Introduction:
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African influence. The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as it became the roots of jazz, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, heavy metal music, hip-hop, and other popular music forms.
Etymology
The phrase "the blues" is a reference to the blue devils, meaning 'down' spirits, depression and sadness. An early reference to "the blues" can be found in George Colman's farce Blue devils, a farce in one act (1798). Later during the 19th century, the phrase was used as a euphemism for delirium tremens and the police, and was not uncommon in letters from homesick Civil War soldiers.
Origins of the blues
There are few characteristics common to all blues, because the genre takes its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performances. However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues.
An early form of blues-like music was a call-and-response shouts, which were a "functional expression... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure.” A form of these pre-blues was heard in slave field shouts and hollers, expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content".
Many blues elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The Diddley bow, a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the American South in the early twentieth century, and the banjo, are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary.
Blues music later adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also was closely related to ragtime, which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music".
Blues songs from this period, such as Lead Belly's or Henry Thomas's recordings, show many different structures. The twelve-, eight-, or sixteen-bar structure based on tonic (I), subdominant (IV) and dominant chords (V) became the most common forms.[11] What is now recognizable as the standard 12-bar blues form is documented from oral history and sheet music appearing in African American communities throughout the region along the lower Mississippi River, in Memphis, Tennessee's Beale Street, and by white bands in New Orleans.
Musical style
During the first decades of the twentieth century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a chord progression. There were many blues in 8-bar form, such as "How Long Blues", "Trouble in Mind", and Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway." Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are also encountered occasionally, as with the 9 bar progression in Howlin' Wolf's "Sitting on Top of the World". The basic twelve-bar lyric framework of a blues composition is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of twelve bars, in 4/4 or (rarely) 2/4 time. Slow blues are often played in 12/8 (4 beats per measure with 3 subdivisions per beat).
By the 1930s, twelve-bar blues became the standard. There would also be 16 bar blues, as in Ray Charles's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars", and in Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man". The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a twelve-bar scheme:I I or IV I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I or V
where the Roman numbers refer to the degrees of the progression. That would mean, if played in the tonality of C, the chords would be as follows:C C or F C C
F F C C
G F C C or G
(When the IV chord is played in bar 2, the blues is called a "Quick-Change" blues).
In this example, C is the tonic chord, F the subdominant. Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. Frequently, the last chord is the dominant (V or in this case G) turnaround making the transition to the beginning of the next progression.
Blues from the 1980s to the present
Since the 1980s, there has been a resurgence of interest in the blues among a certain part of the African-American population, particularly around Jackson, MS and other deep South regions. Often termed "soul blues" or "Southern Soul," the music at the heart of this movement was given new life by the unexpected success of two particular recordings on the Jackson-based Malaco label: Z. Z. Hill's Down Home Blues (1982) and Little Milton's The Blues is Alright (1984). Contemporary African-American performers who work this vein of the blues include Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Sir Charles Jones, Bettye LaVette, Marvin Sease and Peggy Scott-Adams.
During the 1980s, blues also continued in both traditional and new forms. In 1982, the album Strong Persuader revealed Robert Cray as a major blues artist. The first Stevie Ray Vaughan recording Texas Flood was released in 1983, and the Texas based guitarist exploded onto the international stage. 1989 saw a revival of John Lee Hooker's popularity with the album The Healer. Eric Clapton known for his performances with the Blues Breakers and Cream, made a comeback in the 1990s with his album Unplugged, in which he played some standard blues numbers on acoustic guitar.
In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged.
In the 1990s, blues performers explored a range of musical genres, as can be seen, for example, from the broad array of nominees of the yearly Blues Music Awards, previously named W. C. Handy Awards or of the Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary and Traditional Blues Album. Contemporary blues music is nurtured by several blues labels such as: Alligator Records, Ruf Records, Chess Records (MCA), Delmark Records, NorthernBlues Music, and Vanguard Records (Artemis Records). Some labels are famous for their rediscovering and remastering of blues rarities such as Arhoolie Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (heir of Folkways Records) and Yazoo Records (Shanachie Records).
In popular culture
The music of Taj Mahal for the 1972 movie Sounder marked a revival of interest in acoustic blues.
Like jazz, rock and roll, heavy metal music, hip hop music, reggae, country music, and pop music, blues has been accused of being the "devil's music" and of inciting violence and other poor behavior.[45] In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable, especially as white audiences began listening to the blues during the 1920s.[46] In the early twentieth century, W.C. Handy was the first to popularize blues-influenced music among non-black Americans.
