distraught, or depressed
A Blues performer plays to rid himself of the
blues.
Created and developed by Black plantation
workers, farmers, sharecroppers.
*What was going on during this time period that
would lead to the creation of such a music?
 Origins
Created largely by musicians who had little education,
most of whom couldnt read music
Verbal and musical improvisation is an essential
characteristic
Heavily influenced by collective unaccompanied work-
songs of the plantation culture.
Mississippi regarded as the birthplace of the Blues
Instrumental blues style was heavily linked with
traditional African music (Oxford)
Heavily influenced by traditional African spirituals as well.
*What is a spiritual and what is the difference between a
African spirituals and African music?
 First Recordings
First documented written blues as
early as 1915
Mamie Smith credited with the first
recorded blues in 1920 with Crazy
Blues
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-7Cs2
10D4w
First recorded blues were over-
produced at the time for larger
 First Recordings
Many of the first Blues recordings were
done in a Vaudeville style
Early travelling blues performers were
Black women from the south (Edith
Wilson, Sara Martin, Clara Smith)
Many of these singers came from the deep
south, where the progression originated
Though there were many travelling Blues
singers, only a handful were recorded
 Migration to the North
The piano became instrumental to
the development of the Blues sound
Pianists were responsible for the
development of walking bass lines
and many popular rhythmic phrases
and syncopations
Many musicians started moving to
the North, settling around the
Chicago and Detroit area
 1930s Blues
Many of the 1930sbluesare
characterized by a fatalism prompted
by the difficulties of the Depression.
Tone becomes more somber, less
Vaudeville-esque like previous Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=a_YX3TiIquQ

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/41276?
type=article&search=quick&q=the+blues&pos=23&_start=1
 Leroy Carr How Long, How Long Blues
How long babe how long
Has that evenin' train been gone?
How long, how, how long, baby how long?
Went and askedat the station: 'why's my baby leavin' town?'
You were disgusted, nowhere could peace be found
For how long, how, how long, baby how long?
I can hear the whistle blow'n but I cannot see no train
And it's deep down in my heart baby, there's lies an achin' pain
For how long, how, how long, baby how long?
Sometimes I feel so disgustin' and I feel so blue
That I hardly know what in this world baby just to do
For how long, how, how long, baby how long?
And if I could holler, like I was a mountain train
I'd go up on the mountain and I'd call my baby back
But for how long, how, how long, baby how long?
And someday you gonna be sorry that you done me wrong
But it will be too late, I will be gone
For so long, so long, baby so long?
My mind gets a ramblin', I feel so bad
Thinkin' about the bad luck that I have had
For how long, how, how long, baby how long?
 Urban Blues
The 1930s in Chicago were plagued with
tough conditions
Produced a more defiant, extroverted blues
Guitarists like Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker
and pianists like Fats Domino and Little
Richard produced a widely popular Urban
Blues sound the pre-empted rock and roll
https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFFgbc5Vcbw&l
ist=PL6848182142599EF8
 In Jazz Idiom
W.C. Handy was the first to publish sheet
music with a 12-Bar Blues in 1912
Handy was noted for his special
importance of the 3rd and 7th notes chords
and the slurring between major and minor
an important characteristic of the Blues
Developed by such musicians as Jelly Roll
Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington,
Miles Davis
 In the Jazz Idiom
Characterized by swing feel

Blues Scale is used as a tool for

improvisation
 In the Jazz Idiom
The Blues progression was explored
by many Jazz musicians with
hundreds of jazz standards using the
12-bar blues.
Experimentation with many jazz
musicians allowed for many
important harmonic developments in
not only Blues music, but other
genres of Jazz including bebop, funk,
Latin, etc.
 Important Jazz Blues
Recordings
Duke Ellington C Jam Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k01HxQRHxLQ

Note How the sound, style, and harmony become

more developed when Oscar Peterson plays the
same tune 22 years later

Oscar Peterson C Jam Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k01HxQRHxLQ
 Important Jazz Blues
Recordings
McCoy Tyner Trio Blues on the Corner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBwuwZh6G6g

Note that while the form is 12-bar Blues, there are a

lot of notes and harmonies that sound outside of
traditional Blues harmony. This is an example of
harmonic experimentation musicians used.

John Coltrane Blue Train

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1GrP6thz-k
 The Fake Book
A collection of lead sheets, usually several
hundred, with the melody (or head) written
in the first few measures.
All the chord changes of a tune are
provided, allowing professional musicians
to learn a tune and improvise on the spot,
usually at performances.
Highly illegal before the 70s due to lack of
royalties musicians would receive from
their music.
Example of a Fake Book
chart