Blues is the name assigned to both a musical form and a music brand that came from African-American communities of primarily the “Deep South” of the united states at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, roars and chants, and rhymed simple account ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock’n’roll is indicated by precise chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues chord progression is the most typical. The blue observes that, for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent ( minor 3rd to major 3rd ) re the pitch of the major scale, are also a vital part of the sound.

The blues idiom relies on the blues form but possesses other traits like specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into a few subgenres starting from country to urban blues that were kind of preferred during different times of the Twentieth century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the change from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a bigger audience, particularly white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues-rock developed.

The term “the blues” refers back to the “blue devils”, meaning melancholy and sadness ; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman’s one-act farce Blue Devils ( 1798 ). Though the use of the phrase in African-American music might be older, it’s been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues” became the 1st copyrighted blues composition. In words the phrase is commonly used to explain a depressed mood.

The lyrics of early normal blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times ; it was only in the first decades of the Twentieth century that the most typical current structure became standard : the so-called AAB pattern, composed of a line sung over the 4 first bars, its repetition over the following 4, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Two of the first revealed blues songs, “Dallas Blues” ( 1912 ) and “St. Louis Blues” ( 1914 ), were 12-bar blues featuring the AAB structure. W. C. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated 3 times.[19] The lines are frequently sung following a pattern nearer to a regular talk than to a melody. Early blues often took the form of a loose narrative. The singer declared their “personal troubles in a world of oppressive reality : a lost love, the torment of cops, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times.” This melancholy has led straight to the recommendation of an Igbo origin for blues thanks to the reputation the Igbo had through plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook to life when they were enslaved.

Though Kansas City, Missouri is understood primarily for jazz, it has contributed to the history of and the protection of the blues.

Kansas City did not enter into blues history until the 1940s. Kansas City blues artists Pete Johnson and Large Joe Turner recorded a sort of music called jump blues, which later provided the bedrock for rhythm and blues, and later rock ‘n roll. Charlie Parker dabbled in the blues in the late 1940s with his release of the hit “Now’s the Time”, a bebop jazz number that gave a nod to the popularity of the blues in Kansas City, by employing the familiar blues pentatonic scale and blue notes.

The blues scene in Kansas City produced Jay McShann, Sonny Kenner, Little Hatch and Cotton Candy and the blues was well-liked in tiny clubs and after-hours jam sessions. Many Kansas City musicians would finish their “paying” gigs at weddings, jazz clubs and so on. And then pack up and head to the 18th and Vine-Downtown East, Kansas City district to participate in all-night parties that would sometimes continue well into light. The Eighteenth & Vine jam sessions continue today at Kansas City’s Musician’s Foundation. The Musician’s Foundation has immunity from spirits laws, and hasn’t modified its look since the 1940s.
Notable Kansas City blues artists

For Complete Kansas City Band Information contact:
Omni Entertainment
1615 Northeast 100th Court, Kansas City, MO 64155-1968
(816) 734-4558

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