Intuitive Music

Blues, along with jazz music, gave birth to most of the forthcoming music styles of the 20th Century. The origins of blues can be found in the oral tradition of chanting that was brought by the African slaves to the southern United Stated. Blues was born in the North Mississippi Delta and Georgia. The first hints about the existence of blues are from 1900, but the first blues recordings were not done until the early 20’s. Being the music one of the few ways of cultural expression and joy for the slaves in the cotton fields, they kept their musical tradition in the shape of spiritual chants. These songs, which are characterised by the use of the repetition of three chords, developed in different styles to talk about daily issues as well as express the deepest feelings of the black American people. Some of the first blues artists who recorded were singers such as Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Ida Cox, and Gertrude Rainey. The blues tradition of singing a line and answering to it with a guitar line developed by some of the best guitar players, authors, and singers in the history of modern music. W.C. Handy was the first artist to arrange and record blues music with an orchestra in the early 20th Century. He was one of the first authors to make blues music popular. Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly were also two of the most popular blues artists of this period. The folk singer Jimmie Rogers was the first white artist to play blues. He was responsible of taking blues to a wide white audience.

Blues music was a main key for the birth of rock & roll in the 50’s. Sun Records was one of the most important blues labels prior to that and the first one to record rock and roll artists. During these decades a great part of the black population in the US moved to the big cities. The rhythm became faster by the hand of artists like Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner, and Louis Jordan, giving birth to rhythm and blues in Chicago.

During the early 60’s blues arrived to England and became popular by the hand of Alexis Korner, Cyril Davies in London clubs like The Marquee. A new generation of white young British artists got bewitched by rhythm and blues, including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Byrds, Joe Cocker, The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, The Faces, Manfred Mann, and The Pretty Things. In the meantime, in the US new artists gave new breath to the style like Janis Joplin and Johny Winter. Today blues is still influencing a generation of electronic and dance artists like Namosh, Squarepusher, DJ Rupture, and Fatboy Slim.

Some other essential blues artists through in history are Willie Dixon, Charlie Patton, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson, Ray Charles, Chuck Willis, Bobby Bland, T-Bone Walker, and Floyd Dixon.