Month: November 2025

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From gospel to soul; from soul to funk

Joss Stone: Next queen soul?

I am looking for the origins of popular music. So far, I focused on the US. The reason is the unique fusion of styles with African and with European roots. Of the former, worksongs and spirituals, boogiewoogie, ragtime and rhythm & blues have already been covered. Regarding the styles with European roots, I paid attention to country & western. A lot of new variations have developed from these roots. From rhythm & blues and influenced by country & western, rock & roll emerged. Worksongs and spirituals laid the foundation for gospels, soul and then funk. From here, a line can again be drawn to disco and dance, but that will be done in the next exploration.

Spirituals and gospels

Many African slaves adopted Christianity over successive generations. Some songs (worksongs) they sang while working had therefore taken on biblical content. By singing about the hardships of the Jewish people, they could also express their own misery. Songs like these are called spirituals. They were handed down from generation to generation. 

Worksongs and spirituals were considered cultural heritage after the abolition of slavery in 1867. In my exploration of worksongs, I have shown how new popular songs emerged from spirituals but also how they influenced the performing arts, ranging from choral singing, symphonies, operas and musicals.

Spirituals have additionally given impetus to ‘gospels’, religious songs. The name ‘gospel’ is believed to have been first used in 1874. Listen to the Mississippi Mass Choir sing “When I rose this morning” here

Gospels were sung in concert halls as well as during church services. Famous are the Golden Gate Quartet (“Go down Moses“). Think also of Mahalia Jackson (“Precious Lord, Take my hand“). Elvis Presley also recorded several albums with gospels. Another example is Little Richard (“Silent  Night“).  A more recent and ‘contemporary’ rendition is “Open my heart” by Yolanda Adams. 

Soul

The term ‘soul’ refers to gospel-like secular music and has been used since the 1960s. You won’t note significant difference with gospel songs. Soul plays a role in the movement for equal civil rights and has ‘boosted’ the self-confidence of the black community. The sound of soul is inextricably linked to Ray Charles. Here he sings “Georgia on my mind”

Sam Cooke (“Bring it home to me“), Jackie Wlson (“She’s alright“), Solomon Burke, (“Cry to me” and “Just out of reach“) as well as Ike & Tuna Turner (“A fool in love” and “It’s gonna work out fine“) predominantly sing soul. Sly and the family Stone (“It’s a family affair“), Curtis Mayfield (“Move it up“) and, later, Prince (“Purple rain“) are called representatives of “progressive soul”, which is a bit more sophisticated and had somewhat higher artistic pretensions.

The most important soul singer was undoubtedly Aretha Franklin (“Respect” and “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man“). Here she sings “I Never loved a man (The way that I love you)” at the White House in the presence of President Obama.

Several local genres emerged during the 1960s. The most influential was the Motown style from Detroit (Motown was a record company). The songs were both rhythmic and melodic. The latter was enhanced by the addition of violins, brass and choruses. 

Artists from this “stable” include: the Supremes (“Baby love“), “The Temptations (“Papa was a rolling stone“), the Four Tops (“Reach out, I’ll be there), Stevie Wonder (“Superstition” and “Isn’t she lovely“), Marvin Gaye (“What’s going on“) and Diana Ross (“Upside down“).  

The motown style laid the foundations for disco, which I will go into later. You can already hear and see this in “Taste of bitter love” by Gladys Knight & The Pips, which you can listen to and watch here

By comparison, a recording by Booker T & the MGs (“Melting pot“) is an instrumental song just like the famous “Green onions“. You can immediately hear that this song is a lot sultrier. This is typical of the Memphis style. The Hammond organ comes strongly to the fore here. All the big cities had their own variant like this; I won’t go into that.

There are also several white soul artists in the UK and in the US – ‘blue-eyed’ soul acts. In the 1960s, these mostly adopted the sound of Motown. 

Examples of ‘blue-eyed soul acts are: The Spencer Davis Group (“Gimme  some  loving“), Steve Winwood, here with Carlos Santana (“Why  can’t we live together“), Van Morrison, here with Solomon Burke (“Fast Train“) and Them (“Gloria“). 

In the 1970s, among others, Petula Clark (“Downtown“), Cilla Black (“Anyone who has a heart“) and Tom Jones (“Green green grass of home“) can be mentioned with this in the same breath.  As the Years progressed, a more contemporary ‘soul’ sound emerged. Think of George Michael (“Freedom“), Sade (“Smooth operator“), Simply Red (“Holding back the years“) , David Bowie (“Heroes“). Again later followed the likes of Amy Winehouse (“You know I ‘am no good“) , Adele (“Rolling in the deep“), Duffy (“Mercy“) and the woman with the incomparable voice, Joss Stone (“Midnight train to Georgia” and “Son of a preacher man“). 

