Hi all,
I've been thinking for a long time about how the character of the blues changed over time as the players' treatment of time evolved to address issues of musical fashion, new dance crazes and other related factors. Much of what determines a music's fundamental rhythmic feel is the first subdivision of a single beat: does the music divide the beat evenly, as in a straight eighth feel, or does the beat split unevenly, with the note falling on the beat getting two thirds of the beat and the + of the beat getting the remaining third of the beat, in a broken triplet or "swung eighth" feel?
Looking at the music of various musicians of the Pre-War generations of Country Blues musicians who recorded, you find some players who fall in the "straight eighth" camp, some players who play either straight or swung eighth notes, depending on the feel of the song being played, and probably some who worked exclusively in the "swung eight" camp, though I haven't identified any there yet.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, membership in the "straight eighth" camp is often found in older musicians, or musicians who had a strong pre-Blues element to their repertoire. Henry Thomas, Mississippi John Hurt, and Frank Stokes, for instance, at least on the basis of the recorded evidence, never played a swung eighth note in their lives. A factor in these musicians not swinging their eighth notes is their preference for a cut time (2/2) feel--they didn't play in a four-beats-to-the-measure feel. I know from teaching, that in our present "Post-shuffle Era", it is really tough for some people to play straight eighth notes, but without straight eighth notes, the rhythmic feel of these players can not be achieved.
Blind Blake played a lot of his music with straight eighths, though the tendency of many modern players (with the exception of Ari Eisinger) is to swing the eighth notes more than Blake did. The one area of Blake's repertoire where he consistently swung his eighth notes was on his medium tempo blues, like "Black Dog Blues" or "One Time Blues", where he swings his eights from beginning to end. Not coincidentally, all of these songs are played with a four feel, in 12/8, in which each measure has four beats, and each beat is divided into a triplet. When Blake launches into one of his long runs, he may, in fact, play several consecutive beats in which he hits all three notes of the beat's subdivision. More often, he is breaking up the pulse into 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +, and just swinging those eighth notes. Blake's approach to playing time on these songs in 12/8 does not seem forward-looking, though, for it did not survive into the next generation of players. Rather, it seems more of a relict of the Classic Blues era, and the small ensembles that backed the great female singers in that style.
Charlie Patton is a fascinating figure in this regard, as he was in so many others. Prior to his 1934 sessions, he recorded no songs with a swung eighth feel, but the 1934 sessions produced four songs on which Charlie swung his eighth notes: "34 Blues", "Poor Me", and "Yellow Bee" and "Mind Reader Blues", on which he backed Bertha Lee's vocals. Charlie's treatment is more forward-looking than was Blake's, and on "Yellow Bee" and "Mind Reader Blues", in particular, he is essentially playing shuffles.
I believe Charlie Patton's move into a swung eighth feel shows a musical indebtedness to the recordings of Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, who were recording shuffles as early as 1929. I think that Memphis Minnie was in many ways often on the cutting edge of what was coming next in the blues. She was one of the eariest Country Blues player to be metrically consistent and to adhere strictly to the formal constraints of the 12-Bar Blues, with each bar consisting of 4 beats. More to the point of this discussion, she was early in her adopting of the shuffle feel. A quick listen to the old Blues Classic album, "Memphis Minnie, Vol. 2, Early Recordings with Kansas Joe McCoy" shows several shuffles, "New Bumble Bee", "Plymouth Rock", and "Memphis Minnie-jitis", in a program that also includes several songs with a straight eighth feel in cut time. Minnie's shuffle feel is a far cry from Blake's 12/8 feel. Blake's playing sounds like it could have accompanied a soft shoe dancer, whereas Minnie's feel is altogether more driving, for it is a more insistent four, landing very heavily on each beat. It really doesn't differ substantially from shuffles as played by modern electric blues players. If there is someone who recorded shuffles earlier than Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, I'd like to know who it was, but absent that information, it seems Minnie must be given the credit/blame for the present day continued popularity of the shuffle in the blues.
The playing of Lonnie Johnson, especially on his slow numbers, shows an approach to playing swung eighth notes at slow tempos that has survived into present day blues playing, as has Lonnie's practice of playing time relatively simply behind his singing and then launching into florid fills in between his vocal phrases. His signature run is a string of triplets. Just as Minnie's playing of shuffles has survived into present-day electric blues, so has Lonnie's approach to playing slow blues. It is essentially what B. B. King does (though B. B. stops playing altogether while singing).
Whether the ways that Blues musicians' playing of eight notes was in response to the wants and needs of dancers, or led the dancers' way, (which seems more likely in the case of innovators) once a feel had been established as the appropriate way to back the dancing people wanted to do, players who wanted to keep working needed either to honor the dancers' wishes with regard to groove or come up with something cool and catchy enough to be an acceptable substitute. Rhythmic innovation is no more common than melodic or harmonic innovation. There are plenty of strong players who are comfortable working in a pre-existing groove framework, but musicians like James Brown are unfortunately all too rare.
Are there other trail blazers out there in the Country Blues or people whose treatment of time worked at some odd remove from the other musicians of their era? I'd be interested to hear other thoughts on the topic.
