The
four main categories listed below are in phylogenetic order; each style in the
list has developed from its predecessor, although practitioners of all styles
can still be found. Almost without exception any blues musician has moved
through two or more of these basic divisions during his career. The subheadings
under II and III are also in chronological order; the headings I. A. 1, 2, 3,
refer to regional variations.
Key: diagnostics in italics (typical artists
in parentheses)
0. Basic Resources — unaccompanied vocalization
(preachers, work-gangs, peddlers, etc.)
I. Country Blues — unstandardized forms, unamplified
guitar, “strong-beat” phrasing, spoken introductions and endings
A. Individual, self-accompanied
1. Delta
area — drones, moans, bottle-neck techniques, “heavy” texture (Bukka
White, Son House, Robert Johnson, early Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker)
2. Texas area — single-string guitar
work, relaxed vocal qualities, “light” texture (Blind Lemon Jefferson,
Texas Alexander, Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin’ Hopkins)
3. Eastern seaboard and
hill country — characteristics of white folk music common, standard forms
usual (Peg Leg Howell, Blind Boy Fuller, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry,
Baby Tate)
B. Group
1. String bands — a guitar or two, plus
any of the following instruments: fiddle, mandolin, bass, harmonica
(Mississippi String Band, Big Joe Williams)
2. Jug bands — jugs, kazoos,
washboards, “gutbucket” (Gus Cannon, Will Shade et al., Eddie Kelly)
3. Traveling show blues — various
mixtures of B.1 and B.2, wide instrumental variation (Rabbit Foot
Minstrels, Silas Green, variety shows, circus bands, medicine show ensembles)
II. City Blues — standardized form,
regular beginnings and endings, usually two or more instruments
A. Piano accompanied: 20’s and 30’s
1. “Classic” female singers — “stride”
piano, jazz instrumental responses (Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox,
Alberta Hunter)
2. Male singers — boogie-woogie and
rolling-bass piano styles with guitar “fills,” the “Bluebird beat” (Tampa
Red, Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, Carr and Blackwell, Broonzy, Big Maceo,
Memphis Slim)
B. Contemporary: 40’s to present — string
bass and drums added, electric guitar, harmonica (Sonny Boy Williamson,
Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf)
C. “Citified country” — country features
but bass and drums added (Hooker, Hopkins, early Wolf and Waters)
III. Urban Blues — saxophones added, freer
vocal phrasing, arrangements, no harmonicas, etc.
A. Territories and Kansas City — shouting
vocals, big bands, riff accompaniment, 4-beat time flow (Hot Lips Page,
Jimmy Rushing, Joe Turner, Walter Brown, J. Witherspoon, Louis Jordan)
B. Postwar
Texas — electric guitar, more relaxed vocals, smaller bands, generally
slower tempos, piano still important (Charles Brown, Roy Brown, Amos
Milburn, T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson, Louis Jordan)
C. Memphis synthesis
1st
phase: (Gatemouth Moore, Johnny Ace, Roscoe Gordon,
also Jordan and Walker)
2nd
phase: (B. B. King, early Bobby Bland, Jr. Parker)
3rd phase: (Freddy King, Albert
King, Little Milton Campbell, Little Johnny Taylor, James
Davis, Buddy Guy, and others who follow the King-Bland-Parker pattern)
D. Industrial
— everything electrically amplified, 2 or 3 guitars plus drums, 1 tenor sax
optional (Otis Rush, Earl Hooker, numerous club bands)
IV. Soul Music — blues-jazz-gospel
synthesis
A. Basic
or heavy — gospel chord patterns, jazz orchestration, responsorial
voices (Ray Charles, Bobby Bland, recent Little
Milton, Aretha Franklin)
B. Frantic
cry singers — lyric appeal to young women, gospel fervor, emphasis on
action, disrobing, pleading (James Brown, Joe Tex, McKinley Mitchell, Joe Hinton)
1. Male “pop”
— string sections, slick arrangements, relaxed vocals, slower tempo, choir
