Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Blues is a music genre [3] and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. [2] Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.
The historian Sylviane Diouf and ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik identify Islamic music as an influence on blues music. [11] [12] Diouf notes a striking resemblance between the Islamic call to prayer (originating from Bilal ibn Rabah, a famous Abyssinian African Muslim in the early 7th century) and 19th-century field holler music, noting that both have similar lyrics praising God, melody, note ...
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.
Albums such as African Blues by Ali Farka Toure have a noticeable African and American Blues influence. [clarify] The death of Malian guitar legend Ali Farka Touré has inspired a new round of speculation about the roots of the blues in Africa. Touré famously argued that the beloved American genre was "nothing but African", a bold assertion.
The early part of the 20th century saw a rise in popularity of blues and jazz. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music". [37] Ralph Peer, musical director at Okeh Records, put records made by "foreign" groups under that label.
All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-736-6. Harrison, Daphne Duval (1990). Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers. ISBN 0-8135-1280-8. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray.
Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. [1] They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime - vaudeville , Delta and country blues , and urban styles from Chicago and the West Coast . [ 2 ]
Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues . Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles and were the first blues to be recorded.