Early Blues & Jazz Performers

Features of Jazz to Consider:

Jazz is a music and culture about life through  struggle and success. Often, success is only possible through working out " issues" with a collection of others. In this way, jazz music represents democracy more than other styles. Jazz is a music that reflects hard work, determination, discipline and team work. It celebrates listening, communicating and curiosity. It is a music about spontaneous energy and rhythm. At its best, it reflects all that is unique about the artist and all that is beautiful about human connections.

Features of jazz to consider:
  • Swing feel
  • Spontaneous
  • Conversational
  • Improvisation
  • Dynamic energy shifts
  • Introspective
  • Exploration
  • Fine details
  • Quick changes in emotion 
  • Different hierarchy 

1955

1969

2001
Blues Origins

The roots of Blues are in early African American music. As many African Americans converted to Christianity they learned Protestant hymns and other religious songs that introduced melodic, harmonic and formal elements of European music.   

Sacred Music
  • Lining out psalms- Early form of call and response. Congregation leader read or chanted the psalm a few lines at a time, the congregation sang back the lines elaborating the original tune 
  • Spirituals- “African American songs that arose in the nineteenth century and consisted of religious lyrics with folk melodies.” replaced “lining out psalms”. Choirs or congregation sang the spirituals in call and response form- alternating solo verses with refrain lines
  • Ring Shout- Spirituals spawned “open air camp meetings” where thousands would gather and worship for days at a time

Secular Music- Non-religious music that included songs, field hollers and work songs.  Work songs accompanied different types of labor- picking tobacco, cotton, threshed rice, husked corn or harvested sugar cane.
  • Folk Songs- Content included songs about daily aspects of work life (both negative & positive)
  • Work songs (traditional - Nina Simone)- Accompanied different types of labor. Allowed workers to synchronize their tasks and movements to the call-response pattern. Group leader sang out the main phrases, the rest of workers responded together in time with their work
  • Field hollers- were both a song and means of communication- in half-sung/spoken manner. 
Country Blues vs. City Blues 

Country Blues:
  • Sung predominantly sung by men
  • Vocal quality is often sub-par
  • Predominately self accompanied (piano or banjo) 
  • 12 bar form is recognizable, but loose
  • Subject matter is about oppression and hardship

City Blues:
  • Sung predominantly by women 
  • Better, polished songs
  • Consists of much larger groups utilizing other instruments (horns or piano)
  • Tight, structured 12 bar form
  • Subject matter is about love and sex (hasn't changed ever since….)

12 Bar Blues Chord Progression (hypothetical key signature––C): 1 chord per measure

I----I----I---I---IV--IV---I---I---V---IV---I

C----C-----C----C---F-----F------C----C----G----F-----C

Performers of Significance (Country "Delta" Blues)

Charlie Patton (Mississippi between 1887/1891–1934)- Known as the father of Delta blues. LYRICS
William "Led Belly" Ledbetter (Louisiana; 1888-1949)- American folk and blues musician (guitarist), noted for his strong vocals. 
Robert Johnson (Mississippi; 1911-1938)- American blues singer and musician. 
  • His recordings between 1936-37 combine songwriting, singing and guitar technique- influential to later musicians. 

Performers of Significance (City Blues)

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (Georgia; 1886-1939)- Mother of the blues. One of the earliest known blues singers. 
  • One of the first generation of singers to record
  • Known for her powerful vocal abilities and energetic disposition
  • Moaning style of singing–similar to folk tradition
Bessie Smith (Tennessee; 1894-1937)- Empress of the blues. Often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era. 
  •  Most beloved blues singer of the early 1920’s
  • St. Louis Blues/Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out (8 bar)/Lost Your Head Blues (12 bar)
    • Characteristics of early jazz singing and other forms of blues
      • Loosely constructed phrasing
      • Offbeat, syncopated placement of notes and lyrics
      • Use of slides, blue notes, and other vocal embellishments 
I hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down
Hate to see the ev'nin' sun go down,
'cause my baby, he done left this town
Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today
Feel tomorrow like I feel today,
I'll pack my trunk, make my getaway
St. Louis woman with her diamond rings
Pulls that man 'round by her apron strings,
't'want for powder and for store-bought hair
The man I love, would not gone nowhere,
got the St. Louis blues just as blue as I can be
That man got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me

