Portal:Blues

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The Blues Portal

Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

"The Blues" is characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.

Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community, the spirituals. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery, with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music. (Full article...)

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Exterior of the museum in 2017

The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi, United States, is a museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing public access to and awareness of the musical genre known as the blues. Along with holdings of significant blues-related memorabilia, the museum also exhibits and collects art portraying the blues tradition, including works by sculptor Floyd Shaman and photographer Birney Imes.

The museum is located in the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Passenger Depot, also known as Illinois Central Passenger Depot or Clarksdale Passenger Depot, which was built in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. (Full article...)

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Albert King in concert, 1968.

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Quotes

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Blues is really America's finest art form and most dominant art form of the 20th century.

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— Georgie Fame

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Blues is a natural fact, something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it, you don't have it.

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— Big Bill Broonzy

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The blues is a low-down achin' heart disease
Like consumption killing me by degrees.

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— Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)"

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When you lay down at night, turning from one side of the bed to the other and can't sleep, what's the matter? Blues got you.

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— Lead Belly

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The blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll.

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— Muddy Waters

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The only known photograph of Johnson, 1927

Blind Willie Johnson (January 25, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American gospel blues singer, guitarist and evangelist. His landmark recordings completed between 1927 and 1930—thirty songs in total—display a combination of powerful "chest voice" singing, slide guitar skills, and originality that has influenced generations of musicians. Even though Johnson's records sold well, as a street performer and preacher, he had little wealth in his lifetime. His life was poorly documented, but over time, music historians such as Samuel Charters have uncovered more about Johnson and his five recording sessions.

A revival of interest in Johnson's music began in the 1960s, following his inclusion on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, and by the efforts of the blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis. Along with Davis, he has since been considered the dominant player of "holy blues" music, which conveyed religious themes in a blues idiom and often with the genre's style of guitar accompaniment. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various blues-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Albert King in Paris, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 2Bessie Smith, 1936 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 3Emancipation from Freedmen's viewpoint; illustration from Harper's Weekly 1865 (from Origins of the blues)
Image 4John Lee Hooker in Toronto, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 5Bobby "Blue" Bland (from List of blues musicians)
Image 6B.B. King in Rome, 1984 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 7Luther Allison (from List of blues musicians)
Image 8Susan Tedeschi, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 9Master Kora maker Alieu Suso in the Gambia (from Origins of the blues)
Image 10Lucky Peterson (from List of blues musicians)
Image 11Big Joe Turner, 1955 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 12Freddie King in Paris, 1975 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 13Ma Rainey (from List of blues musicians)
Image 14Eric Clapton, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 15Corey Harris, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 16RonnieEarl, 1996 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 17Jimmy Rushing, 1946 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 18Son House (from List of blues musicians)
Image 19Henry Townsend, 1983 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 20Son Seals, 1977 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 21Eddie Clearwater in Montreux, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 22Sara Martin and Sylvester Weaver (from List of blues musicians)
Image 23Debbie Davies, 2019 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 24Eddie Shaw, 2015 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 25Keb' Mo', 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 26Robben Ford, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 27Willie Dixon at Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 28Lead Belly (from List of blues musicians)
Image 29Joe Louis Walker, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 30T-Bone Walker at American Folk Blues Festival, Hamburg, 1972 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 31Cedric Burnside, 2018 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 32Eric Bibb, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 33Roy Rogers, 2014 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 34Albert Collins at Long Beach Blues Festival, 1990 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 35Junior Wells, 1983 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 36Dexter Allen, 2004 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 37Blind Lemon Jefferson (from List of blues musicians)
Image 38Kenny Neal, 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 39George "Harmonica" Smith, 1980 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 40Ethel Waters, 1943 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 41Jimmy Rogers, 1991 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 42Lowell Fulson in Paris, 1980 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 43Mississippi John Hurt, 1964 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 44Hubert Sumlin in Montreux, 1978 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 45Robert Cray, 2007 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 46Muddy Waters with James Cotton, 1971 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 47Jay McShann in Edinburgh, c.1995 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 48Memphis Minnie, 1930 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 49Luther Tucker, 1964 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 50"Sweet Home Chicago" performed at the White House with Barack Obama joining B.B. King on the chorus (from List of blues standards)
Image 51Lonnie Johnson, 1941 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 52Mamie Smith (from List of blues musicians)
Image 53Koko Taylor, 2006 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 54Alvin Youngblood Hart, 2009 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 55Billy Boy Arnold (from List of blues musicians)
Image 56Buddy Guy, 2008 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 57Big Joe Williams, 1971 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 58A watercolor painting of a camp meeting circa 1839 (New Bedford Whaling Museum). (from Origins of the blues)
Image 59Curley Weaver (from List of blues musicians)
Image 60Jimmy Witherspoon, 1974 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 61Louis Jordan in New York City, 1946 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 62Otis Rush, 1997 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 63Jimmy Burns, 2012 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 64Robert Jr. Lockwood, 1982 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 65Shemekia Copeland, 2019 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 66Pinetop Perkins in Paris, 1976 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 67An 1890s photo of the tourist steamer Okahumke'e on the Ocklawaha River, with black guitarists on board (from Origins of the blues)
Image 68Mississippi Fred McDowell, 1972 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 69Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 (from Origins of the blues)
Image 70Kenny Wayne Shepherd, 2010 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 71Paul Butterfield at Woodstock Reunion, 1979 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 72Chris Thomas King, 2005 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 73Buddy Moss in Georgia prison camp, 1941 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 74Deborah Coleman, 2009 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 75Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 1999 (from List of blues musicians)
Image 76Charlie Musselwhite, 2003 (from List of blues musicians)