Blues History part 2 (final)

By 1923, race records began to prosper and emerge. Okeh, Paramount, and Columbia dominated the market, accounting for more than two-thirds of blues and gospel releases. These first blues women pioneered the blues as a popular genre, opening the door for the male artists that would become popular from 1930-present. Georgia Tom Dorsey, in an interview with Jim O'Neal of Living Blues magazine, put this emergence of the blues as a popular genre into these words, "The blues came to its own about '23, '24 until 1940. If you wasn't a blues singer, you wasn't nobody-whether or not you could sing 'em, you had to know 'em". In 1925, Blind Lemon Jefferson was picked up by Paramount. He went on to make eight records in 1926 and was their major artist for the rest of the decade. Jefferson was born blind in 1897 in Conchman, Texas. His music reflected his vocal and instrumental virtuosity, and his style preceded the "electric" blues movement of the 1940's where his music would influence the likes of T-Bone Walker, who knew Jefferson personally. By 1930, B.L. Jefferson had recorded eighty-one pieces, making him the most prolific of the early blues artists. Jefferson's successful campaign as an early, male bluesman marked the transition from classic blues female singers to the raw country blues sung by men that would be popularized in the late twenties and early thirties. Male artists would continue to be the leading forces in the blues from the 1930's forward. The women singers of the early twenties had to combine their material with pop in order to remain on the scene. The years from 1927-1930 were the peak years of blues recording. In 1927, there were five hundred blues and gospel records issued, an increase of fifty percent on the 1926 figure. This rate was maintained until the depression slowed production down in 1930. During this transitional period between 1926 and 1931, blues artists such as Charley Patton, Son House, and Blind Willie McTell emerged on the blues scene to record blues. The bluesmen of this period introduced the raw country blues that would be smoothed and eventually transformed into the more urban Chicago-style blues. Patton, born in the Delta, was the first true Delta bluesman. He used the bottleneck style on guitar and a bellowing voice that would define most of the stylistic characteristics of the Delta associated with artists such as Robert Johnson. Son House was also a very influential musician of the time. He taught Robert Johnson how to play guitar, and was known for his fantastic work on the instrument. When Jim O'Neal asked Muddy Waters who the best guitarist he had heard before he came to Chicago Muddy replied, "Son House. To me?that's before Robert's time. I thought Son House was the greatest guitar player in the world when I heard him because he was usin' that bottleneck style, and I loved that sound, man. Son House". The Depression brought about the bankruptcy of many of the blues record companies. As 1931 dawned, race records were selling about a tenth as well as they had the previous four years. By 1932, hardly any recordings were being made. The race record companies that survived in the thirties relied more heavily on a small group of popular singers than in the twenties. In 1937, sixteen individual singers had more than six records issued in the year, accounting for more than one-third of all race releases. In the period between 1933 and 1942, three new record companies emerged to dominate the blues recording market. American Record Company, RCA, and Decca records all centered their recordings in Chicago, where the majority of the blues recorded during this period was made. The primary artists of this period were Robert Johnson, Tampa Red, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Bill Broonzy, and Washboard Sam. Robert Johnson, who was from Robinsonville, Mississippi, recorded in the mid-thirties. His character and life is shrouded by mystery and legend, but his work has clearly gone on to influence the electric players of the fifties including Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Eddie Taylor, and Robert Junior Lockwood. Blues rock guitarists of the sixties, such as Eric Clapton, were also inspired by Johnson's work. He was known as one of the last true Delta bluesmen and helped define the period. Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia around 1900. In 1925 he left the delta to go record in Chicago. His career stretches from the late twenties to the early fifties where he represented city sophistication more than any other musician of that time. He represents a link between the smoother country or "city" blues and the electric blues and post-war rhythm and blues period. Sonny Boy Williamson's contributions to the harmonica as a solo instrument greatly influenced the combos of the forties and fifties. His death marked the end of this style of blues in 1948, but it had been dwindling since the early forties. The Great Depression and public view of the blues as "devil music" hampered but did not stop the progression of the blues. It endured these obstacles through these artists and others like them and re-emerged, remaining a popular genre. The forties were a transitional time for the blues as new styles emerged. Post-war migration of blacks was huge in the forties and fifties. Between 1940 and 1950 Mississippi lost over twenty-five percent of its black population. Alabama lost 32.3 percent, and Georgia lost 30.9 percent of black males ages 15-34. The Black population in Chicago increased by 77 percent during this period. The popularization of the electric guitar gave life to solo country blues, giving rise to artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Lil' Son Jackson, and John Lee Hooker. During the forties and fifties in Chicago, a small electric combo format developed. Chicago became the focal point for this new "electric" style which featured one or two electric guitars, harmonica, drums, and perhaps a string bass or piano. By 1945, city blues ceased to be a viable form as this new style swept through Chicago. The sounds of this movement were loud and raw, and Chicago blues was owned by Mississippians Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. In an interview, Muddy Waters discussed the difference between what he had played up until his move to Chicago and the sounds that he found there. "Much different. My blues, I came to Chicago, and I had to work 'em up in there. When I did get it through, boy, I bust Chicago wide open with 'em." By 1949, however, the large record companies abandoned the blues, and independent labels emerged. Chicago's Aristocrat label was renamed Chess records in 1950 and emerged as the new leader, holding artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley. By the early fifties, blues guitarists outside the Texas-West Coast, such as Memphis-based B.B. King were being affected by the new sounds of the electric, Chicago blues. Also in the beginning of the fifties, shouters and crooners emerged on the scene. With big, husky voices they sang about partying, drinking, love, and other good-time activities. These shouters and crooners could be found in the Midwest, but were most populous in California where many settled after World War Two with independent labels there. The fifties continued to be dominated by the electric blues, and Chicago remained its center. In conclusion, from the early twentieth century to modern day blues, the blues has endured many obstacles to remain a popular genre. Great blues artists such as Mamie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters are still revered today, despite the blues' incorrect distinction as a "roots" genre. Its evolution through the titular blues of the twenties, the country blues of the thirties, the city blues in the forties, and the electric blues of the fifties, has made the blues a well-developed genre that continues to influence itself as well as other genres with its various forms.That's it. Check the first part for sources along with these two:Jim O'Neal, The Voice of The Blues (New York: Routledge 2002) Robert Springer, Authentic Blues-its History and its Themes (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995)