🎧 Transcribe
"Mama Lucy" — Leroy Gary
Alan Lomax field recording · Mississippi, 1959–60
archives.vwml.org/songs/VWMLSongIndex/SNX07822
Save old Mama Lucy, doctor, don't let her die —
Oh, she can furnish me more money yondo than I can buy.
Oh, you can go down yonder an' tell old Mattie Groan,
Oh, I give her four, five dollar that she's sittin' on…
Oh, she can furnish me more money yondo than I can buy.
Oh, you can go down yonder an' tell old Mattie Groan,
Oh, I give her four, five dollar that she's sittin' on…
Lyrics as transcribed by Alan Lomax
What Lomax Heard
- Free rhythm · Held notes · Melisma · Glissando · Blue notes
- Three-phrase form: three variations on the same phrase
- Lomax argues: work songs like this are a direct predecessor to the blues
Discussion
What Constitutes the "Blues?"
- A scale or set of pitches / bent notes?
- A harmonic progression (e.g., 12-bar blues)?
- A set of emotions or attitudes?
- A broader musical style and tradition?
"Beggin' the Blues" — Bessie Jones
Oh well, I woke up this morning, I looked around in my room —
I says, "Hello, blues — now what 'cha doin' here so soon?"
I knew it was the blues 'cause I heard him walkin' in my room (×2)
Lord, I'm wond'ring what's-a matter that the blues just won't leave me alone.
Oh, blues, blues, why'd you let poor me be? (×2)
And let me have one day out of the seven days away?
I says, "Hello, blues — now what 'cha doin' here so soon?"
I knew it was the blues 'cause I heard him walkin' in my room (×2)
Lord, I'm wond'ring what's-a matter that the blues just won't leave me alone.
Oh, blues, blues, why'd you let poor me be? (×2)
And let me have one day out of the seven days away?
What does the blues "feel like" from this text?
Historical Context
- Reconstruction (post-1865): economic competition and backlash over jobs
- Enforcement of racial hierarchy: Jim Crow laws and anti-miscegenation statutes
- Evans argues: this climate produced a turning inward → the blues
Cultural Hybridity in the Blues
Broadly European
- Form (folk ballad)
- Harmony
- Instrumentation
Broadly African
- Playing technique
- Approaches to form & harmony
- Style and timbre
- "Rhythmic, tonal, and timbral flexibility"
Evans reading, pp. 80–81
The Griot Tradition
Griot (Fr.) / Djelli — West Africa
A hereditary professional caste of musicians with royal patronage; "a custodian of cultural history" through storytelling, songs, and oral tradition
- Primary instrument: kora (21-string harp-lute)
- Example: Wassa Kouyate
IMAGE
Late 19th-century kora
MET Museum
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Late 19th-century kora
MET Museum
Add: assets/images/
week-02/kora.jpg
Late 19th-century kora · MET Museum
Blues Performer & Griot — Comparison
- Both professional and itinerant
- Both perceived as having low social status
- Both favor stringed instruments
- Both use declamatory, melismatic singing
- Both engage in frank social commentary
Evans reading, p. 81
Other Influences on Blues Performance
Field holler (unaccompanied work song)
Melodic, timbral, and rhythmic freedom; forceful, projecting delivery
Religious / ecstatic vocal expression
Moaning, chanted prayer, preaching styles
Evans reading, p. 82
Musical Features of the Blues
- Vocal and/or instrumental; historically gendered
- Blue note: "a note, sounded or suggested, that falls between two adjacent notes in the standard Western division of the octave"
- Bend: instrumental technique to slightly raise or lower pitch
- Blues scale based on minor pentatonic; blue notes most common on 3rd, 7th, sometimes 5th
- AAB verse form
AAB Verse Form
AI woke up this mornin' and I looked up against the wall
AI woke up this mornin' and I looked up against the wall
BRoaches and the bedbugs playin' a game of ball
AScore was twenty-nothin', the roaches was ahead
AScore was twenty-nothin', the roaches was ahead
BRoaches got to fightin' and kicked me out of bed
Furry Lewis, "Creeper's Blues" (1929)
AAB Verse Form
ACall it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad
ACall it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad
BWednesday's worse, and Thursday's also sad
"Stormy Monday" — T-Bone Walker [:50–1:35]
AAB verse form becomes a cornerstone of U.S. popular music
Harmonic Structure — 12-Bar Blues
A phrase (bars 1–4)
I
(IV)
I
I
A phrase (bars 5–8)
IV
IV
I
I
B phrase (bars 9–12)
V
IV
I
I / V
🎧 Spotify
"Ma Rainey" — Memphis Minnie · "Stormy Monday" — T-Bone Walker
Standardization & Canonization
- Over time the 12-bar form became increasingly standardized
- Example: Jamey Aebersold play-along books — blues as pedagogical infrastructure
- A tension: canonization preserves but also constrains
Instrumentation
- Guitar — central to the tradition
- Piano — including boogie-woogie: repeated bass riffs against a syncopated improvised melody, popularized in the 1930s–40s
- Harmonica
- Expanded ensembles as the music moved north and into clubs
Early Blues (1890–1920)
- W.C. Handy — claimed the title "Father of the Blues"
🎧 Listen
"St. Louis Blues" (1914)
- Q: Musical texture? Note: sounds more like a "pop" song; widely used in jazz settings
Classic Blues (1920s)
- Mamie Smith — first widely recognized Black vocalist to record blues commercially
- Opened the market for "race records" — among the first commercial blues releases
🎧 Listen
"Crazy Blues" (1920)
- Q: Musical texture?
Downhome / "Country" Blues (1920s–40s)
- Charley Patton · Blind Lemon Jefferson · Son House
🎧 Listen
"Levee Camp Blues" — Son House
"Black Snake Moan" — Blind Lemon Jefferson
- Q: Performance style, timbre, form?
Blind Lemon Jefferson, ca. 1926 · Paramount Records publicity photo · Public domain
The Instrument as "Second Voice"
"An instrument or group of instruments plays a necessary role in the construction and performance of the song itself, rather than serving simply as a more or less optional harmonic and rhythmic background to the vocal part. The instrumental part is, in fact, a second voice (sometimes several voices), punctuating and responding to the vocal lines. It is therefore an integral part of the piece itself."
— Evans reading
Urban Blues (1940s)
- Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities
- "Urban blues" — guitar paired with piano; fuller ensemble textures
- 1920s: growing divergence between jazz and blues
- 1940s: jazz groups began incorporating blues repertoire
🎧 Listen
Count Basie — "One O'Clock Jump" · Spotify
- Q: How does this ensemble compare with earlier examples?
Technology & the Blues
- Microphone: enabled more intimate performance styles — e.g., Billie Holiday, "Fine and Mellow"
- Electric blues (1950s): post-WWII economic shift; new vinyl formats; smaller labels experimenting with new sounds
Electric Blues — Chicago
- Muddy Waters: electric guitar, full rhythm section, harmonica, amplification
- Howlin' Wolf: rival of Waters; gruff voice, commanding stage presence, often built on one chord
- Chicago became the premier recording center — "Chicago blues"
🎧 Listen & Compare
Muddy Waters — "Mannish Boy" (1955)
Howlin' Wolf — "Smokestack Lightnin'" (1956)
- Q: Compare performance style and musical form