The Blues and Jazz

The blues is a popular, tradition-oriented music style of post-Civil War rural Southern African-American origin with usually secular (as opposed to sacred) content; it was identified as a particular style of music as early as 1909. 

The development of the blues reflects the historical developments of African-American life and minority social status, including the 1930s-'40s Great Migration to Northern industrial cities.  

The blues has been performed for private, personal solace as well as for social/entertainment purposes. 

The blues can be vocal and/or instrumental, and is adaptable to many instrumental combinations. 

The blues functions as a representation of conflicting feelings, with the intent of resolving problems by giving them public expression. 

The blues song form structure has been formalized as having a 12-bar chorus length (for more on song form, click here). 

1.

AAB lyric order (4 bars each) of rhymed couplets, for example:

A: Everyday, everyday I have the blues
A: Everyday, everyday I have the blues
B: When you see me worryin' baby, yeah it's you I hate to lose

A: Nobody loves me, nobody seems to care
A: Nobody loves me, nobody seems to care
B: Speaking of bad luck and trouble, you know I've had my share

A: I'm gonna pack my suitcase and, move on down the line
A: I'm gonna pack my suitcase and, move on down the line
B: Because there ain't nobody worried, and ain't nobody crying 

a.

listen to and watch Joe Williams singing "Everyday I Have the Blues" with the Count Basie Band by clicking here 

b.

for more on Joe Williams, click here 

2.

steady tempo  

3.

melodic employment of flatted thirds, fifths, and sevenths (blue notes), suggesting mournfulness (for more on blue notes, click here). 

4.

early blues is based on just three chords built from the first, fourth, and fifth degrees of the major scale: the I, IV, and V chords; in the key of C this would be the C, F, and G chords (for more on chords and chord progressions, click here). 

1.

simplification - resulting in vamps of open duration 

2.

complication 

a.

through harmonic substitutions and extensions, i.e., more complex chords and chord progressions¹ 

b.

major or minor keys 

c.

choice of tempos on a range from extremely slow to extremely fast 

The blues has been and remains an influential source of musical, emotional, and commercial material for jazz, country, folk, rock 'n' roll (especially by British as well as black and white American musicians of the 1960s), and hip-hop. 

The blues has generated both "pure" and hybrid sub-genres, including symphonic and avant-garde styles. 

The blues has been adopted as a genre, style, and concept worldwide and, like jazz, is considered one of America's greatest artistic gifts to the world.