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Re: Non-loop content: ENO and U2



Hi Zach:

We are not musicologists either!  But if you get a chance, check out
Davis'book. 

By the way you make a good point by saying that no one with certainty
can be sure that Jazz guys in New Orleans weren't exposed to country
folk playing their music.  But it is safe to say that because of the
economics and history of blacks and Creole's in New Orleans, a kind of
African American music devloped that was different from the music that
grew out of the much poorer and rural areas of Mississippi or the
Piedmont region of the southeast (where there was another set of
historic/economic circumstances for African Americans).

Best,
The Roctologists



Zach Lawrence wrote:
> 
> >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:)
> ________________________________________________________________________
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