Joss Stone is a serious candidate to succeed Aretha Franklin as ‘Queen of soul’. Here you can see Josh in “Here comes the rain again”, together with guitarist Dave Stewart in a particularly expressive ‘soul’ performance. 

As the years progressed, soul blended with other genres, each of which, moreover, evolved. But the spirit of soul remains: expressive ‘narrative’ vocals, brass instruments and tight rhythm.

Funk

Several soul artists developed their style during the 1960s towards funk, even more rhythmic than soul and especially danceable. The powerful and complex rhythmic figures (‘grooves’) are more important than the chords and melody. These figures are initiated by the bass guitar and the drums and other percussion instruments. Because it is dance music, the songs tend to be long. Here, drummers, horns and guitarists were given plenty of room to improvise. The term ‘funk’ refers to the smell of a dancing crowd.

Of great significance for the development of funk was with James Brown. From him comes the accentuation of the first beat of each bar, the ‘downbeat’, where in other styles the second and fourth beats are accentuated, the ‘backbeat’. You can hear “Cold sweat” by James Brown & The Famous Flames” (1969) here. The rhythm characteristic of funk is easily recognisable and you can also enjoy James Brown’s famous dance moves. 

In the 1970s, funk reached maturity. Let me mention a few artists, which many will remember: Earth, Wind & Fire (“September“), Sly & the Family Stone (“Thank you“), Isley Brothers (“Its your thing“), Chaka Khan – the Queen of funk – (“I’ am every woman“) and Chic (“Le Freak“). 

Of course, we should not leave out Candy Dulfer and her band “Funky Stuff”. Here, she plays and sings “The neighbourhood”.

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From blues to rhythm and blues

From blues to rhythm and blues

Recently I explored the worksongs sung by slaves in the US. The 1864 ‘Emancipation Act’ freed all slaves and opened the way for further development of the music of African-Americans. You have already been introduced to the first expressions of this boogiewoogie and ragtime. From the worksongs, a singing style gradually developed that was called ‘blues’ around 1920. Banjo and guitar were often used for accompaniment. The blues, like the worksongs, expressed the feeling of discontent that the inferior position of the African-American population entailed but also sang about relationship problems and natural disasters. The term ‘blues’ stems from seafaring: if a captain or officer died during the voyage, a blue flag was hoisted or a blue band was painted around the ship.

The first blues

In the 1920s, blues was first published as sheet music and the first gramophone records appeared. The blues remained music by black people for black people. That was taken care of by the emerging music industry, which spoke of ‘race music’. Music for and by whites was marketed as ‘country music’, although the two styles did not initially differ much.

The first blues record appeared in 1912, the ‘Dallas Blues’. W.C. Handy’s’ Saint Louis Blues’ (1914) is still played today.  Here, the composer himself plays his ‘Dallas Blues’ on the trumpet. 

Handy contributed to the popularisation of the blues through his orchestral arrangements, which also saw blues played in theatres and policy by choir and orchestra. You can see this here in a 1929 video in which Bessie Smith, one of the first female blues performers, also sings the Saint Louis blues.

Blues as a music style

I pause to consider a few characteristics of the ‘blues’ as a musical style. Blues musicians use a five-tone (‘pentatonic’) scale, unlike ‘western music’, which usually uses a seven-tone major or minor scale. Starting from the C major scale, the pentatonic scale consists of these five notes: C, D, E, G and A, i.e. without the F and the B. This scale is found all over the world, including, for example, in Celtic and Scottish music and in many children’s songs, Negro spirituals and hymns. Here, for example, the first bars of Amazing Grace.

Instead of the omitted notes, blues musicians often add a lowered E (E-flat) and/or lowered B (B-flat) in the C major scale. These are called the ‘blue notes’. Anyone with a keyboard instrument at hand should try playing a C-major chord (C – E – G) and fiddle around with the lowered E and B. This immediately sounds ‘bluesy’. In the minor scale, the raised F (F-sharp) is usually the blues tone. You then get: C, E-flat, F, F-sharp, G, B-flat.  In the following video you can learn in two minutes to play a simple solo on the piano in the C minor scale.

Besides the use of the pentatonic scale, most blues are distinguished by their structure, consisting of three stanzas of four (four-quarter) measures each. The first four bars posit a statement, in the second group it is repeated (‘call and response’) and in the last four bars an explanation follows.  Here, by way of illustration, three lines from Blind Lemon Jefferson’s 1927 ‘Rising high water blues’.

 Backwater rising, Southern peoples can’t make no time 
I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can’t make no time 
And I can’t get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine 

Furthermore, in blues you often hear a ‘walking bass’, a series of successive notes played in a driving manner up and down. What is also common are sliding notes, the ‘sliding effect’ on the guitar. On the piano, you achieve this effect – as the video illustrated – by using a fast-leading stroke.

