Class Notes 5

Blues Overview

Blues Section

This section is designed to give the students ready access to a vernacular art form other than pop, to introduce the basics of metric music (esp. downbeat and upbeat) and to broaden their listening awareness.

History:

-Roots in field hollers, work songs, spirituals, slave expression (emotional content) c.1830s-1910. Made to coordinate movements of harvest etc. - mixture of all of these and religious song.

Work Songs and Field Hollers: are songs for the accompaniment of work. Slaves were encouraged to sing to keep the work moving along. High-spirited songs were especially encouraged because they were active. Mournful songs were discouraged. [Frederick Douglass quote from E. Southern p. 160] Other kinds of songs developed for corn harvest, boatsongs and various festivals: log-rolling, hog-killing and corn husking. [Southern quote from Paine p. 162]

"The slaves distinguished among song types according to the function of the songs, as in African tradition, and were concerned that their activities be accompanied by appropriate songs. But there were few hard and fast rules; often it was merely a matter of adjusting the tempo,..." [Southern p. 164] "One old slave, who had seen more than her share of tragedy, said, 'I likes Poor Rosy better than all the songs, but it can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit."

"The dividing line between the blues and some kinds of spirituals cannot always be sharply drawn. Many spirituals convey to listeners the same feeling of rootlessness and misery as do the blues. The spiritual is religious, however, rather than worldly and tends to be more generalized in its expression the specific, more figurative in its language than direct, and more expressive of group feelings than individual ones."[Southern, p. 331]

"As an aural music, the blues has few absolute features; it is intended to take on its shape and style during performance. Generally, but not always, the blues reflects the personal response of its inventor to a specific occurrence or situation. By singing about his misery, the blues singer achieves a kind of catharsis and life becomes bearable again. Most often the blues singer bemoans the fickleness or departure of a loved one. He doesn't need an audience for his singing, although others may listen to him if they wish. When others do listen to the blues singer, they frequently find that they have shared his experiences in one way or another. " [Southern p.331]

-W.C. Handy: popularizer of the blues, publisher/composer of

'first' Blues; St. Louis Blues (1911), Memphis Blues (1909),

-Ma Rainey (Read from Southern, pp. 330-331) Bessie Smith (eg. Charly Blues CD)

-In 1930s very popular: Howlin' Wolf, Big Joe Turner

-Tradition moves north during the Industrial Revolution from Mississippi Delta to industiral cities:

St. Louis, Chicago (BB King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy) eg. Sweet Home Chicago & My Love is Real (Charly CD) Howlin' Wolf- Smokestack Lightnin' (Charly CD)

Pittsburgh, New York mix w/Jazz Tradition along the way

emphasis on Industrialization woes.

Musical Elements:

- Secular African-American folk form of 20th c. related to, but separate from jazz (Grove, p. 90).

-classic patterns: e.g.s break forms, break to IV, boogie-woogie [left-hand piano motif], jazz forms; shuffle [aka 12/8], swing, Guitar Blues, Piano Blues, Southern Blues, Chitlin’ Circuit, Jimmy Smith

-AAB (throwback to African three-line forms) not seen in Euro-centric tradition. (Southern, p. 333) See harmonic progression

A: I-----I----I----I----

A: IV---IV---I----I----

B: V----V----I----I----

-'Blues' describes both feeling (emotional/musical) and form i.e. 12-bar, 16-bar forms.

-Lyric is important: AAB and has emotional content as described above.

E.g. "Stormy Monday Blues"

Verse 1

'Said they call it Stormy Monday, Tuesday's jus' as bad.

Said they call it Stormy Monday, Tuesday's jus' as bad.

Wednesday's worse and Thursday's - oh so sad.

Verse 2

Said the Eagle flies on Friday, Saturday I go out to play.

Said the Eagle flies on Friday, Saturday I go out to play.

When Sunday come, I get down on my knees and pray.'

Characteristics:

-Blue notes #4, b5 and scale.

-Strong pulse, downbeat and upbeat, differentiate.

-Groove because of interaction w/up and downbeats.

-4/4, 12/8 typical meters

-triplet subdivision

-blues scale and bending from vocal tradition

-instrumentation: guitar esp. and a cappella

Blues E.g.s for class

"Looky, Looky Yonder/Black Betty"- Leadbelly (1934)

Johnny Dodds and his Blackbottom Stompers w/Satchmo,

Jellyroll Morton and Earl 'Fatha' Hines (1926-7) pre-blues

"Big Joe Turner's Blues" (1926) typical 12 bar pattern

Willie "the Lion" Smith - "Jumpin' Down Blues" (1940)

"Rainy Day Blues "(1941)

"Last Goodbye Blues"

Jimmy Smith / "Back at the Chicken Shack" Track #1

Mike Stern "Straight No Chaser" Tr. #8

Marcus Roberts "Slippin' and Slidin" Tr. #3

"Blues in the Evening Time" #4

"St. Louis Blues"