THE BLUES

DEFINING THE BLUES

• Neither an era or a style of jazz
• Both a harmonic progression and mood
• Can be slow and sad, can be happy
• Early blues lyrics - AAB
• "Blue note"

BLUES LYRICS

• Typically autobiographical
• AAB form
• Iambic pentameter
• 4 measures per line
• Instrument fill-ins become jazz breaks

"As Ray Charles says, everybody can understand the blues, regardless of whether they'e had them, or were born with them or born without. It doesn't matter"
B.B. King

"LOST YOUR HEAD BLUES"

• Bessie Smith, vocals; Louis Armstrong, trumpet
• Five blues choruses, with intro and coda
• "The Empress of the Blues"
• Standard repetitive harmonic structure

"DEAD MAN BLUES"

• Jelly Roll Morton, piano
• Instrumental blues song
• Mixes Dixieland ensemble with blues
• Prominent use of blue note

COUNTRY AND URBAN BLUES

• Robert Johnson, guitarist/singer
• Downhome blues
• Country blues - solo guitar accomp.
• Urban blues - full ensemble
• Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, 12 string guitar

Bessie Smith

• "Empress of the Blues"
• Best knows blues singer
• Sold over 4 million records by 1927
• Died penniless in 1937 after having sold more than 10 million records
• Recorded with jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman

"Empty Bed Blues"

• Bessie Smith and Charlie Green, trombone
• 5 choruses
• Trombone fill-ins
• Listen for growling sound in trombone

St. Louis Blues

• Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, trumpet
• Varies the blues structure in the middle section
• Created for a movie of the same title