Lesson 2 - Lecture notes 2 PDF

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William Ryan...

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Introduction

Charlotte Forten

As we saw in the last lesson, the 12-bar blues was one of the most popular forms of African American musical expression during the twentieth century. Many of the early jazz pieces we looked at (including Dixieland and swing) were based on the 12-bar blues. In this lesson, we will look at the blues as a form of musical expression to understand what this genre meant to the people who made and listened to this music. The blues as a genre had a specific harmonic and lyric form, which we will study in detail. The blues evolved into various subgenres, and this lesson will address two of these: the rural blues and the urban blues. Studying the blues not only tells us about the music’s sonic characteristics but also about issues of race,

gender, and class as they relate to the production and consumption of the blues. The term "blues" (or "the blues") is typically associated with a feeling of sadness or melancholy. It was not until the late 1800s that the term "blues" came into common use. The first appearance in print may have been on December 14, 1862, when Charlotte Forten, a young black school teacher in South Carolina, returned from church and wrote in her diary, "Nearly everybody was looking gay and happy, and yet I came home with the blues." By the late 1800s, the term was common, and it is still used today to indicate a melancholy feeling of no specific origin, or, perhaps, of such a complex origin as to defy analysis and description.

“I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.” -David Johansen

“Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic

vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.” -Wynton Marsalis

"Blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861–65) and was largely played by Southern black men, most of whom came from the milieu of agricultural workers. " Encyclopaedia Britannica

Musical and Poetic Form of the 12Bar Blues Lyrics to 12-bar blues songs are usually structured as rhymed couplets with the first line repeated, in the form:

A A B

Each letter corresponds to roughly 4 measures (bars) of musical material. The couplet can be a complete episode in itself, or it can be a chapter in an unfolding narrative. Blues lyrics can be introspective, dealing with personal emotions, or they can be narrative, relaying a story or morality tale. Generally speaking, blues lyrics strive to be clever, using wordplay, innuendo, and double entendres. Sexual relations and romantic relationships are a central theme of most blues songs, and musicians took advantage of their lyrical prowess to portray their topics as vividly as possible. Blues lyrics address the deepest and most permanent of human circumstances in areas personal, financial, sexual, and social. Regardless of a blues songs instrumental accompaniment, its harmonic progression followed a recognizable pattern. The harmonic progression was typically some variation of the following format: A:

I

A:

IV

B:

V

I

I

I

IV V

I I

I I

Each of the twelve bars in the blues typically had a single chord. Often, blues songs only included a total of three or four different chords. Blue notes are another important harmonic and melodic aspect of the blues. Rather than landing precisely in the center of a pitch, performers may smear, scoop, or bend into a pitch, thus creating a "blue note." Singers can achieve blue notes with relative ease, but instrumentalists sometimes need to use special techniques. For

example, a guitarist can bend a pitch by pushing the string sideways against the fret, or by sliding a glass bottleneck along the guitar’s strings in what is called a bottleneck technique. Although blue notes vary among different performers and instruments, blue notes serve to create tone color and pitch variation within a melodic or harmonic line. The blues also features call and response, which is a fundamental aspect of nearly every type of African American music, whether sacred, secular, or popular. Call and response is a sort of conversation that happens in African American music, and it occurs in both instrumental and vocal music. During call and response, one musical or lyrical phrase is answered by a contrasting phrase. It is helpful to think of call and response as a sort of question-andanswer pattern between vocalists and / or instrumentalists. One example of call and response occurs in West End Blues ♫, which was discussed in Lesson 1: during the third chorus, Louis Armstrong and the clarinetist engage in call and response, as if Armstrong poses a question with his voice and the clarinet provides an answer. As we will see, the technique of call and response is found not only in the blues but also in nearly every type of African American music that exists.

“Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.”

-Wynton Marsalis

“The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.” -Wynton Marsalis

This short film St. Louis Blues (1929) starring Bessie Smith--and based on W.C. Handy's song of the same title--is the only known footage of her in existence. St. Louis Blues by Mark Cantor

Rural Blues The blues were born in the southern United States, and the Mississippi Delta was a particularly fertile area for the development of the blues. Different blues styles emerged throughout the twentieth century as blues musicians migrated to different areas of

