History

Blues history dates back to the seventeenth century, in the US. The blues is defined as the folk genre of the black population. USA was a colony of England that brought slaves from Africa that mainly inhabited the south of the country.

These working on the plantations of snuff, cotton and rice, so they were not allowed to develop their religions and their families were separated. Blacks took the rhythmic core of its music and together with the harmonic and melodic of European music.

The first blues trying to be messages going from plantation to plantation to transmit news, but also showed that he was a slave. The religious came from another genre called Gospel, which is a kind of gospel music with African rituals, which require much vocal work.

The first instruments were rhythmic, then they began to use the banjo and acoustic guitar.

The initial structure of the blues was monotonous but then became harmonious, as it consisted of twelve bars in fourth and fifth ring.

The blue note is a false note in a scale of five notes, called penta tonic and is the most important because it is the sub-style that most influenced the music of white America.

The most recognized artists in this genre are BB King, Muddy Waters, Otis Redding.

Blues, symbol of sadness. Blues, history of slavery of a people. Blues, manifestation of a condition of life. Blues, a way to release feelings. Blues music.

The first instruments used

BANJO PRIMITIVE

This instrument was constructed with an elongated gourd which had been dried until it had hardness plastic. Had five cut a long plastic fishing line tied to the post of hollow wood mast served as the instrument strings. Four string stretched to the end of the stick, and the fifth was tied near the body of the instrument, with a shorter length uplifting tone. There was a hand-carved bridge that held the strings separated from the taut membrane goatskin covering the cut made with pumpkin, tongue Wolof instrument called Halam, in the language of African musicians that led south US, is named after Banjo.

Over time banjo suffered major change. For 1883, Banjo was Americanized. Skin membrane was now extended over a round frame, initially wood and metal later. The rounded handle was now replaced by a flat mast, and the short rope was attached to the side of the mast with pins, first of wood and in a drum and when changed, the pins and the ring that held metal braces were also to thread. In this way the instrument was more noisy and since the string could tighten again sounded in a higher pitch. He had become a banjo with metallic sound.

Banjo with the violin were becoming the most common instruments of southern plantations. And it was not definitively settle the instrument but the blues was instrumental in helping to develop the techniques that became part of the history of the blues. You may be considered as an intermediate stage between the music of the griots (Each language of South Africa has a different to designate "singer" word, but all of them use a more general term, griot) and of the first blues singers .

Part of the reason for the Banjo lost its central role in rural African American musical life is that many pieces of his repertoire had been assumed by white musicians and had been associated with the Minstrel shows (Variety Show with artists mostly white, which included songs and comedy routines, usually mockingly imitating blacks). We can also mention the changes in the instrument (the highest pitch and the tension of the strings, which could not produce a sustained note).

GUITAR

With the first guitar accompaniments there was another way to resolve the dilemma. The guitar moved to a high degree to Banjo and Fiddle, especially the former, whose use was uncommon among Blues singers.

The blues was primarily a vocal music and vocal quality required in certain instruments. The flexibility of the guitar satisfy this requirement. The tuning my-si-re-sol-la-mi standard was altered or detensioning tightening the ropes until the instrument was tuned to a rope. The results were very satisfactory.

With the first guitar accompaniments there was another way to play it. This was achieved with the slack key guitar, which were popular in the United States. Essentially, the guitar is tuned to an open chord and the melody is played by sliding a metal bar up and down the strings. This was the solution to a specific problem of blues which led to different tunings and styles of modern blues.

This technique was also known by the name of knife-song as a knife blade on the ropes he slipped, and the musician could get a plaintive sound like a human cry, or a field-holler. Although some players use this resource on an occasional basis, and other usually, the fact is that the technique is widespread, indicating a clear difference feels blues singer endowed with vocal sounds qualities.

While later with the development of the blues itself it was used a number of instruments (Pitcher and kazoo, which was replaced in the thirties by the low of a rope made from a washtub inverted or bucket butter pork, washboard (all these African percussion instruments), slide guitar, made of wire rope extended over a wood or wall of a house broom and when pressed, it sounded and slid one glass bottle along, played in the thirties and forties, many blues artists began in this way.) who gave the tone at the beginning of this genre.

Main representatives

B.B. King

During the decade of the 90's and in the 80 ', 70', 60 'and 50', has been only one King of the Blues - Riley B. King. Since BB started recording disk to late 40s, it has published over 50 albums many of them considered blues classics, as the album's definitive live blues history, published in 1965.

Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Itta Bene, Mississippi, just outside Indianola. He was used to playing in a corner of the Church of the Second Street for passengers and listeners come to play in four different villages in the same. With his guitar and two and a half dollars in his pocket, he decided to emigrate north to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1947 to pursue his musical career.

