Music/Society Modern Wrld (W2)
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bluesandjazz.pptxBlues & Jazz
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Blues Roots
The blues has its roots in Africa; and American slavery; and Jim Crow
We can trace the history of the blues to the Griot, West African singing historian; solo voice with plucked string acc.; personal topical themes; melisma, AAB; shakes, slurs, slides; harm.; poly/rhythm, shuffle; call-and-response
Further reading: Africa and the Blues, Gerhard Kubik
Other African-American music genres/styles that influenced (preceded) the blues: 1) Work songs, 2) field hollers, 3) spirituals, 4) folk ballads
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Popularization of the Blues
W.C. Handy – “father of the blues” (although music existed before him); he wrote, recorded blues songs, owned publishing co.
1912 - 4 songs appear with “blues” in title
1920s - Stars, “ Ma ” Rainey, Bessie Smith
Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues”
Race record – by and for African Americans
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Guitar Folk Blues
1920s and 30s many solo guitar and vocal recordings; inspired by Blind Lemmon Jefferson (1926)
Robert Johnson – Crossroads, legend (1936 recordings); “grandfather of rock ‘n’ roll”
1930s, blues re-centered in Chicago; why? Great Migration (further reading, The Warmth of Other Suns)
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Blind blake, blind willie mctell, blind willie johnson…
Black Snake Moan – sexual connotation? ‘snake’
Boogie and Jump Blues
Barrelhouse blues – Clarence ‘Pine Top’ Smith, piano
Boogie-woogie – bass line, Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis
1940s - jump blues, Louis Jordan, up-tempo
1950s – urban blues; BB King, Albert King…
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Blues Ideology
What is ‘blues ideology’ (Cary)? What is ‘blues power’? How is it expressed within music?
Existential realities – racism (discrimination, lynching), poverty, crime, prison, etc.; and the power to overcome, empowerment through music, through transformation (experience, and material realities), mobility
How is the the bluesman (musician) a symbol of this ideology/power? Railroad? Diddley Bow?
“Rollin’ Stone,” “Ramblin’ Man”; “Dust My Broom”; “Detroit Bound Blues,” Blind Blake (1928)
Traveler (freedom), wits, avoid manual labor, career, fame fortune, self-reliance, self-respect
Dust my broom – code for slave running away from plantation; only Af-Am knew the code
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“Crazy Blues”
Songs about (killing) police?
“Fuck the Police” (NWA 1988); Cop Killer (1992)
Crazy Blues (1920) Mamie Smith
Immediate historical and social context? Motivations? Af-Am relation with police?
Segregation, Jim Crow, Black Codes, riots, lynching, KKK (NY), unemployment, vagrancy, migration
Female abandonment; why? Does it speak to larger political and social issues? Bessie Smith “Haunted House Blues” , “Mad Mama’s Blues”
Domestic violence; forced labor, prison, lynching
I’m gonna do like a Chinaman . . . go and get some hop Get myself a gun . . . and shoot myself a cop
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‘Badmen’ and ‘Badwomen’
What does it mean to be ‘bad’ (slang)?
What is a ‘badman’? Who are some famous ones?
Railroad Bill 1893 Ala.; Stacker Lee 1895 St. Louis; Robert Charles 1900; Shine; J. Henry; J. Johnson
‘Badness’ – longer history with toasting and boasting (verbal battles about personal greatness); “playing the dozens” (yo’ mama jokes, insult battle)
more recent, “Super Bad” JB, Sweet Sweetback...(Peebles), Super Fly, Shaft, blaxsploitation; “Bad” Michael Jackson;
Connotation or significance of word ‘crazy’?
Sweet sweetback’s baaadasssss Song; Melvin Van Peebles (1971)
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Blues & Detroit Politics
“Boogie Chillen” (audio), John Lee Hooker (1948)
How does this act as an expression of blues power?
“The Motor City is Burning” (1967); later covered by MC5
1954, Bobo Jenkins composed and
recorded “Democrat Blues” (Chess)
1974 “Watergate Blues”; 1977
Detroit All Purpose Blues
Hooker – Parents sharecroppers Miss.; father Baptist minister; john sang in church
Mother remarried after divorce, to William Moore
At 14, left home, went to Memphis, then Cinci; then Det in 1943, why? (what is significant about 1943?)
Worked at Ford and Dodge
Played at Lee’s Sensation Bar, Club Caribee, Apex
Covered by Canned Heat, Led Zepplin, Van Morrison, the White Stripes; copyright issues with ZZ Top “La Grange” (1973)
Voted one of 500 most influential songs in rock ‘n’ roll, by RnR Hall of Fame
How does the song capture the social/cultural/historical context of “Black experience” in 1948?
