[Harp-L] blues history

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

There's been a lot of talk about the history and origins of the  
blues.  In no particular order here goes.

Chris M. wrote:

"Blues evolved from JuJu and Hilife music in western african. In fact  
the evolution is very slight as even the older forms of JuJu sound  
like contemporary blues and funk.  The blues was not born in the  
rural southern US it was brought here and forced to be perfomed on  
primitve and otherwise makeshift instruments that were given to the  
slaves to keep them happy."

Considering that JuJu and Highlife are contemporary forms which  
evolved in the 20th century, somehow I doubt this.  Blues has some  
similar traits with the griot (primarily Manding) traditions, but is  
not simply the same thing in the US.  It can be hard to tell what  
influenced what now, because there has been a great cross- 
fertilization of African musics with African-American forms in the  
20th century--and this is particularly hard in West Africa, which was  
the origin of most Africans in the American slave trade.  But if you  
look to the older traditions you can see some significant differences  
between West Africa and the African-American southern musics--for  
reasons I'll get into below.

Paul LaBrier writes:

"Look at it historically.  Go back to the origins of it.  You had
primative roots music being played both by those of african and
european decent."

"Primitive"?  These were folk traditions, neither more or less  
primitive than most folk musics found throughout the world.  The  
primitive label is often used in comparison to the more harmonically  
complex art-musics (be it jazz or "classical") but it is a poor term,  
as there have always been complexities within folk musics which are  
of a different type and form than harmonic complexity (structure,  
rhythm, time, inflection, etc...).

"The early roots music of european decent morphed into Country and
Bluegrass and has nearly been lost.  The early roots music of african
decent mutated into many other things too."

First, last I checked country was quite popular and bluegrass doing  
quite well.  Which says nothing about old-time and it's stunning  
popularity vis-a-vis the "O Brother Where Art Though" soundtrack-- 
which was bigger than the movie, it would seem.  Second, these were  
not separate traditions.  White and black musics from the old south  
are very difficult to tell apart simply by listening to recordings.   
The South was horribly segregated, of course, but the cultural roots  
of the poorer classes (who were the folk musicians) tended to be  
rather mixed together and quite similar.  A good example is in the  
Louisiana french traditions.  Here, Amade Ardoin(sp) is one of the  
lynchpins of Cajun (white) music but he himself was a Creole (black)  
and he also serves as an early exponent of zydeco.  It wasn't until  
later changes in both that a more distinct color-based difference  
evolved.  It is similar for white and black music throughout the  
south--early forms are quite similar, with race-based distinctions  
coming later.  Notably these distinctions seem to have evolved  
coincident with the music recording industry in both cases.

To say that the blues is "African" music or that country is  
"European" ignores the reality that both originated in the culturally  
mixed American South and that it is this blending which made Southern  
American music so distinct from both the older traditions from which  
they sprang.  A gross simplification could say that European  
(primarily British) influences can be seen in the instrumentation and  
the song structures (I-IV-V chords, for example, or the waltzes of  
the French speakers in Louisiana) while African influences are  
noticeable in the tonality (blue notes) and complex rhythmic  
structures.  This is what made them distinct from the traditions  
which came before in the countries of origins.  It is the amazing  
cultural mix (despite the massive racism) which gave rise to the  
forms which would later dominate American popular music, including  
Jazz, Blues, Rock, Swing, Country and Bluegrass.  You just can't  
separate things out and say this is "African" and this "European"--it  
simply doesn't fit.

Another interesting mix of culture in the South is bar-be-que.  Again  
it shows a mix of both African and European origins and was (and is)  
practiced by both the black and white populations.  Indeed, again  
similarly to the early musical forms there is more variety regionally  
than racially in terms of bar-be-que.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'