The first major outbreak of King in the world of music would come in early 1948 when tab for the radio show Sonny Boy Williamson on KWEM just outside Memphis. "King's Spot", sponsored by Pepticon a health tonic, became so popular that step last 10 minutes to over an hour and called "Sepia Swing Club."

B.B. He needed a catchy radio name. The first thing that happened was Beale Street Blues Boy (Boy Blues Veale Street) but decided to shorten it to fit Blues Boy King, and later BB King. Interestingly, the initial of its name is "B" nothing is not an abbreviation.

In the mid-50s while B.B. performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a group of fans began to exalt. Two men came to blows in the brawl and hit a kerosene stove, setting fire to the lobby. B.B. He decides to leave the premises for their own safety, like all her others, but then he realized he had left his guitar for $ 30 at that time within the enclosure, so without thinking twice ran to save their most precious treasure, saving miraculously death more likely. When later learned that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give his guitar with the same name.

A little later came his first number one, "Three O'Clock Blues," BB began touring nationwide, and since then has never stopped, making an average of 275 concerts a year. From small circuits in the village cafes, theaters ghetto, even in dance halls across the country, from local road even in jazz clubs, rock palaces, halls for symphony orchestras, concerts in conservatories, halls of both international prestige and national BB He has become renowned blues musician and known of the past 40 years.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the fastest styles are identified worldwide. He took loans from different artists like Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, etc. and he joined with his stunning voice, bendings and his left hand vibrato, these systems still play the guitar vocabulary indispensable components of any rock guitarist. Its economy of notes, each and every one of the notes account and has to express something, has been a model for thousands of instrumentalists, including Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Jeff Beck.

In his 40 years as a musician, the awards have been multiple, the list would take us several pages, but most important highlight as eight Grammy Awards and his investiture in the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Rocll Hall of Fame. In short, we face one of the great beasts of the blues, black music and general music of all time, comparable to Elvis, John Lennon, Prince or Michael Jackson and has yet to enter into life in the history of modern music.

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters) was born in Rolling Fork (Mississippi). He will spend the first years of his life on a plantation, until, in 1943, moved to Chicago. There, his also-musician-friend Bill Broonzy Bill introduces in music clubs in the city, where he soon begins to act.

In 1945, the Chess brothers hired him for his record, Aristocrat Records, where he began working as accompanist for other artists. In 1948 she released her first album: I Can not Be Satisfied. Followed Screamin 'and Cryin' and Rollin 'and Tumblin'. In 1950, the seal renamed Chess Records. The change brings luck to Muddy Waters since their first recording with the new album, Rollin 'Stone, will become a classic.

During the next eight years, his name reached repeatedly, the top of the R & B charts, thanks to compositions as She Moves Me, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy or I've Got My Mojo Working. It becomes a cult figure. Over time, their songs will be sung by the Rolling Stones (who take their name inspired by his song), The Band or Elvis Presley.

In the mid-sixties, his figure, promoted by groups that are part of the "British Invasion" takes on mythic proportions. In 1968 records, along with Bo Diddley and Howlin Wolf, the disc The Super Blues Band. In 1976, it is one of the biggest stars of the farewell concert of The Band. In 1978, he works in the White House at the request of Jimmy Carter.

He died on April 30, 1983, after suffering a heart attack at his home in Chicago.

The Blues is alive! Rural Blues

When talking to many blues guitarists like Eric Clapton virtuous imagine playing improvised solos inspired on a repetitive basis and sad music. Why they are surprised when they realize that this musical style has an absolutely folk origin, far from the distorted electric guitars. Sometimes sad sounds and other happy, rural blues began to be recorded from 1923 and black musicians were teachers who drew this language, which later rock musicians would throw hand again and again for inspiration.

Otis Redding

Born in Dawson, Ga., Otis Redding, Jr. and his family moved to Macon when he was five years old. At an early age he began his career as a singer and musician in the choir of the Vineville Baptist Church. Otis attended Ballard Hudson High School and participated in the school band. He began to compete in the Douglass Theatre talent shows for the five-dollar prize. After winning 15 times straight, he was no longer allowed to compete.

Otis joined Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers in 1960, and would also sing at the “Teenage Party” talent shows sponsored by local celebrity disc jockey King Bee, Hamp Swain, on Saturday mornings initially at the Roxy Theater and later at the Douglass Theatre in Macon.

Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers drove to Memphis, Tenn., for a recording session in October 1962 at Stax Record. At the end of the session, Stax co-owner Jim Stewart allowed Otis to cut a couple of songs with the remaining studio time. The result was "These Arms of Mine", released in 1962. This...

