The Blues Portal
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Blues music is characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.
Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the African-American community, the spirituals. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery, with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music. (Full article...)
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Tishoumaren (ⵜⵉⵛⵓⵎⴰⵔⴻⵏ in Neo-Tifinagh script) or assouf, internationally known as desert blues, is a style of music from the Sahara region of northern and west Africa. Critics describe the music as a fusion of blues and rock music with Tuareg, Malian or North African music. Various other terms are used to describe it including desert rock, Saharan rock, Takamba, Mali blues, Tuareg rock or simply "guitar music". The style has been pioneered by Tuareg musicians in the Sahara region, particularly in Mali, Niger, Libya, Algeria, Burkina Faso and others; with it also being developed by Sahrawi artists in Western Sahara.
The musical style took shape as an expression of the culture of the traditionally nomadic Tuareg people, amid their difficult sociopolitical situation, including rebellions, widespread displacement and exile in post-colonial Africa. The word Tishoumaren is derived from the French word chômeur, meaning "the unemployed". (Full article...)Selected picture
Quotes
“ | Blues is really America's finest art form and most dominant art form of the 20th century. | ” |
— Georgie Fame |
“ | Blues is a natural fact, something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it, you don't have it. | ” |
— Big Bill Broonzy |
“ | The blues is a low-down achin' heart disease Like consumption killing me by degrees. |
” |
— Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil)" |
“ | When you lay down at night, turning from one side of the bed to the other and can't sleep, what's the matter? Blues got you. | ” |
— Lead Belly |
“ | The blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll. | ” |
— Muddy Waters |
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Lonnie Johnson may refer to:
- Lonnie Johnson (musician) (1899–1970), American blues and jazz singer, guitarist, and songwriter
- Lonnie Johnson (inventor) (born 1949), American inventor of the Super Soaker
- Lonnie Johnson (American football) (born 1971), former American football player
- Lonnie Johnson Jr., American football player
- Lon Johnson (Lonnie Barton Johnson), American politician (Full article...)
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