the country. The majority of blues musicians played in order to earn a living, and they often provided the soundtracks for underground activities such as gambling, bootlegging, and prostitution. These activities often lent the blues a rather unsavory reputation. One of the earliest styles of the blues was born in the Mississippi Delta, and this genre is called the rural blues. The rural blues style favored spoken introductions and endings, strong "on the beat" phrasing, unamplified guitar, and relative freedom in the formal structure of the songs and texts. Rural blues musicians were almost always males who accompanied themselves on the guitar. In Texas, Blind Lemon Jefferson developed single-line guitar techniques, and musicians from the Mississippi Delta such as Charley Patton and Robert Johnson typically had a heavier, more intricate style of playing. Robert Johnson is often regarded as one of the most virtuosic performers of the rural blues style, although he only recorded 29 songs during his lifetime (if we include alternate takes, he made a total of 41 recordings). His deeply troubled and short life also suggests what many people would come to associate with a blues lifestyle, as Johnson was a hard drinker and a womanizer. Johnson’s recordings from 1936 and 1937 show the rural blues tradition at its best. Rumored to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his ability to play the blues, Johnson frequently created call and response between his poignant lyrics and his guitar. Through his unusually poetic lyrics, he was able to speak of his buried longings, wanderlust, and torments. "Sweet Home Chicago ♫" is a classic example of Johnson’s music and of the Delta blues style. The 12-bar structure, blue notes, poignant lyrics, and call and response between voice and guitar all mark "Sweet Home Chicago ♫" as a quintessential example of the rural blues.

Memphis Minnie

The rural blues was an overwhelmingly male-dominated field, although artists like Memphis Minnie were notable exceptions. By age 15, Minnie Douglas was singing in the streets of Memphis under the name "Kid Douglas," and then she joined the Ringling Brothers Circus. In 1929, she was discovered by a Columbia Records talent scout. She recorded extensively with her husband, Joe McCoy, who played a bass line on a second guitar. She took Chicago by storm with her formidable guitar technique and powerful, expressive voice. In fact, in a performance contest between Memphis Minnie and blues legend Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie easily defeated him with her performances of "Me and My Chauffeur Blues ♫" and "Looking the World Over ♫," taking two bottles of liquor as her prize. The limited number of recordings Johnson and other rural blues artists made in the 1920s and 1930s were largely due to the fact that record companies at the time were, for the most part, not interested in recording, let along marketing, the type of music that Johnson and others were making. As a result, the rural blues largely survived through oral tradition rather than through recordings. It is

entirely possible that many singers just as talented as Johnson, Charley Patton, and Blind Lemon Jefferson have been lost because their music was never recorded.

Leadbelly

On occasion, a folklorist or scholar would "discover" a blues musician and record his music. A folklorist (also sometimes called an ethnomusicologist) has a scholarly interest in researching and preserving music that is part of oral traditions. These musics are usually traditional to a specific region or group. During the early part of the twentieth century, many folklorists were determined to preserve music that they feared might one day die out or be swallowed up by the mainstream or popular music trends. Many folklorists traveled to rural areas, foreign countries, or isolated regions to seek out interesting music to record and study. Leadbelly is a prime example of a blues musician whose work survives in large part because of interest from folklorists. Leadbelly earned his nickname from a gunshot wound to the gut at an early age, and he lived a rough life of violence, drink, and frequently imprisonment. Father-and-son folklorist team John and Alan Lomax got him out of prison several times, presented him in concerts and clubs, and recorded his best material for the Library of Congress archives. Leadbelly often served as the lead singer for the prison gang work songs that were so essential for coordinated effort in breaking rocks, digging out tree stumps, or driving steel spikes.

Leadbelly’s recordings include a variety of work songs, 12-bar blues, and folk songs, such as "Good Night Irene ♫," "Cotton Fields ♫," and "Black Betty ♫."

“The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.” -Wynton Marsalis

“When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.” -Little Richard

"Blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861–65) and was largely played by Southern black men, most of whom came from the milieu of agricultural workers. " Encyclopaedia Britannica

Urban Blues

Bessie Smith

Like the rural blues, the urban blues typically follow the 12-bar blues form and include blue notes and call and response. Unlike the rural blues, the urban blues are performed by a female singer who is typically backed by either a solo piano or a small combo. The combos backing these singers often resembled Dixieland jazz groups in their personnel, with a trumpet, trombone, or clarinet, piano, guitar, and bass. During vaudeville performances, female singers would often perform blues songs with an instrumental

accompaniment. Some of these vaudeville singers were so successful that they were able to leave vaudeville and build new careers performing the blues. Bessie Smith was one of the most powerful female blues singers of the 1920s. She recorded 180 sides for Columbia Records between 1923 and 1933, backed by the likes of saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, clarinetist Benny Goodman, pianist Clarence Williams, trombonist Jack Teagarden, and other big league jazz performers. She was justly called the "Empress of the Blues." "Backwater Blues ♫" is an original composition by Bessie Smith in which she sings about her response to the 1926 flood of the Cumberland River that struck on Christmas Morning in Nashville, Tennessee. Accompanied by pianist James P. Johnson, Smith demonstrates great emotional depth while employing standard blues elements such as blue notes. Smith and Johnson engage in call and response throughout the song; nearly every line of Smith’s is answered in the piano by Johnson. Many urban blues recordings were released as race records, the music industry term for recordings that were produced by and/or marketed toward African Americans. In record companies, race records were seen as a specific genre of music that included nearly all genres of African American music. Labels including OKeh, Emerson, Vocalion, Victor, and Atlantic all marketed race records. A few record companies such as Black Swan were owned by, operated by, and marketed to African Americans, although the majority of race records were released as a division of a major white-owned record label. "Race records" remained the industry term for African American music until 1949, when the term "rhythm and blues" was adopted as a replacement.