..was the first of many hit singles (including classics "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Respect" and "Try A Little Tenderness") that Redding enjoyed during his tragically short career. After nine months, he was invited to perform at the Apollo Theatre for a live recording and would go on to showcase his dance movements with "Shake" and "Satisfaction."

After years of ambition and drive, Otis Redding’s sacrifices paid off. He appeared throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean. His concert tours were among the biggest box office smashes of any touring performer during his time. He was nominated in three categories by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) for recordings he made during 1967. 1968 was destined to be the greatest year of his career with appearances slated at such locations at New York’s Philharmonic Hall and Washington’s Constitution Hall. Redding was booked for several major television network appearances, including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Show.

He was posthumously inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1999, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.

In 1970, Warner Brothers released an album of live recordings from the June, 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, featuring Otis Redding on one side, and Jimi Hendrix on the other. This record is evidence that the hip white audiences, better known as the “love crowd” were digging Otis Redding just as much as the black audiences for whom he had always played. His energy and excitement, his showmanship, and his relationship with the crowd made Redding a master as a performer who had the rare gift of being able to reach audiences the world over.

THE SONG - It was unlike anything Redding had ever written, influenced by his admiration for the Beatles' classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. Otis played The Beatles' album constantly during a week he had spent on a houseboat in Sausalito when performing at...

.San Francisco’s Fillmore West Theater in the summer of 1967. Just sitting’ on the dock, looking out at the bay, it’s easy to see where Otis got the inspiration for the song, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay”.

It had a lilt, memorable hook, and a great story. While it was typical of Redding’s previous recordings, it signaled his creative expansion as a writer and artist. That song became Otis Redding’s biggest worldwide hit and signature. This was Otis’ final recording before the plane crash that took his life in Dec. 1967. In September 1987, Atlantic Records released “The Otis Redding Story”, a two volume record set featuring Otis’ most unique and rare hits, such as “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” “Respect,” “Pain In My Heart,” “Satisfaction” and of course “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay.”

Above all, Otis was a family man. He met his wife Zelma Atwood, in 1959 and they married in Aug. 1961. Together they have four children: Dexter, Karla, Otis III, and Demetria, who was adopted after Otis' death. His family was close to his heart and soul. In 1965, he moved them into...

..a spacious 300-acre property, “The Big O Ranch” in Round Oak, Ga., affectionately named after “The Big O” himself.

Zelma has carried on as the family matriarch and continued to rear their children to successful adulthood in honor of her late husband. Sons Dexter and Otis, III. are active music producers and songwriters, both traveling internationally. Dexter, who resides in Jacksonville, FL also is a co-partner in 2 food franchise operations. Karla is a successful and influential entrepreneur having founded and formerly managed Karla’s Shoe Boutique with her mother and partner, in downtown Macon for almost 20 years. Today she is the project director for the Otis Redding Foundation, established in memory of her father. Zelma is executrix over the Redding Estate, where she along with Karla manages daily requests for songs in commercials, music sampling, the use of Otis' name and image, the Otis Redding Memorial Fund and the Scholarship Foundation. Demetria is a public health administrator in Macon, GA.

As president of Redwal Music Co., Inc., Otis was very active in the company’s operation and was directly responsible for the company’s leadership in the music publishing field. To date, the company has copyrighted over 200 commercially successful songs and published many songs that have sold in excess of one million copies each.

The idea that music could be a universal force, bringing together different races and cultures, was central to Otis’ personal philosophy and reflected in his everyday life. At a time when it may not have been considered politically correct, Redding had a white manager, Phil Walden, and a racially mixed band. He took care of business, setting up his own publishing and record label, Jotis Records, making unprecedented moves for a black artist in the '60s. While it was not Otis' prime motivation, he was seen as a role model by blacks. He was someone who got paid, and paid well...without the usual horror stories of being ripped off by promoters, agents, managers, or record company executives.

Otis Redding’s prowess as a businessman led him to form his own label, Jotis records, in 1965. In addition to his many business interests in fields related to music, he was engaged in other business interests in his native state such as real estate, investments, stocks, and bonds. HIs business acumen meant that Otis knew how to earn and invest his money, unlike some of the other soul artists of the ’60s.

In addition to the 300-acre Big-O Ranch, complete with a two-story brick home, livestock and a three and a half acre lake with fish, Redding acquired a private plane. It was this twin-engine Beechcraft that he was riding on that tragic day, December 10, 1967 when it crashed into Lake Monona in Madison Wisconsin. The world lost a great musician and a great man on that day.

His music and his legacy, however, live on.