In a Blues mood

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
One of the best blues singers IMO is Bessie Smith hear is Yellow dog blues from a time when the blues meant blue.

Joe Smith (c), Charlie Green (tb), Buster Bailey (cl), Coleman Hawkins(ts), Fletcher Henderson (p), Charlie Dixon (bjo), Bob Escudero (bb)
1925

[video=youtube;mcrx2-vvwC4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mcrx2-vvwC4  [/video]
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Interesting, you both posted blues singers, do you feel thatthe "true blues" should be sung? Maybe instrumental blues is almost a separate genre?

A mixture today
No “true blues” does not have to be sung solo (with Guitar is good) but it does not hurt to go back to the roots which started as songs.
Leaving out Africa and just sticking with America as we all know it was the imported slaves that introduced this genre through work songs/spirituals and like all music it has evolved, that it can be monotonous listening to this form for some people I won‘t deny but I like it.
You have to admit it is more earthy and genuine compared to a large orchestral rendering.
Btw my post"Yellow Dog” was a railway in Mississippi
 

teddy

Duckmeister
I agree. A lot of early blues was accounpanied by a guitar or harmonica. Basic music from Africa with often a religious theme running with it.

teddy
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Also teddy the words convey the message where as an instrument can only convey the mood.
This song (below) would not have the same impact without the words.

[video=youtube;h4ZyuULy9zs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=h4ZyuULy9zs[/video]

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
 
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JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
I actually have "Strange Fruit" on a CD and at one of our music evenings (classical) I played it in the interval it was followed by a deathly silence, I thought I have gone too far again I'm in for it. but it was the only topic of conversation for about an hour and they asked for a second hearing. We have come a long way since those days all the terrible things that man does to his fellow man but it still goes on in certain parts of the world. That's why I prefer Cats.
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Hi Latona enjoyed your clip.

This is one of many examples of Tin Pan Alley providing an enormous amount of material for the Jazz scene of the times and it is still a standard of Dixie/Trad bands to day even modern groups The first clip (Rudy Vallee) although dated gives the lyrics which you need to be aware of to appreciate the sadness of the song

The next clip (Dave Brubeck quartet) shows stills from the 30s and how tough times were, once again the rich making millions out of men and then throwing them away, not much has changed. Again the point I am making is that knowing the lyrics makes the piece stronger even when listening to an instrumental version.


From Wiki : This song was written by Yip Harburg in c1930 the song asks why the men who built the nation – built the railroads, built the skyscrapers – who fought in the war (World War I), who tilled the earth, who did what their nation asked of them should, now that the work is done and their labour no longer necessary, find themselves abandoned and in bread lines.
 

Latona

New member
Oh man, you can't go wrong with some Billie, so much feeling.


Lou Donaldson had so many great bluesy tunes on his records - well, at least until about the mid-60s when he started replacing them all with funky vamps, which were good in their own way - love some of those late-60s singles like Alligator Bogaloo - but they just don't swing as well as groove for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPUFCWZZ30
 

JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
You can't get better than this!

[video=youtube;n_zvPJv9SoU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=n_zvPJv9SoU[/video]

I forgot to mention I still have this on a 45
 
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JHC

Chief assistant to the assistant chief
Mike I hope you will excuse me for going slightly off topic but came across this and couldn’t resist posting, Great dixie jazz by amateurs having a great time and isn’t that what jazz is about? Well it is for me nothing like a bunch of musicians getting together and jamming.
What a great clarinet player, absolutely jazz as happy music and patched up instruments and a trombone player too far out to even move or was he dead?


Doreen Ketchen's Jazz Band at the junction of Royal Street and Saint PeterStreet New Orleans in 2014

[video=youtube;6uLpojeYm9Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6uLpojeYm9Y  [/video]
 
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