Transcript blues ppt

MUSICAL DIVERSIFICATION

Record companies targeted new audiences between World
War I and World War II (1918–40).

Recorded music derived from the folk traditions of the
American South
•
Migration of millions of people from rural communities to
cities such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Nashville
in the years following World War I
RACE RECORDS AND HILLBILLY
MUSIC

Terms used by the American music industry to classify
and advertise southern music.

Race Records
•

Recordings of performances by African American musicians
produced mainly for sale to African American listeners
Hillbilly or Old-Time
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Music performed by and intended for sale to southern
whites
Mamie Smith (1883 –1946)
 Known as the “Queen of the Blues”
 Pioneer blues singer, pianist, and black vaudeville performer
 In 1920, she recorded the bestsellers “Crazy Blues” and “It's
Right Here For You, If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine.”
 Mamie Smith’s success as a recording artist opened up the
record industry to recordings by and for African Americans.
RACE MUSIC

The term was first applied by Ralph Peer (1892–1960).
•
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A Missouri-born talent scout for Okeh Records
Had worked as an assistant on Mamie Smith’s first recording
sessions
RACE RECORDS
The performances released on race records
included a variety of musical styles:
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Blues
Jazz
Gospel choirs
Vocal quartets
String bands
Jug-and-washboard bands
Verbal performances
• Sermons
• Stories
• Comic routines
THE BLUES
Definitions:
1. Describes a feeling—“I’ve got the blues”
2. Refers to the blues style of singing or playing
• blues vocals—like intensified speech
• narrow range; rough, highly inflected timbre
3. Indicates a musical form—twelve-bar chorus, AAB text
BLUES FORM
 A standard rhythmic harmonic structure in which a twelve-bar
chord progression is tied to the AAB text in three four-bar phrases.
 It is also called “twelve-bar blues.”
TEXT OF A BLUES SONG
 Rhymed couplet—each chorus of a blues song contains two
lines of text with the first line repeated. The text is AAB:
• I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down
• I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down
• It makes me think I’m on my last go-round
FORM OF A BLUES SONG
 Melodic form—each line is sung to its own melodic idea.
 Rhythmic form—each phrase of a standard blues chorus lasts
four bars. One chorus of a blues song is twelve measures long
(3x4).
 Harmonic form—the harmony of a blues song is I, IV, and V
chords.
TWELVE-BAR BLUES

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12
I
IV
I V IV I
CLASSIC BLUES

Classic blues songs were performed by high-class
nightclub singers.
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Alberta Hunter (1895–1984)
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Billed as the “Marian Anderson of the Blues”
Ethel Waters (1896–1977)
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Entertained the growing African American middle class in
New York, Chicago, and other northern cities
CLASSIC BLUES

Singers who performed in a somewhat rougher style
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
Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939)
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Popularly known as the “Mother of the Blues”
Bessie Smith (1894–1937)
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“Empress of the Blues”
Rainey and Smith developed their singing styles in the
rough-and-tumble black vaudeville and tent shows.
Bessie Smith (1894 –1937)
 The “Empress of the Blues”
 The most important and influential of the
woman blues singers from the early
twentieth century.
 Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee; began
recording in 1923
 Stylistically a blues singer even when
performing novelty and vaudeville
numbers; had a majestic voice
 The centerpiece of Columbia’s race
record labels
W. C. Handy (1873 –1958)

The “Father of the Blues”
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The most influential of the classic blues composers
Son of a conservative pastor who forbade him from playing the
guitar
• Learned to play the cornet instead
Went on to college, received a degree, and became a schoolteacher
Handy cofounded the first African American–owned
publishing house.
His music owed much to Tin Pan Alley as well as African
American folk traditions.
His biggest hit was “St. Louis Blues,” written in 1914.
L i sten i n g : “ S t . L o u i s B l u es , ” by
W. C . H a n d y, s u n g by B es s i e
Smith (1925)

This was the type of recording that introduced much of
white America to the blues.

A hybrid approach to the blues
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Removed from the “down-home” interpretation by country
blues performers and composers such as Charley Patton and
Blind Lemon Jefferson.
L i sten i n g : “ S t . L o u i s B l u es , ” by
W. C . H a n d y, s u n g by B es s i e
Smith (1925)
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Accompaniment—reed organ and cornet
Louis Armstrong on cornet
Fred Longshaw on reed organ
Call and response between cornet and Smith
Form
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Based on the AABA model commonly seen in
Tin Pan Alley songs
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The final section is really a “C,” having a new
melody but relating to the earlier “A” section
of chords.
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The “A” and “C” sections represent the
twelve-bar blues.
Listening: “St. Louis Blues, ”
by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie
Smith (1925)
A
• a. I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down
• a. I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down
• b. It makes me think I’m on my last go-round
A
• a. Feelin’ tomorrow like I do today
• a. Feelin’ tomorrow like I do today
Listening: “St. Louis Blues, ”
by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie
B
Smith (1925)
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a.
b.
a.
b.
St. Louis woman…
Pulls my man around…
Wasn’t for powder…
The man I love…
C
I got them St. Louis blues…