During the blues revival of the 1960s and '70s, acoustic blues artist Taj Mahal and legendary Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins wrote and performed music that figured prominently in the popularly and critically acclaimed film Sounder (1972). The film earned Mahal a Grammy nomination for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture and a BAFTA nomination. Almost 30 years later, Mahal wrote blues for, and performed a banjo composition, claw-hammer style, in, the 2001 movie release "Song Catcher," which focused on the story of the preservation of the roots music of Appalachia.
Grammy-winning blues guitarist and vocalist Keb' Mo' performed his blues rendition of "America, the Beautiful" in 2006 to close out the final season of the popular television series "The West Wing."
Blues Music and the Development of Personalized Song
Because of its personalized form, the popularity of blues music among blacks marked a unique period in the history of secular African American song. Prior to the emergence of the blues, solo music was atypical. Such individualized song had never been the main ingredient of black music. Prior songs consisted of field hollers, which served as a means of communication among plantation workers, and work calls, which were chanted by peddlers in northern and southern cities. While field hollers and work calls had elements of personalized song, they had never truly developed as solo songs.
Despite the blues uniqueness from hollers and calls, it was forged from the same musical repertory and traditions. The call and response form of expression remained, but instead of incorporating a response from another participant, the blues singer responded to himself or herself. Thus, it was not created from a new type of music, but from a new perception about oneself.
The Emergence of the Blues
The blues was first sung by men at leisure and was called the folk blues. Some folk blues singers sung in medicine shows and touring carnivals. As black vaudeville singers, came in contact with country singers, they eventually learned to sing the blues. Vaudeville singers brought a professional quality to it and constructed the foundation for the classic blues.
As African Americans migrated north in the early 20th century, they brought the blues with them. Coming from New Orleans, black-butt pianists who played the blues in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, gave way to the Fast Western pianists who sang as they played, imitating Southern guitarists. Country singers joined the black-butt and the Fast Western pianists’ migration, and brought their style to Chicago, Detroit, and New York, where the classic blues singers united with the New Orleans and Fast Western musicians, and introduced their blues style in clubs, theaters, and dance halls.
The Rising Popularity of Blues Music
The first recording of the blues was in 1895. George W. Johnson's "Laughing Song" was the first blues song recorded. Thereafter, blues songs began to appear in music rolls. The 1906 series of Music for the Aedian Grand, listed one blues title among the forty-nine music rolls.
It was W.C. Handy, a composer, musician, and bandleader of the Mahara Minstrels, who came across the blues in a Tutwiler, Mississippi train station in 1903. According to Handy, while he was waiting for the train he heard the unforgettable sound of a man running a knife against the strings of his guitar while he sang, “Goin’ where the Southern cross the Dog.” Not long after, in 1912, Handy published “Memphis Blues,” making him the third person in a few months to publish a song with the name “blues.”
The Classic Blues Era
The classic blues style, the style that was popularized by female singers, was popular among newly arrived blacks in the cities. The migration of many blacks to the cities gave them a new freedom from the church and community that had not been experienced in rural areas. Blacks demanded entertainment, and black theaters, dance halls, and clubs were opened. Women stopped singing in their churches and schools, and began to perform in theaters, clubs, dance halls, and vaudeville shows.
The blues entered the forefront in 1920, when Mamie Smith's recording of "Crazy Blues" became popular and opened the doors to other classic blues singers. The record was priced at one dollar and sold 75,000 copies the first month of release.
The Rise of the Country Blues
The popularity of the classic blues, however, began to decline. At the same time, male blues singers were on the rise. Record companies, such as Columbia, Paramount, and Okeh, made field trips into the South in search of talented blues singers. Record representatives recorded artists either with their mobile recording unit or arranged for them to travel north to Chicago or New York to record.
The rise of the country blues was marked by the recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson in early 1926. It was his May release of “Long Lonesome Blues” that set the stage for a new era of the blues. This time it was marked by male singers, including Blind Willie McTell, Barbecue Bob, and Charley Patton.
The Blues Goes on Hiatus
When the Depression hit the U.S. in 1929, many country blues singers found it difficult to continue making a living. Record sales took a dive and record companies quickly tapered back on recording blues singers. Nevertheless, the blues had been recorded and it was instrumental in influencing later singers, including Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and T-Bone Walker. The blues is also responsible for influencing jazz, pop, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and rap.