Henry’s Swing Club; black owned club in 1940s; Orleans and Madison
Bobo Jenkins - Born in AL; father was sharecropper; moved to TN; married at age 14; enlisted in military at 18; after military relocated to Det., worked at Packard Plant; then Chrysler for 27 years
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Jazz: American Fusion
Where did jazz begin?
Is this a myth?
When did jazz start to emerge?
Origin of the word “Jazz”, from “Jass”
Influential African-American musical styles?
What is a creole?
Congo Square
(New Orleans)
Storyville
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Jazz gumbo, burns 8:03, end 15:03
Early Jazz
Buddy Bolden (trumpet), Kid Ory (trombone); Joe “King” Oliver (cornet) Sydney Bechet (clarinet) – all identified as Black “Negro” and/or creole
However…1917, 1st jazz recording, ODLJB (all white)
“ Black Bottom Stomp ” by Jelly Roll Morton, 1926; creole
“ West End Blues ” by Louis Armstrong, 1928
Hot Fives & Sevens (1925-1928)
Solo is significantly more elaborate than anything previously heard in history
ODLJB
Armstrong
Morton
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Louis Armstrong – “Black and Blue” (1929); music by Fats Waller; lyrics by Harry Brooks & Andy Razaf; for musical Hot Chocolates
Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead
Pains in my head, feel like old Ned
What did I do to be so black and blue?
No joys for me, no company
Even the mouse ran from my house
All my life through I've been so black and blue
I'm white inside, but that don't help my case
Cause I can't hide what is on my face
I'm so forlorn. Life's just a thorn
My heart is torn. Why was I born?
What did I do to be so black and blue?
I'm hurt inside, but that don't help my case
Cause I can't hide what is on my face
How will it end? Ain't got a friend
My only sin is in my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue?
Tell me, what did I do?
What did I do? What did I do?
What did I do? What did I do?
What did I do? What did I do?
What did I do? Tell me, what did I do to be so black and blue?
What did I do to be so black and blue?
Song – lyrics 1:36
Jewish writer?
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Big Band and Swing
Developed in 1920s (“Jazz Age”)
Used large ensemble - 3 sections, reeds (saxes), brass (trumpet, trombone), and rhythm (bass, drums, piano)
Performed in ballrooms for dancing and entertainment, i.e. Aragon, Cotton Club, Savoy (“Black clubs”) some clubs more willing to hire African American-led bands
Focus on group performance, less on individuals
Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Paul Whiteman
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Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
Most prolific of all big band composers
Piano player from early age, grew up on ragtime music
1917, formed is first group, The Duke’s Serenaders
Had popular working bands from 1920s through the 1950s; and composed until the early 1970s
“ Take the A Train ” 1940
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Black, Brown, and Beige
Written by Duke Ellington 1942-43
Initial performance at Carnegie Hall 1943
45-minute 3-part orchestral work
Story – African-American history in song
Audio – work song; Blues audio 9:00;
During WWII desire to show racial unity to world, counter critics
Black culture is sophisticated, important; Carnegie Hall, elevate Af-Am culture/history
Respectability
Elevated jazz; although Goodman in 1938
The first two black women to perform at Carnegie Hall were soprano Tillie Jones Thomas and mezzo-soprano Deseria Plato. They sang during a concert that featured African American pianist W. T. Talbert and included pianist and baritone Henry T. Burleigh, also an African American. The performance on May 16, 1892
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Billie Holiday (1915-1959)
AKA, Lady Day
Difficult childhood, likely contributed to her ability to sing the blues with such feeling
Began singing career in NYC, Harlem in the 1930s
Performed and Recorded with
Ellington, Basie, Armstrong
“ These Foolish Things ” (1936)
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Strange Fruit
“Strange Fruit” Billy Holiday (1939)
Composed by Abel Meeropol (aka Lewis Allan);
Jewish, why significant? His Politics?
Reaction by audiences, record label, radio?
Holiday’s relationship with song?
First impression
Personal life
career
Black and blue, crazy blues, also written by Jewish men
Columbia records refused to record it in 1930s; radio would not play it
Meeropol and wife were closet communists;
Song performed for leftist gatherings, often by wife, before Holiday
Café Society – village club NYC, leftist politics
#16 on charts; in 1939
Became title of Lilian Smith anti-segregation novel
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Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930
Marion, Indiana
Photo that inspired Abel Meeropol to write ”Strange Fruit”
Contemporary Echoes
Lupe Fiasco (b. 1982); Chicago, Harvey, IL; father member of Black Panther Party; musical influences, blues, jazz, hip-hop, etc.
Break the Chain – audio (2011), Lasers
Strange Fruition – audio (2012)
Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album pt. 1
Also, covered by abby lincoln, dee dee bridgewater, casandra wilson, and tori amos;
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