The rise of urban blues

The blues in the product of the southern states and the Mississippi area (‘Delta blues’) and had numerous regional variations. Both at the time of growing prosperity (1920s) and recession (1930s), many African-Americans moved to the northern states and Chicago became the new centre of the ‘urban blues’.  This was somewhat rawer in nature. Big bands also made their appearance, such as the bands of Count Basie (‘One o’clock jump’) and Jimmy Rushin (‘I left my baby’) Big names from the 1930s include Charley Patton and Robert Johnson.  Here is a recording of ‘Sweet home Chicago’, sung by Robert Johnson (1937), a song that would be covered many more times.

Electric guitars had now become commonplace, so they were often referred to as ‘electric blues’. In the 1940s, there was a boom in new blues songs. In Chicago, Willy Dixon was constantly writing songs for artists who caused a furore there, such as Muddy Waters (‘I can’t be satisfied’, ‘Rollin’and tumbling’ and ‘Hoochie Coochie man’) and Howlin’ Wolf (‘Wang Dang Doodle’ and ‘Back door man’). 

Here is a recording of Muddy Waters’ ‘Im your hoochie coochie man (1971)

Rhythm and blues

Over the years, the Chicago sound became more rhythmic and the tempo of the melodies became faster and wind instrument support played an increasingly important role. The term ‘rhythm and blues’ made its appearance.  Also because the music industry wanted to get rid of the term ‘race music’.  As the years progressed, ‘rhythm and blues’ became an umbrella term for music originating from the African-American population, even though the number of white artists as well as fans increased rapidly. 

Older people among us still experienced plenty of the stars of the post-war period. Besides Muddy Waters, one can think of John Lee Hooker (‘Boogie Chillen’, ‘Dimples’ and ‘Boom Boom’), the ‘king of blues’ B.B. King (‘The Thrill is gone), Louis Jordan with his band ‘Tympany Five (‘You Ain’t My Baby’, ‘Saturday  Night Fish Fry“.

Here, ‘the king of the blues’ plays ‘Sweet little angel’ with Jeff, Beck, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and Albert Collings in 1993.  The diversity of players alone is a sign of the blending of styles and ethnicities that has taken place in recent decades.

From the 1950s, many more can be mentioned Little Richard Penniman (‘Tutti Frutti’, ‘Long tall Sally’), Ruth Brown (‘Teardrops from my eyes’, (Mama) he treats your daughter mean’, Fats Domino (‘Aint that a shame’), Ray Charles (‘I got a woman’) and Chubby Checker (‘The twist’). These songs also show the great influence that rhythm and blues, alongside boogiewoogie, had on rock and roll, think Elvis Presley. 

Here, late 1993 and older Ruth Brown sings ‘Mama, he treats your daughter mean’ along with Bonnie Raitt. You can see the original version from the 1950s by a still-young Ruth Brown here.

The blues in the UK

Had Muddy Waters still shocked audiences in the UK with his performance, he inspired a range of English groups to contemporary blues renditions, such as Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds, Eric Clapton and also the Rolling Stones, who performed several times with the older blues luminaries.

The ‘UK invasion’ in the US charts in turn inspired a new generation of blues artists in the US: Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, J. Geils Band, Ry Cooder, the Temptations, Bonnie Raitt, Etta James, the Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Fabolous Thunderbirds. All artists who, in turn, influenced many others. 

It is almost impossible to make a choice here, which is why there is a link behind most of the names. I end up choosing guitar virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan and his lifelong band Double Trouble with the classic blues ‘Texas Flood’. He is considered as one of the most influential musicians in the history of blues and one of the best guitarists of all time despite his short life (1954 – 1990). He had a lifetime of problems with alcohol, love and drugs, which he had overcome by 1986. He then had four healthy years left to benefit from his fame until he was killed in a helicopter crash in 1990.

During the development of the blues, there has been cross-fertilisation between (rhythm and) blues and other genres.  Initially, these were the (negro) spirituals and gospel songs and, from the 1920s, old-style jazz: ‘Dixieland’ in New Orleans and later in swinging dance orchestras, such as Count Basie and his band. After the war, this was mainly rock ‘n roll. In the 1980s, the term ‘R&B’ was further expanded to include hip-hop, having already been used for soul, funk and even disco. These styles will be discussed later. 

One of the most important people who has kept the memory of the blues alive and secured its future is Jools Holland, who, together with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, has been performing at many venues for decades and has kept viewers glued to the tube in his weekly programme ‘Later’. In and the annual ‘Hootenanny’, where he ushers in the New Year with the audience.  Here he and his orchestra accompany Ruby Turner in ‘Roll out of this hole’ (2010 – 2011)

Afterword: Recently released is the album The Barnestormers, an international super formation on which Jools Holland plays and sings contemporary rhythm and blues/rockabilly/rock – whatever you name it – together with Jimmy Barnes, Slim Jim Phantom, Chris Cheney and Kevin Shirley.  Here you listen to the song ‘Johnny’s Gone’ from this album, accompanied by a fast-paced cartoons