optional (Brook Benton, Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke, Walter
Jackson, Chuck Jackson, Gene Chandler)
2. “Detroit sound” — firm, danceable
beat, medium tempos, “sweet” vocal sound (Mary Wells, Dionne Warwick, Marvin Gaye,
the Supremes, Major Lance)
3. Groups
a. “doo-wah”
types — “doo-wah” background, simple instrumental accompaniment
(Flamingoes, Swallows, Radiants, many amateur groups)
b. gospel-spiritual
types — falsetto emphasis, sacred style and content affinities
as well
(Impressions, Temptations)
Rhythm and
blues — blues band accompaniment, novelty lyrics common, some
non-blues forms (Wynonie Harris, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard
were once typical, but any artist who reaches a wide, predominantly Negro
audience using a relatively unadorned blues sound qualifies)
Rock and
roll — Honking saxes, heavy offbeat, echo effects, gimmickry,
teen lyrics (Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, but essentially any
singer, Negro or white, who reaches a young, predominantly white audience with
something approximating a Negro style)
V. Parallel and/or Derived Styles
Urbane
blues — musical sophistication, no amplification,
polished technique, coherent lyrics, original forms (Snooks Eaglin, Lonnie
Johnson; might include Percy Mayfield, Mose Allison, Louis Jordan, some songs
by “classic” and Kansas City singers)
Folk
blues — wide repertoire, more protest lyrics
(late Broonzy, Brownie McGhee)
Phony
folk blues — reinterpretation or re-creation of older
styles (Odetta, Leon Bibb, Josh White, Harry Belafonte)
Blues in
various jazz idioms (jazz groups of all periods, notable singers: Jelly Roll
Morton, Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Rushing, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah
Washington, Mose Allison, Joe Williams, Lou Rawls)
1.
hillbilly or country and western tradition (Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie, Bill
Monroe)
2.
white American imitators (Paul Butterfield, Righteous Brothers)
3.
British imitators (Rolling Stones, Beatles)
Some subsidiary and semi-blues styles on the chart require further definition, and it is also necessary to relate this taxonomy to the jazz and “white blues” traditions. For convenience, the spectrum of blues styles may be renumbered as follows:
|
|
Blues Styles |
Audience Composition: |
|
1. |
Basic resources |
N |
|
2. |
Country: Delta |
N |
|
3. |
Country: Southwest |
N |
|
4. |
Country: East |
N |
|
5. |
String bands |
Nw |
|
6. |
Jug bands |
M |
|
7. |
“Show” blues |
Nw |
|
8. |
City: ”classic” female 1917 - 1930 |
Nw |
|
9. |
City: ”classic” male 1925 - 1945 |
N |
|
10. |
City: contemporary 1945 - 1963 |
M (mostly N) |
|
11. |
Citified country |
Nw |
|
12. |
Urban: Territories and Kansas City 1925 - 1945 |
M (mostly N at first) |
|
13. |
Urban: postwar Texas 1945 - 1955 |
Nw |
|
14. |
Urban: Memphis 1950 - 1964 |
N |
|
15. |
Urban: industrial 1955 - 1964 |
N |
|
16. |
Soul music: basic |
M (mostly N) |
|
17. |
Soul music: frantic |
Nw |
|
18. |
Soul music: refined, male “pop” |
M |
|
19. |
Soul music: refined, “Detroit” |
M (mostly teens) |
|
20. |
Soul music: refined, groups |
Nw (mostly teens) |
|
21. |
Rhythm and blues |
Nw |
|
22. |
Rock and roll |
Wn |
|
23. |
Urbane blues |
M |
|
24. |
Folk blues |
Wn |
|
25. |
Phony folk blues |
W |
|
26. |
Jazz versions |
M |
|
27. |
White: country and Western |
Wn |
|
28. |
White: U. S. |
M |
|
29. |
White: U. K. |
Wn |
“Basic
resources” refers to the call-and-response patterns used in work songs and
church music but also includes field hollers, peddler’s cries, songs from
children’s games, the chanting style used by most Negro preachers, marching
band music, country dance music, as well as the content and phrasing of
everyday Southern Negro speech. (Most of these sources are well documented
in the Music from the South series, Vols. 1-10, Folkways Records.)
The regional country blues styles have been
discussed in Chapter II, above.
