US Folk Music History: Blues, Jazz, and Soul
Black Folk Music Characteristics
Key Features:
- Very pronounced musical pulse
- Syncopated melodies
- Pentatonic scale
- Call-and-answer pattern typical from Africa
White Folk Music
They sang dances and ballads from their birthplaces.
Key Features:
- Dances: Happy melodies, played with violin and guitar.
- Ballads: Narrative character; topics include travels, love stories, and magical characters.
The Primitive Blues
A mixture of Black and White folk music. Also called Delta Blues.
Songs of wail and irony about hard work, religious beliefs, or unhappy love affairs.
Form: Very simple music accompanied by a guitar or banjo. 12 bars.
Slide guitar: The term “slide” refers to the sliding motion of the slide against the strings, while “bottleneck” refers to the original material of choice for such slides, which were the necks of glass bottles.
Ragtime
End of the 19th century, New Orleans. Based on European music played on a piano. “White music played in a Black style”.
Features: Syncopated rhythms, creating a cheerful, jaunty, and frantic sound.
Interpreters: Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin.
New Orleans: The Birthplace of Jazz
End of the 19th century, New Orleans.
Features:
- Based on military marches and polkas with a modified melody.
- Simple harmony.
- Collective improvisations.
- Very cheerful.
Dixieland Features: Individual improvisations over repeated phrases played by the rest of the instruments.
Interpreters: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Features of Jazz: The rhythm sets the melody.
The Migrations to the North: Louis Armstrong
In 1920, there was a huge migration movement towards the industry, mainly the car industry. Louis Armstrong arrived in Chicago from New Orleans. He was the father of jazz. He introduced the swing with his trumpet.
Race Music
Mammie Smith and Bessie Smith.
Popular American Songs
Bing Crosby was the first great singer. He sang with whispering, moving closer or away from the microphone, and modulating his voice. White Christmas (1942)
The 30s: The Swing Era
Arrangers: Became quite important as they created and wrote the different parts that each musician had to play.
Country
Folk White music from the South of the USA, made of simple melodies and harmonies. The lyrics are narrative, and the topics are stories of trains, cowboys, miners, love, etc.
Songs:
- Woody Guthrie (“Car Song”, “This Land is Your Land”)
- Kenny Rogers (“The Gambler”)
Characteristics: Fiddle, pedal steel guitar, mouth harp.
Woody Guthrie placed himself as the voice of the White poor. He was the first singer-songwriter, followed by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez.
The Boogie-Woogie
Typical piano style where the left hand creates a vibrating accompaniment.
Charlie Spand, Big Bill Broonzy, Joe Turner, Meade Lux Lewis, Fats Waller.
Chicago Blues
Muddy Waters: “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”, “Mannish Boy”
Rhythm & Blues
As big bands were too large, smaller formations of around six members started to appear. These new groups played a kind of blues with quite fast tempos.
- Bo Diddley (Hey! Bo Diddley)
- Ike Turner (Nutbush City Limit)
- Ray Charles (Hit the Road Jack; What’d I Say)
The 50s and Rock and Roll
Elvis Presley: “In the Ghetto”, “Suspicious Mind”, “Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”
Chuck Berry: “Johnny B. Goode”, “You Never Can Tell”
Gospel
Religious music coming from White hymns and Black spirituals, but more cheerful. The voice was passionate, deep, and heartfelt; the accompaniment was complicated, giving great importance to the rhythm, bass, and wind section.
Gospel Motown
James Brown, Ray Charles, Otis Redding.
Soul Songs
- James Brown: “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, “Sex Machine”, “Get Up Offa That Thing”
- Aretha Franklin: “Respect”, “Think”
- Otis Redding: “The Dock of the Bay”, “My Girl”
- Stevie Wonder: “Superstition”, “I Just Called to Say I Love You”