Friendly Warning

Test # 2 – next class meetingThursday: 5 March 2015

covers Chapters 2, 3 & 4

Review Sheets for 2, 3 & 4 now on Course Website

Includes Listening Examples

Anything on Today’s slides will be on Test # 3 (after the break)

Not on Test # 2

Chapter 5

“St Louis Blues” :Race Records and Hillbilly Music,

1920s and 1930s

Chapter 5 (outline)• Race Records• Classic Blues• Understanding Twelve-Bar Blues• The Country Blues

- Charley Patton- Blind-Lemon Jefferson…- Robert Johnson

• Early Country Music: Hillbilly Records• Pioneers of Country Music• Popular Music and the Great Depression

Expanding Markets

• 1921 – 100,000,000 records sold, but….• c. 1922 (& later) – Radio & Networks founded• Sales of discs decline (why?)• Ignored Markets?• Rural South (moving Northward after 1919)• Agrarian Whites = “Hillbilly” or “Old Time Music”• Blacks (anywhere) = “Race Records”• All (previously ignored) folk music traditions

“Race Records”• RCA Victor (c. 1903)

- pseudo “Black” artists- “Coon shouters” (white females)

• Okeh Records (1916)- Otto K.E. Heinemann (German)- records Mamie Smith (1920)- Ralph Peer : “Race Records”

• Black Swan (1921)- Pace (Af-Am song publisher)- bankrupt by Dec. 1923

• Paramount Records (1910s)- Wisconsin Chair Company- pressing plant for Black Swan- buys out Black Swan (1924)

Exs. of Early “Race” Recordings

• (1902) – Dinwiddie Colored Quartet- Dinwiddie Colored Quartet, ''Down on the Old Campground'' (1902) - YouTube

• (1920) Mamie Smith- Mamie Smith - Crazy blues – YouTube

• (1926) Blind Lemon Jefferson- 'That Black Snake Moan' BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON (1926) Texas Blues Guitar Legend - YouTube

• (1928) Bessie Smith- Bessie Smith (Empty Bed Blues, 1928) Jazz Legend - YouTube

Mamie Smith (1883-1946)• Vaudeville performer

- singer, dancer, pianist, actress, etc.

• Performs in all styles- jazz, blues, etc.

• August 1920 (NYC)- Okeh Records- 1st Af-Am performer to record “Blues”

• Exs.- Mamie Smith - Crazy blues – YouTube ("Crazy Blues" Lyrics)- Mamie Smith "Harlem Blues" 1935 - YouTube

• “Queen of the Blues”

“Ma Rainey” (Gertrude Pridgett) (1886-1939)

• Southern Black minstrel and tent shows (T.O.B.A. in 1924)

• Blues singer from c. 1902• 1923 recordings for Paramount• EX.

Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey - Bad Luck Blues - YouTube

• Rougher vocal style(also lesser quality of Paramount recordings)

• “Mother of the Blues”• “Songbird of the South”

Bessie Smith (1894-1937)• Street busker (Chattanooga)• Performer on T.O.B.A. circuit• 1923 – Recordings for Columbia -

marketed as “race” records

• Highest paid Black performer• Exs.

- Bessie Smith (Down Hearted Blues, 1923) Jazz Legend – YouTube

- Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues (1925) – YouTube (Textbook LG, p. 132-4)- Bessie Smith (Empty Bed Blues, 1928) Jazz Legend – YouTube

- Bessie Smith- I need A Little Sugar In My bowl

• “Empress of the Blues”

The Blues (basic traits) [p. 134-6]

• Standard form – 3 phrases of 4 measuresA – statementA(‘) – restatement (or intensification)B – completion/conclusion

• “12-bar Blues” (simple harmonies)I I I I

IV IV I I V IV I I• “Call and Response” (voice & instruments)• Double entendres (“I need a little sugar in my bowl, I

need a little hotdog on my roll….”: Bessie Smith)

“Country Blues”

• AKA “rural”, “down-home” or “folk” blues

• Origins in Mississippi Delta (& elsewhere)see: Mississippi Blues Trail for markers

• Precursors in Af-Am folk music, work songs, field hollers, etc. (late 19th C, post Civil War)

• Oral tradition, primarily solo performers- less rigid forms- variety of singing & accompaniment styles

• “Unknown” before recordings (c. mid-1920s)

Charley Patton (1887/91?-1934)• “Father of the Delta Blues”• Discovered by H.C. Speirs

- Jackson, MS record store- talent scout for Northern labels

• Mixed racial heritage• Guitar “gimmicks” & tricks• Powerful voice• Repertoire included blues, folk tunes,

ballads, TPA, hymns• EXAMPLES

- Charlie Patton - Pony Blues - Original - YouTube- 'Tom Rushen Blues' CHARLEY PATTON (1929) Delta Blues Legend – YouTube

(Textbook LG, pp. 138-9) - 'Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues' CHARLEY PATTON, 1929 Delta Blues Guitar Legend - YouTube

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893-1929)• born East Texas• Sharecropper family• Itinerant street musician• Active in Dallas, TX (1920s)• Records in Chicago (1925/26)

- Gospel (“Deacon Bates”)- Blues (under own name)

• Wildly successful- sales in 100,000s (and more)- over 100 Tracks recorded- controversy over royalties

• EXAMPLES- Black Snake Moan - Blind Lemon Jefferson – YouTube (Textbook LG w/ lyrics, pp. 140-2)- 'See That My Grave Is Kept Clean' by BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON (1928) Classic Texas Blues - YouTube- Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues - YouTube

Robert Johnson (1911-1938)• Mississippi roots• Itinerant Musician

- “competent harmonica”- “bad guitar”...but…

• exceptional technique (by ’32)- developed secretly- from the devil?

• Limited to 11 recordings• Bottleneck Guitar (next slide)• EXAMPLE

- Robert Johnson CrossRoads - Cross Road Blues Song and Lyrics – YouTube(Textbook LG, 142-3) (ROBERT JOHNSON - CROSSROAD BLUES LYRICS)

“Bottleneck Guitar”

• How to play “bottle neck”- How To Play Slide Guitar Intro To 1930 Bottleneck Blues Style - YouTube

“jetslide”