String bands have rarely been recorded, but a Big
Joe Williams album, Back to the Country (Testament Records, T-2205)
reveals something like a country group in action. The guitar-mandolin duets and
other groups recorded by Ramsey (Folkways Records, FA 2659, FP 654) are also
indicative. Jug bands and show band styles are not well documented on record
either. The Mound City Blue Blower records represent a jazz version of the
jug-band sound (no jugs); many of the emerging jazz leaders of the day (Gene
Krupa, Coleman Hawkins, Pee Wee Russell) worked with the group from time to
time.
A discussion of the blues as played and transformed
by jazz men during various periods is a book in itself, but the relationship
between jazz and blues has always been intimate and essential to the
development of both traditions. Contact has been constant, and indeed no one
can really play jazz without firsthand acquaintance with the blues, its
chromaticism and its form. There are points on the blues continuum, however,
where the two traditions have fused almost completely and, conversely, points
where communication between jazzmen and bluesmen was minimal. Beginning with
the basic resources shared by both jazz and blues, the key fusion points are 8,
12, and 16. Bessie Smith’s mergers with Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson,
Charlie Green (8), the Basie-Rushing partnership (12 ), and the Ray
Charles-Milt Jackson collaborations (16) exemplify these periods of intensive
cross-fertilization.
No effort has been made to taxonomize the white country-and-Western
tradition (which includes some blues materials), though it is linked in some
ways to the classification presented here. A comparison of this kind by an
ethnomusicologist well acquainted with both traditions would certainly be most
instructive, since many analogous developments seem to have taken place side by
side in the two fields in recent years. By stretching the various white
blue-grass groups along a continuum, from the Carter family through Bill Monroe
to Reno and Smiley, the broad stylistic distinctions between country, city, and
urban could possibly be made.
Styles 16 through 22 have been discussed in
connection with the distinctions made by the members of the blues community
themselves, leaving styles 23, 24, and 25 to be accounted for — urbane blues,
folk blues, and phony folk blues.
“Urbane blues” is certainly a dubious category, and
is included simply as a niche in which to fit two special bluesmen, Snooks
Eaglin and Lonnie Johnson, who might be described as urban bluesmen using country
textures —that is, using urban forms but accompanying themselves on unamplified
guitar. Their chord voicings are complex, and their single-string melodic lines
are clean, sure, and imaginative. Johnson’s lyrics are usually his own or a
reshaping of traditional material in some new way; Eaglin shows considerable
taste in his borrowings from a wide range of singers. Their voices are quiet,
unassuming, and show few of the country, city, or urban trademarks. Percy
Mayfield considers himself a composer who sings, and he seems to fit this
classification as well. Like Johnson’s and Eaglin’s, his voice is nothing
special; but his lyrics are often original, and he has remodeled blues
structure in a number of interesting and influential ways, adding a section between
blues choruses, contracting or extending the structure to 8-, 16-, and 24-bar
forms. If musical sophistication, some originality, lyrical coherence, low
volume, and the like are the criteria for inclusion in this class, then some of
the more subtle work of other singers belong here as well — for example, Carr
and Blackwell, Bessie Smith, Louis Jordan, Mose Allison. But at this point we
begin selecting the most original pieces by a host of singers, and the
distinction breaks down.
If Eaglin and Johnson fit into any other category,
it is folk blues; in recent years they have come from street singing and
retirement respectively to play before predominantly white audiences, Eaglin at
the Playboy Club in New Orleans and Johnson in clubs around Philadelphia and in
Europe. Folk blues artists, however, are either country bluesmen adapting
slightly to a concert-hall context (John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins) or city
bluesmen who have remodeled their presentation to meet pseudo-country standards
(Bill Broonzy, Josh White) as denned by the various folk impresarios.
Although folk blues artists have the virtue of
actually being “folk” — that is, having been associated during their early
musical careers with the mainstream of blues development and the rural Negro community;
phony folk singers simply reinterpret older styles without having lived them —
for example, Odetta’s recent mimicry of Bessie Smith or Bibb’s work song
efforts. Josh White might also be included here, since he disguises his
legitimate connections to mainstream blues styles so carefully that the
resultant pastiche is indistinguishable from other re-creators.