Theatrical Forms of Entertainment
Minstrelsy 1845-1900- Preceded vaudeville shows. Shows traveled with a small rhythm section- banjos, tambourines, washboards, etc.  Topics were derogatory stereotypes of characters, performed with actors in black face. The combination of music and staged entertainment (singing and dancing) created the platform for which Vaudeville expanded. 
Vaudeville 1880-1930(s)- Referred to as "the heart of American show business", vaudeville distinguished itself from earlier forms by its mixed-gender audience, usually alcohol-free halls, and often slavish devotion to inculcating favor among members of the middle class. Topics were broadened, shying away from the derogitory subjectmatter of earlier forms of entertainment: musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, male/female impersonators, among others.
Influential Elements:
  • Combining musical accompaniment (generally piano) with a variety of staged acts. Dancing and singing developed and expanded as well as the inclusion of "side show" forms of entertainment (circus acts, magicians, comedians, singers) 
  • Influenced and aided the development of Ragtime. The music was separated from the stage 
Ragtime (circa 1897-1920)- Associated with songs and pianists. From the vaudeville era came Ragtime. Started in the 1890’s and lasted twenty years. First time a specifically black genre entered and dominated the U.S mainstream. Derived from songs taken from early minstrel/vaudeville shows. 
Influential Elements of Ragtime: 
  • Influenced the production of sheet music
  • Included solo piano pieces, songs (with lyrics), and pieces for small dance ensembles
  • Influence on military marches (John Phillip Sousa)
  • First spread by itinerate musicians, then the sale of sheet music helped popularity
  • Utilized in early films (music aiding the story-line)  as well as other forms of live entertainment (dances, comedy shows, etc)
Characteristics of Ragtime 

Known for it's syncopated or ragged rhythm. Began as dance music in the red-light districts in New Orleans & St. louis; brothels and illicit establishments that hired ragtime pianists to entertain customers.  
  • Generally written in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a predominate left hand pattern of bass notes playing on the strong beats (1 & 3) with chords on weak beats  (2 & 4).
  • Syncopated rhythmic melody in the right hand.
  • Other composers of Ragtime: Scott Joplin Jelly Roll Morton, James Scott
Characteristics of Stride 

Known for the left hand characteristically playing a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, or octave on beat 1 and 3 while the right hand plays chords on beat 2 and 4
  • Stride pianists did not shy away from playing popular music of the day 
  • Whereas rags were often composed, stride pianists had a heavier improvisatory element to their playing. 
  • Often times, stride was played at faster tempos and with a greater sense of direction/drive.
  • Other Stride performers: Willie "The Lion" Smith, Fatts Waller 
Rhythm- Find the basic beat of the piece, and then listen for rhythmic accents. Do they occur on the beat or off the beat? Are some sections of the recording more rhythmically active than others? 

Melody- Can you identify any melodies that contain wide leaps? If you were asked to sing back a melody of the piece, what would you sing? Are there ever multiple melodies audible at the same time? 

Form- Do you hear discrete musical sections? Do any of them repeat or return later in the recording? How long are the sections? 
 Scott Joplin (Texas; 1867-1917)  p383-389- Known as the "King of Ragtime"
  • Published Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 
James P. Johnson (New Jersey; 1894-1955)- African American composer and pianist. A pioneer for the style of stride piano. Combined with Jellyroll Morton, James helped to bridge the gap between ragtime and jazz. 
  • Published Harlem Strut in 1921

Louis Armstrong (New Orleans): 1901-1971 (Hot Sevens- Johny Dodds (clarinet), Lil Armstrong (piano), Johnny St. Cyr (banjo and guitar); Dodd’s brother (Baby Dodds- drums); Pete Briggs (tuba); John Thomas (trombone) 

  • American jazz trumpeter/cornetist and singer, born in New Orleans
  • Shifted the focus from collective improvisation to solo performance
  • Innovator of scat singing- vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of lyrics
  •  One of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to rise to upper echelons of American society
  • Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars. Appeared in over thirty films and was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time Magazine  

West End Blues– Listening Guide

Dixieland- New Orleans (characteristics of Dixieland music) – When The Saints, Tiger Rag, Basin Street Blues
  • Typical Instrumentation- Clarinet, trombone, trumpet, piano, banjo, and drums (string bass or tuba optional)
  • The cornet, clarinet and trombone as the front line
  • Improvised ensemble sections, with the first cornet taking the lad and the other instruments providing other countermelodies and accompaniments.
  • Collective improvisation, with the members of the front line often improvising their parts simultaneously.
  • A driving rhythmic feel, with emphasis on the beat
  • A “hot” style, with exuberant performances by all the musicians
  • Simple rhythm-section parts with all the rhythm instruments articulating the beat


Ella Fitzgerald: 1917-1996
  • Known as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella
  • Purity of tone and impeccable diction
  • Noted for intonation, phrasing and "horn-like" improvisational ability

Mack The Knife- circa 1960
Summertime- 1968
Flying Home- 1979 (scat singing)
Flying Home (original recording)