Mamie Smith

Many companies in the recording industry initially rejected singers such as Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey because they did not approve of their "unpolished" vocal styles, southern diction, and raspy vocal timbres. At the time, record companies wanted "pretty" and "lyrical" (read: white) voices, which was not what these singers were offering. These women sang in a style that was typical of African American performers but relatively unknown to white record executives, which meant that they had some difficulty initially receiving record contracts. In August, 1920, Mamie Smith recorded " Crazy Blues ♫" in the OKeh studios in New York. At the time, Smith was a vaudeville performer, and "Crazy Blues ♫" was penned by her fellow vaudeville performer Perry Bradford. To everyone’s surprise, the tune sold over 75,000 copies in the first month and opened up a big market for a whole field of urban blues singers. Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, and Sara Martin followed at OKeh; Alberta Hunter, Ida

Cox, and Ma Rainey came out on Paramount; Bessie Smith and Clara Smith recorded at Columbia; and Trixie Smith performed on the Black Swan label. Although urban blues singers such as Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey often sang about southern sensibilities, men, and sexual relationships, they also presented themselves as refined, glamorous celebrities. These singers were stars, dressing lavishly with jewels, fancy gowns, and feathers. Their live performances offered their audiences a sense of luxury and opulence. In turn, audiences bestowed titles such as "Empress of the Blues" (Bessie Smith) and "Mother of the Blues" (Ma Rainey) on the singers.

“I think we as a band, as individuals, understand that all popular music stems from blues and jazz and even pop, but rock 'n' roll especially comes from blues.” -David Johansen

“Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.”

-Wynton Marsalis

"The advent of boogie woogie was the first time African American musicians succeeded in creating a piano music that was within the emotional tradition of African American music." Jazz In America

Boogie Woogie

Typical Boogie Woogie

Another kind of blues-influenced music grew up among piano players in the lumber and turpentine camps of Texas and Louisiana. It soon spread to the inner-city clubs of the midwest, and became particularly popular in Chicago. In boogie-woogie, eighth-note ostinato patterns generate a driving rhythm in the left hand while the right hand embroiders that pattern with a variety of highly ornamented melodies. Recordings such as Pinetop Smith’s

"Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie ♫" show off these repeated bass figures and rhythmically contrasting right-hand melodies. Boogie-woogie was music meant for dancing, and it was a staple of Chicago "rent parties." A tenant might host a rent party if he was unable to make his rent payment one month. During these parties, a hired pianist would play boogie woogie music all night while people danced, drank, ate, and socialized. Everyone who attended would chip in some money, and usually the host earned enough by the end of the night to not only pay for the expenses of the party (including the pianist’s fee) but also to cover their rent that month.

“The blues is the foundation for a lot of things. Things have branched off. It's cool how music grows, but the foundation is always there. It's not going anywhere. The blues is always going to be relevant.” -Gary Clark, Jr.

“The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.” -Wynton Marsalis

This short film St. Louis Blues (1929) starring Bessie Smith--and based on W.C. Handy's song of the same title--is the only known footage of her in existence. St. Louis Blues by Mark Cantor

Commercial or Arranged Blues

W.C. Handy

Much in the way that ragtime inspired many songs that were about ragtime but included very few musical characteristics of ragtime,

the blues also inspired many popular songs by Tin Pan Alley and popular song composers. The most prolific composer of these songs was W.C. Handy, who churned out dozens of blues-inspired songs in the 1910s. His campaign song for E. H. Crump’s mayoral race became the famous "Memphis Blues ♫." Several more blues compositions followed, and in 1914, "St. Louis Blues ♫" took the world by storm. In no time at all, Handy was the darling of Tin Pan Alley. In fact, he was even called "the father of the blues," although it is probably more accurate to call him "the father of the arranged blues" because very few of his songs were in 12-bar blues forms.

St. Louis Blues

Although not in the 12-bar blues form, "St. Louis Blues ♫" started a national craze for this new type of blues music. Tin Pan Alley composers began writing blues-inspired songs, before long, some

200 different blues titles appeared on Broadway, in sheet music, and on recordings. These songs were examples of commercial or arranged blues numbers, very few of which were in 12-bar form or included performative aspects like blue notes. Instead, these songs were inspired by the growing national interest in the blues.

“The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.” -Wynton Marsalis

“Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.” -Wynton Marsalis

"Blues...