All best,
Johnm
I've been thinking for a long time about how the character of the blues changed over time as the players' treatment of time evolved to address issues of musical fashion, new dance crazes and other related factors. Much of what determines a music's fundamental rhythmic feel is the first subdivision of a single beat: does the music divide the beat evenly, as in a straight eighth feel, or does the beat split unevenly, with the note falling on the beat getting two thirds of the beat and the + of the beat getting the remaining third of the beat, in a broken triplet or "swung eighth" feel?
Looking at the music of various musicians of the Pre-War generations of Country Blues musicians who recorded, you find some players who fall in the "straight eighth" camp, some players who play either straight or swung eighth notes, depending on the feel of the song being played, and probably some who worked exclusively in the "swung eight" camp, though I haven't identified any there yet.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, membership in the "straight eighth" camp is often found in older musicians, or musicians who had a strong pre-Blues element to their repertoire. Henry Thomas, Mississippi John Hurt, and Frank Stokes, for instance, at least on the basis of the recorded evidence, never played a swung eighth note in their lives. A factor in these musicians not swinging their eighth notes is their preference for a cut time (2/2) feel--they didn't play in a four-beats-to-the-measure feel. I know from teaching, that in our present "Post-shuffle Era", it is really tough for some people to play straight eighth notes, but without straight eighth notes, the rhythmic feel of these players can not be achieved.
Blind Blake played a lot of his music with straight eighths, though the tendency of many modern players (with the exception of Ari Eisinger) is to swing the eighth notes more than Blake did. The one area of Blake's repertoire where he consistently swung his eighth notes was on his medium tempo blues, like "Black Dog Blues" or "One Time Blues", where he swings his eights from beginning to end. Not coincidentally, all of these songs are played with a four feel, in 12/8, in which each measure has four beats, and each beat is divided into a triplet. When Blake launches into one of his long runs, he may, in fact, play several consecutive beats in which he hits all three notes of the beat's subdivision. More often, he is breaking up the pulse into 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +, and just swinging those eighth notes. Blake's approach to playing time on these songs in 12/8 does not seem forward-looking, though, for it did not survive into the next generation of players. Rather, it seems more of a relict of the Classic Blues era, and the small ensembles that backed the great female singers in that style.
Charlie Patton is a fascinating figure in this regard, as he was in so many others. Prior to his 1934 sessions, he recorded no songs with a swung eighth feel, but the 1934 sessions produced four songs on which Charlie swung his eighth notes: "34 Blues", "Poor Me", and "Yellow Bee" and "Mind Reader Blues", on which he backed Bertha Lee's vocals. Charlie's treatment is more forward-looking than was Blake's, and on "Yellow Bee" and "Mind Reader Blues", in particular, he is essentially playing shuffles.
I believe Charlie Patton's move into a swung eighth feel shows a musical indebtedness to the recordings of Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, who were recording shuffles as early as 1929. I think that Memphis Minnie was in many ways often on the cutting edge of what was coming next in the blues. She was one of the eariest Country Blues player to be metrically consistent and to adhere strictly to the formal constraints of the 12-Bar Blues, with each bar consisting of 4 beats. More to the point of this discussion, she was early in her adopting of the shuffle feel. A quick listen to the old Blues Classic album, "Memphis Minnie, Vol. 2, Early Recordings with Kansas Joe McCoy" shows several shuffles, "New Bumble Bee", "Plymouth Rock", and "Memphis Minnie-jitis", in a program that also includes several songs with a straight eighth feel in cut time. Minnie's shuffle feel is a far cry from Blake's 12/8 feel. Blake's playing sounds like it could have accompanied a soft shoe dancer, whereas Minnie's feel is altogether more driving, for it is a more insistent four, landing very heavily on each beat. It really doesn't differ substantially from shuffles as played by modern electric blues players. If there is someone who recorded shuffles earlier than Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, I'd like to know who it was, but absent that information, it seems Minnie must be given the credit/blame for the present day continued popularity of the shuffle in the blues.
The playing of Lonnie Johnson, especially on his slow numbers, shows an approach to playing swung eighth notes at slow tempos that has survived into present day blues playing, as has Lonnie's practice of playing time relatively simply behind his singing and then launching into florid fills in between his vocal phrases. His signature run is a string of triplets. Just as Minnie's playing of shuffles has survived into present-day electric blues, so has Lonnie's approach to playing slow blues. It is essentially what B. B. King does (though B. B. stops playing altogether while singing).
Whether the ways that Blues musicians' playing of eight notes was in response to the wants and needs of dancers, or led the dancers' way, (which seems more likely in the case of innovators) once a feel had been established as the appropriate way to back the dancing people wanted to do, players who wanted to keep working needed either to honor the dancers' wishes with regard to groove or come up with something cool and catchy enough to be an acceptable substitute. Rhythmic innovation is no more common than melodic or harmonic innovation. There are plenty of strong players who are comfortable working in a pre-existing groove framework, but musicians like James Brown are unfortunately all too rare.
Are there other trail blazers out there in the Country Blues or people whose treatment of time worked at some odd remove from the other musicians of their era? I'd be interested to hear other thoughts on the topic.
All best,
Johnm