Category: Ragtime

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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

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Ragtime

Jazz emerged in the early 20th century from a series of musical styles that in turn resulted from cross-pollination of African-American influences and music brought by other immigrants. One of these styles was ragtime, which in turn evolved from boogie woogie.

Look and listen by way of introduction, to the Harlem Rag, composed by Tom Turpin in 1897. He, like many others, had taught himself to play the piano. Here, the composition is played by Florian Krüger.

 Ragtime is portrayed in countless films as the sultry rhythm in a saloon, played by a straw-hat-clad pianist with his sleeves rolled up, surrounded by ladies waiting for gentlemen to join them upstairs. This was exactly how it was in ‘the Rosebud’, the saloon where Tom Purpin played his songs. There were dozens of such pubs in the red-light districts of St Louis and New Orleans. Ragtime was probably for this reason mainly music for the piano.

Ragtime music has a tight and simple bass part, more varied than the boogie-woogie’s one. The melody plays to the rhythm set by the bass. The notes of the playful melodies fall just a little earlier or a little later than you expect them. ‘Ragged time’ means as much as torn measures. I speak emphatically of melodies, because the boogie woogie consisted mainly of groups of melodic and rousing sounds. This was also because of the improvised nature of many boogie woogies. 

The founder of ragtime is undoubtedly Scott Joplin. He was born in Texas in 1868, the son of an ex-slave who tried to earn a living as a violinist; his mother played the banjo. Scott also learnt to play guitar and bugle and from the age of 13de led the existence of an itinerant musician. His second-best-known song is the Maple Leaf Rag, played here by Dario Ronchi to mark the 100th anniversary of his death, in 1916. 

Scott Joplin wrote 504 different ‘rags’ in his lifetime, one ballet opera – Ragtime Dance – and two ragtime operas, A Guest of Honour and ‘Treemonisha’. 

The ragtime went in different directions: inspiring ‘classical’ composers, incorporation into jazz as ‘dixieland’ music, and it was also the basis for simple pieces for wind orchestras. Western composers also became influenced by ragtime music. In 1918, Igor Strawinsky’s piece ‘Rag-Time’ was premiered. A musical work for 11 instruments. It lasts over 5 minutes.

Early in the 20ste century, ragtime was discovered as the perfect dance music for the popular cakewalk. Essentially, dance couples form a square and each couple performs a silly dance around the square.  A jury judges the performance; among others by looking at the ladies’ elegance and the men’s ingenuity. The highest-rated couple received a richly-decorated cake. 

There were numerous variations. The cakewalk was originally performed by Negro slaves, for the amusement of their masters in which the classical form of ballroom dancing from the upper classes was somewhat ridiculed.

Slaves were still allowed to mock the ballroom of ‘high society; but as it went with all modern dances, ‘high society’ adopted them almost immediately. The dance below dates from around 1900 and played here by the Academy of Danse Libre.

Furthermore, the cakewalk can be practiced in some dance-schools and provides a lot of fun for both the dancers and the audience.  We are then approaching the true meaning of the English word ‘ro rag’, which is to have fun and walking back and forth wildly.

As mentioned, the Maple Leaf Rag is Scott Joplin’s second most popular ‘rag’.  In his time, it was probably the most popular. Listen now to the most popular ragtime melody at the present day. This one is also performed by Dario Ronchi.

The ambience is quite different from the brothels in which Tom Terpin and Scott Joplin played their ‘rags’ in the late 19de century.

Indeed, it is the title tune of the film ‘The Sting’ – exactly 50 years ago – directed by George Roy Hill, starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw. The film’s screenplay was written by David S. Ward and based on the true story of the scams of brothers Fred and Charley Gondorf, as described in David Maurer’s book “The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man” (1940). The film won seven Oscars in 1973 and revenues were huge for the time: $160,000,000. But since then, everyone knows what a “rag” is.