 Record companies targeted new audiences between World
War I and World War II (1918–40).
 Recorded music derived from the folk traditions of the
•
American South
Migration of millions of people from rural communities to cities such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Nashville in the years following World War I

 Terms used by the American music industry to classify and advertise southern music.
 Race Records
• Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners
 Hillbilly or Old-Time
• Music performed by and intended for sale to southern whites

 Known as the “Queen of the Blues”
 Pioneer blues singer, pianist, and black vaudeville performer
 In 1920, she recorded the bestsellers “Crazy Blues” and “It's
Right Here For You, If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine.”
 Mamie Smith’s success as a recording artist opened up the record industry to recordings by and for African Americans.

 The term was first applied by Ralph Peer (1892–1960).
•
• A Missouri-born talent scout for Okeh Records
Had worked as an assistant on Mamie Smith ’ s first recording sessions

 The performances released on race records included a variety of musical styles:
• Blues
• Jazz
• Gospel choirs
• Vocal quartets
• String bands
• Jug-and-washboard bands
 Verbal performances
• Sermons
• Stories
• Comic routines

Definitions:
1. Describes a feeling— “ I ’ ve got the blues ”
2. Refers to the blues style of singing or playing
• blues vocals—like intensified speech
• narrow range; rough, highly inflected timbre
3. Indicates a musical form—twelve-bar chorus, AAB text

 A standard rhythmic harmonic structure in which a twelve-bar chord progression is tied to the AAB text in three four-bar phrases.
 It is also called “ twelve-bar blues.
”

 Rhymed couplet—each chorus of a blues song contains two lines of text with the first line repeated. The text is AAB:
• I hate to see the eve-nin ’ sun go down
• I hate to see the eve-nin ’ sun go down
• It makes me think I ’ m on my last go-round

 Melodic form—each line is sung to its own melodic idea.
 Rhythmic form—each phrase of a standard blues chorus lasts four bars. One chorus of a blues song is twelve measures long
(3x4).
 Harmonic form—the harmony of a blues song is I, IV, and V chords.


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12


 Classic blues songs were performed by high-class nightclub singers.
•
•
•
•
Alberta Hunter (1895–1984)
Billed as the “ Marian Anderson of the Blues ”
Ethel Waters (1896–1977)
Entertained the growing African American middle class in
New York, Chicago, and other northern cities

 Singers who performed in a somewhat rougher style
•
• Gertrude “ Ma ” Rainey (1886–1939)
• Popularly known as the “ Mother of the Blues ”
Bessie Smith (1894–1937)
• “ Empress of the Blues ”
 Rainey and Smith developed their singing styles in the rough-and-tumble black vaudeville and tent shows.

 The “ Empress of the Blues ”
 The most important and influential of the woman blues singers from the early twentieth century.
 Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee; began recording in 1923
 Stylistically a blues singer even when performing novelty and vaudeville numbers; had a majestic voice
 The centerpiece of Columbia ’ s race record labels

 The “ Father of the Blues ”
• The most influential of the classic blues composers
• Son of a conservative pastor who forbade him from playing the guitar
• Learned to play the cornet instead
• Went on to college, received a degree, and became a schoolteacher
 Handy cofounded the first African American–owned publishing house.
 His music owed much to Tin Pan Alley as well as African
American folk traditions.
 His biggest hit was “ St. Louis Blues, ” written in 1914.

L i sten i ng :
S t . L o ui s Bl ue s ,
by W.
C . H a n d y, s u n g by B e s s i e S mi t h
( 1 9 2 5 )
 This was the type of recording that introduced much of white America to the blues.
 A hybrid approach to the blues
• Removed from the “ down-home ” interpretation by country blues performers and composers such as Charley Patton and
Blind Lemon Jefferson.

L i sten i ng :
S t . L o ui s Bl ue s ,
by W.
C . H a n d y, s u n g by B e s s i e S mi t h
( 1 9 2 5 )
 Accompaniment — reed organ and cornet
• Louis Armstrong on cornet
• Fred Longshaw on reed organ
 Call and response between cornet and Smith
 Form
• Based on the AABA model commonly seen in
Tin Pan Alley songs
• The final section is really a “ C, ” having a new melody but relating to the earlier “ A ” section of chords.
• The “ A ” and “ C ” sections represent the twelve-bar blues.

 A
• a. I hate to see the eve-nin ’ sun go down
• a. I hate to see the eve-nin ’ sun go down
• b. It makes me think I ’ m on my last go-round
 A
• a. Feelin ’ tomorrow like I do today
• a. Feelin ’ tomorrow like I do today

 B
• a.
St. Louis woman…
• b.
Pulls my man around…
• a.
Wasn
t for powder…
• b.
The man I love…
 C
I got them St. Louis blues…