1920s Blues

[stephenarndt]

I have spent the last few months listening to 1920s, mostly New Orleans based music, looking for songs with the word "blues" in the title.

Although I haven't made a systematic study, I have several impressions, which may or may not be correct:

1). The 12-bar format, though certainly present, was not as common as it is today. Both 8-bar and 16-bar blues were more frequently represented than they seem to be today.

2). It was more common then to mix formats than it is today, for example, a 12-bar blues with an 8- or 16-bar break or, vice versa, an 8- or 16-bar blues with a 12-bar break.

3). The V - IV - I - V chord progression in the last four measures was also not as common as it seems to be today. Often, some variation of the I - vi - ii - V progression was used.

4). In all the music I found the trumpet, cornet, clarinet, or saxophone were the featured solo instruments. A guitar was sometimes present but never seemed to take a solo, and the banjo was more common than the guitar.

Well, those are just a few, possibly mistaken impressions. In any event, I have written and recorded a little collection of 25 pieces more or less in the style of this music for solo fingerstyle guitar. I am just an intermediate-level guitarist, and most of these pieces would probably sound better at ten beats per minute faster, which is faster than I can play them. Nevertheless, I had great fun writing and playing them, and I hope others might enjoy playing them too. If you would like to check them out, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lfhhr8GVs .

[Kerbie]

Hey Stephen,

Haven't seen you around here in a long time... welcome back! When are you going to bring your bluesy guitar back to the Show and Tell?

Interesting post and I'll enjoy the recordings... thanks. Hope you stick around.

[zmf]

Thanks. I'll listen to all of them sometime.

Interested in the evolution of chord progressions myself.

[jpbat]

Tempo is perfectly fine. Totally OK.
What makes your work so extraordinary is the fact that you don't put the usual phrasing (what is considered "right"), nor traditional construction, on pieces that are musically extremely coded, but since you're an experienced musician, the result is great music.
Your approach to that style is so out of the box that I'm completely baffled.
I just wrote a small piece of music inspired by your approach.
Thanks.
(I must record it right now before forget it)

[zmf]

Originally Posted by jpbat

Your approach to that style is so out of the box that I'm completely baffled.

Good point. I assumed that I wasn't familiar enough with some of the 20s blues, so I didn't know of it was unusual phrasing or not.

[devellis]

I've always thought of early New Orleans blues as kind of a different animal than other blues styles. I wonder if early NOLA blues actually evolved more into jazz styles than into the blues styles that we mostly hear today (e.g., Delta, Chicago, Piedmont, etc.). That might account from some of the differences between what you've discovered and the typical blues around today. Blues is such a diverse genre with all sorts of different streams within it. It can be pretty hard to generalize across sub-genres (or so it seems to me).

[Mr. Jelly]

This is a very good observation. Depending on the exact dates of the recordings, you are in the time period from when music evolved from pre-blues to blues. It's not like it changed it's more like the blue notes became more prevalent and popular so they were used more. The 12 and the the 8 bar frame work came along after the blue notes. Before the blues there were hoe downs, minstral shows, String band, ragtime and New Orleans jazz etc. The blues came along as a folk music. I'm not positive but I seem to remember that the first blues was recorded in 1923.

In my learning the guitar over the years I desired more than the 12 and 8 bar blues. Amazingly it led me to pre-blues music. After doing some time with old time country music. I love that blue note sound. That love has led me to #dim chords. I categorize the music I play now as old time country blues rags. I just throw it all together and play.

[guitarlifestyle]

Originally Posted by stephenarndt

I have spent the last few months listening to 1920s, mostly New Orleans based music, looking for songs with the word "blues" in the title.

Although I haven't made a systematic study, I have several impressions, which may or may not be correct:

1). The 12-bar format, though certainly present, was not as common as it is today. Both 8-bar and 16-bar blues were more frequently represented than they seem to be today.

2). It was more common then to mix formats than it is today, for example, a 12-bar blues with an 8- or 16-bar break or, vice versa, an 8- or 16-bar blues with a 12-bar break.

3). The V - IV - I - V chord progression in the last four measures was also not as common as it seems to be today. Often, some variation of the I - vi - ii - V progression was used.

4). In all the music I found the trumpet, cornet, clarinet, or saxophone were the featured solo instruments. A guitar was sometimes present but never seemed to take a solo, and the banjo was more common than the guitar.

