BRIEF STORY OF BLUES

Blues can speak of sorrow, troubles, solitude and other "low" feelings. Indeed, we have a historical and cultural debt with the slavery effects on this way of expression. Yet, despite the blues was associated with suffering and bad feelings, it also makes you feel like a cartographer of stars, a person who breaths the colours of the night. Imagine you are wandering at night accross the city. Suddenly, the riffs from a guitar and a bitter sound from an old voice can make you feel better.

This post does not aim to depict a whole story of the blues or speak about the best composers and artists of this music style. Despite being historian, I am not an expert in how culture and sounds evolved and travelled accross places so to publish a story of social and cultural history. Rather, this is a personal selection from different times that depict a broad landscape of blues.

The African American music, not only in the USA, but throughout the entire continent created a rich and alive mix of sounds, rythms and music. Think for example in Salsa, Cumbia, Samba, Bossa Nova, Forró, Tango, Rock, Soul, Jazz, Swing, Boogie-woogie and, of course, Blues. All of them have African influence in the percussion, the ways of singing and in the cyclical music form to play instruments.

Since the 19th century, in North America, from the Mississipi delta and the East Coast, we can trace a common branch that originated the three big sisters: Blues, Jazz, and Soul. In turn, in the second part of the last century, those sisters originated more daughters, such as Rock and Roll, contemporary Jazz, Funk, and other genres that in turn mixed with a new generation of sounds from the 80s and 90s like Rap, Hip Hop, and even Pop and Electronic Music. Each of those styles has sub-genres and a universe of artists and performers.

But here we focus on one of the grandmothers of the whole family: the Blues. Speaking of grandmas, when the first radios appeared at the dawn of the last century, one cannot speak of the blues without the great contribution and influence of the founder mothers of this music. Let me show some examples. Let me take your hand and travel on time with music.

Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Prove It On Me Blues (1924)

'Ma' Rainey is considered as the mother of Blues. She sang for white and black audiences, and sometimes alongside artists like Louis Armstrong. In this track, she sings

They said I do it, ain't nobody caught me. Sure got to prove it on me. Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men

The track is considered as a subtle reference to her sexual affairs with other women. She continued to sing until the years of the Great Depression in the 30s when the radio and recorded music replaced many of the live performances of singers in those years.

Elizabeth Cotten - In the Sweet By and By (1958)

Another founder mother was Elizabeth Cotten. Cotten began writing music while toying with her older brother's banjo. She was left-handed, so she played the banjo in reverse position. The video is a 1956 UK recording of the song and it was a major hit and is credited as one of the main influences on the rise of skiffle in the UK. Anyway, I found the melody sweet and her style of fingering the upside down guitar very cool. Cotten died in June 1987 in Syracuse, New York, at the age of 94.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Didn't It Rain (1964)

[...] Didn't it rain, children Talk 'bout rain, oh, my Lord Didn't it, didn't it, didn't it, oh my Lord Didn't it rain?

It rained 40 days, 40 nights without stopping

And here comes the Electric Grandma. Sister Rosetta was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll". She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In this live performance in Manchester 1964 one can imagine she playing in the rain thinking "A microphone? Why would I need that when I have lungs the size of boxcars and the power of the Holy Spirit". Rosetta died in 1973 and was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame together with Nina Simone, the queen of Soul music, in 2018.

Elmore James - Dust my broom (1951)

I'm a get up soon in the mornin'

I believe I'll dust my broom

I'm a get up soon in the mornin'

I believe I'll dust my broom

I'll quit the best gal, I'm lovin'

Now my friends can get in my room Elmore James is better known as "King of the Slide Guitar" and was noted for his stirring voice. In this track, he plays "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" by American blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936. Johnson was an itinerant performer and his life and death had been so poorly documented that they gave rise rise to much legend. The one most closely associated with his life is that he sold his soul to the devil at a local crossroads to achieve musical success. Both Johnson and James are now recognized as masters of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style. James died in 1963 at the age of 45. He influenced the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, and even Punk Rock.

B.B. King - Sweet Little Angel (1954)

I've got a sweet little angel baby

And I love the way she spread her wings

And when she wraps her arms around me

She bring me joy and everything

Yeah she do

Think on a person that speaks softly through the guitar and plays it gently. Riley B. King is considered one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert and Freddie King). From the 1980s to his death in 2015, he maintained a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and sometimes performing 300 nights a year. In this video, he plays a song first recorded in 1930 by Lucille Bogan, another of the classic female blues singers. King´s favourite guitar coincidentely was also named Lucille.

King also represents the Chicago Blues style that stemmed from the Delta as many black people migrated to the industrialized North to work in automotive factories during the 50s and 60s. One comment on the video translate very well King´s personal style: "I love BB King's philosophy on playing the guitar. He does not attempt to overwhelm his audience with a ton of notes, but instead picks the melodies and licks he wants to use extremely carefully and with "soul". Through his guitar, perhaps, we were allowed to glimpse into his personality".

Taj Mahal - Statesboro Blues (1968)

"Statesboro Blues" is a song written by Blind Willie McTell in 1928. In this version, Taj Mahal made an adaptation to Blues Rock. During the 60s, Rock and Roll was already born but it still received influences from Blues music and vice-versa. Chicago blues songs, such as those by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, and Albert King, added faster tempos with a more aggressive sound common to rock. From its beginnings in the early to mid-1960s, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way it inspired and influenced hard rock, Southern rock, and early heavy metal. Two of my favorite interpreters who combine both styles are Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Change It (1985)

Everytime I need energy or before I have a date with a person I think in this track to get the mood. Stevie Ray Vaughan (SRV) is the master of Blues Rock. Even Eric Clapton had respect for him. Like a young Phaethon, he died at the age of 35 crossing the skies in a tragic helicopter accident in 1990. His style is very original, at first glance his guitar strucks and sounds like a heavy mechanical machine. Yet, amidts this combination, he improvises very well and sings with his soul. His personal way of left-fingering and clothes with a hat reminds another guitar hero, Jimmy Hendrix, or even the Pussy Cat. Notice the crossroads sign in the video as a subtle reference to Jonhson. And yes! some men can dress and play like one hell of a badass but still know how to move our heart.

You can't change it.... Can't re-arrange it If time is all that we got.... Then baby let's take it Lovin' is a lovin'.... The moment is a-right It's worth all the years in the past.... Let's go one more night Get away from the blind side of life Honey, I want you to be by my side Me and my back door moves ain't no more No more

[...]

Bonus tracks - Piano Blues to breath the colour of the night

John Lee Hooker - Hard Times (1964)

Mighty Mo Rogers - Picasso Blue (2016)

Two women sitting in a bar

Blind man playing on his guitar

Barcelonian air is sounding blue

Everything’s the same but I don’t have you

When you push love aside

You get the colours of the night

Colours of the night with just one hue

I’m in that place and time,

Love’s got its own reason and rhyme

They say you will love with love till love is through with you

[...]