Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: Non-loop content: ENO and U2





>Check out Francis Davis book THE HISTORY OF THE BLUES in paperback and
>published by Hyperion books to get a very interesting, carefully argued,
>respectful and challenging account of the lineage of "the blues."  One
>common assumption you repeat in your post is that "country blues"
>spawned jazz.  Davis argues and provides ample evidence that the two
>evolved from the same root of anglo/African/American music, but after
>that, all bets are off.  One irrefutable fact, jazz recordings and
>published music predates by as much as 30 years much of what we think of
>as classic "country blues."   King Oliver wasn't listening to "country
>blues," and neither was Louis Armstrong! But they were both on record
>well before Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson.
>
>In short, Davis does a good job of rearranging your musical and
>historical sensibilities.

i think that you and Davis both make a good point, that folk-style blues 
and 
jazz both evolved in a parallel fashion.  it should be said, though, that 
the primary reasons that country blues recordings/sheet music weren't 
around 
is not that it didn't pre-date original jazz, but that, first, the 
performers were primarily poor slaves who weren't thought of as profitable 
outside of their value as plantation workers (a sad human rights reality 
in 
the old South), and second, that it was commonly believed that 
African/blues 
music was so foreign to traditional musical concepts that most music 
scholars didn't believe that it could be notated or written down.  
personally, i think that, contrary to what Davis says, it's very possible 
that the early jazzmen were influenced heavily by blues, but through live, 
in-person performances.

any corrections to my historical understanding are of course welcomed ... 
i'm an English major, not a musicology student:)

best,
zach:)
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com