Well, those are just a few, possibly mistaken impressions. In any event, I have written and recorded a little collection of 25 pieces more or less in the style of this music for solo fingerstyle guitar. I am just an intermediate-level guitarist, and most of these pieces would probably sound better at ten beats per minute faster, which is faster than I can play them. Nevertheless, I had great fun writing and playing them, and I hope others might enjoy playing them too. If you would like to check them out, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lfhhr8GVs .

I enjoyed your playing. Thanks for sharing!

[RP]

Originally Posted by devellis

I've always thought of early New Orleans blues as kind of a different animal than other blues styles. I wonder if early NOLA blues actually evolved more into jazz styles than into the blues styles that we mostly hear today (e.g., Delta, Chicago, Piedmont, etc.). That might account from some of the differences between what you've discovered and the typical blues around today. Blues is such a diverse genre with all sorts of different streams within it. It can be pretty hard to generalize across sub-genres (or so it seems to me).

I could be wrong but in my mind the 1920s were the heyday for female blues singers...

[Glennwillow]

Hi Stephen,

Wow, you put in a huge amount of work on this project! This is very cool! This would be good for a masters' thesis. Holy Cow! Thanks for sharing this!

- Glenn

[rick-slo]

The posted recordings (first few I listened to) sound like a mix of ragtime and blues. Hard to break down to percentages. Things are always in transition, sometimes evolving, other times devolving.

[Truckjohn]

That's a very nice arrangement of music we just don't hear much anymore. It's interesting just how different it is to what we would call "the blues" today. Your playing is very good. I like it.

1920s "blues" are a lot different than what we associate with "The Blues"...

A big part of it is that there was no amplification. Most of it was played and sang in small bars and dance halls... And it was primarily music to drink and dance to...

As such - guitar wasn't a major part. The small gut strung guitars of the 1920s weren't really loud enough for these venues. Piano was the most common instrument.... Because they are loud and the player can sing.... Trumpets/brass are also nice and loud and can be heard over the crowd. Banjo was probably the main string instrument unless they had fiddles... Once again - they are loud enough to be heard over the crowd.

It wasn't really until the mid 30's when the big body Dreadnought and big archtops came out and steel strings were common that guitars really showed up in much live performance.

Very nice! Obviously a lot of hard work went into that.

[Hobo_King]

The history of early American music is murky since various styles developed for years before they became popular or were recorded. Also they are not as linear as people like to make them. Genres developed side by side in many cases influencing each other and the naming of a genre usually came once it needed to marketed and sold. Blues though is likely the oldest and there are a few written descriptions of what could be blues going back as far as the mid-1800s. Rural blues influenced Ragtime and what became Jazz as well as having at least a small influence on Scottish and Irish folk music in appalachia that developed into old-time/hillbilly country music. WC Handy had the first success selling music using the blues form in 1912 with Memphis Blues. Supposedly he heard someone busking playing slide guitar at a train station in 1903 and it struck him so much he eventually incorporated the basic form and use of blue notes into his compositions for brass bands. You also have Buddy Bolden and others playing a mix of blues, brass band and dance music in the late 1890s in New Orleans. Proto-Jazz. Jelly Roll Morton was taking Ragtime and Blues piano into what would become Jazz between 1904 and 1915. The first Jazz recording didn't hit until 1917 but people had been playing that mix of blues ragtime, march and popular dance music around New Orleans since Buddy's time. To complicate matters once "Blues" were a success in the early teens for selling sheet music, the recording industry hadn't yet taken off and sheet music was still the main way to sell music, publishing companies would add "blues" to the title of songs even if it didn't actually have a blues format. Mamie Smith had the first hit record with Crazy Blues in 1920 and kicked off an era of Female blues singers recording with jazz bands or piano players. It's a few years after that, the record companies in an effort to make more money sent scouts into the south and began to record the rural acoustic blues like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell and Charley Patton who had been already playing the style for years.

[stephenarndt]

Something must be wrong with my e-mail notification. I was notified when Kerbie first replied (hello, Kerbie!). I read his message yesterday afternoon and was going to reply this morning, when I discovered all the other messages I didn't know about. There are too many to reply to individually, so let me just say:

Thanks to all who took the time to listen to at least some of my recordings and to comment. Your encouragement is very much appreciated.

And thanks to all who added some historical background in an area in which I am certainly no expert. I am growing to love music from the teens and twenties, and it is fascinating to learn a little more about where it came from and what it evolved into.

Best regards,

Stephen