1. Blues and Early Jazz

2. What is Jazz?

3. Blues

4. Origins of Blues
• Develops 1890s; clear genre by c.
1910
• Deep South
• Mississippi Delta
• Rural; small towns
• Working class; manual labor
• Cultural isolation/segregation
• Typical Topics
• Suffering
• Heartbreak
• Dark humor
• Musical Origins
• Spirituals
• Field Hollers
• Work Songs
• Ballads

5. Mississippi Delta

6. Typical Characteristics
• Instrumentation
• Voice
• Guitar
• Bottleneck
• Electric vs. Acoustic
• Piano
• String Bass
• Wind Instruments
• Percussion
• Improvisatory
• Call and Response
• Between voice and instr.
• “Blue” notes
• Lowered 3rd
and/or 7th
scale
degrees
• Oral Tradition
• Strophic Form
• Twelve Bar Blues
• Three line poetic stanza
• aab = statement,
restatement, response

7. Robert Johnson
1911-1938
• Considered by many the “king” of
Delta Blues; not until 1961
• Known for his impressive guitar
playing; overnight talent?
• Crossroads
• Traveled around; women, alcohol
• Played in ‘jukes’
• Pop music, more than blues
• Recorded 1937
• Modest fame
• Died in 1938
• Cause?

8. Examples of Delta Blues
• Also known as “Country Blues”
• Freddie Spruell
• Milk Cow Blues – earliest Delta Blues recording, 1926
• Robert Johnson
• Me and the Devil Blues
• I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom
• Son House
• Death Letter Blues

9. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey
1886-1939
• Born in Georgia
• Early career: toured with
minstrel show; husband
William
• Started singing blues c. 1910
• “Mother of the Blues”;
“Songbird of the South”;
“Gold-neck Woman of the
Blues”
• Ma and Pa Rainey
• Had a big influence on
Bessie Smith, another
prominent Classic Blues
musician

10. Examples of Classic Blues
• Also known as “City” or “Urban”
Blues
• Ma Rainey
• Deep Moanin’ Blues
• Countin’ The Blues (featuring Louis
Armstrong on cornet)
• Bessie Smith
• I Need a Little Sugar In My Bowl
• Downhearted Blues
• Black Water Blues
• St. Louis Blues (featuring Louis
Armstrong on cornet)
• Listen for call and response; non-
standard form
• First Blues Song in Print, 1912
• Tampa Red
• Hard Road Blues

11. Muddy “Mississippi” Waters
1913-1983
• Real name “McKinley Morganfield”
• From Mississippi
• Heavily influenced by Robert Johnson
and Son House
• Father of “Chicago Blues”
• Visits Chicago, 1940; Moves to Chicago,
1943
• Ran a juke joint in Mississippi; performed there
• Moved to Chicago to become professional
blues musician
• Typically faster; uses wider range of
instruments; electric guitar

12. Examples of Chicago Blues
• A type of “Urban Blues”
• Muddy Waters
• Got My Mojo Workin’
• Hoochie Coochie Man
• Howlin’ Wolf
• Don’t Laugh At Me
• Smokestack Lightning
• Elmore James
• Dust My Broom

13. Examples of Tin Pan Alley “Blues”
• Might not actually be the
blues
• Lovesick Blues
• From TPA – musical called
“Oh! Ernest”
• Home Again Blues
• Words by Irving Berlin

15. I got the blues.
• Why do you have the blues?
• Blues Back-Up Track
Example Lyrics
I’m sittin’ here in Am Studies, tryin’ to stay awake
I said, I’m sittin’ here in Am Studies, tryin’ to stay awake
I was up too late with my homework – what a big mistake.
Example Chords (in C Major)
Line 1 C7 C7 C7 C7
Line 2 F7 F7 C7 C7
Line 3 G7 F7 C7 C7

16. Early Jazz
• Late 1890s; growing out of
ragtime, influenced by
blues
• When? Where? How?
• New Orleans plays key role
• Jazz: originally refers not to
a specific genre, but to a
way of performing that was
at least partially improvised
• Dixieland
• First clear genre within jazz

17. Dixieland
• Develops early 20th
Century
• First “dixieland” recording is
in 1917
• New Orleans
• Pre-Civil War – many free
black people
• Still racially divided: whites;
lighter-skinned Creoles,
Francophones, downtown;
darker-skinned
Anglophones, uptown
• Cajun?

18. Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB)
• Five white men from New
Orleans
• Cornet, clarinet, trombone,
drums, and piano
• Livery Stable Blues (1917) –
animal sounds
• Tiger Rag (1917)

19. Early Jazz and Dance
• Shimmy
• Black Bottom
• Charleston
• Foxtrot