The Social Significance of the Blues and its Impact on Jazz
The Social Significance of the Blues and its Impact on Jazz To understand the part played by the blues in American society, we need to consider what psychological imprints the blacks inherited from the years of slavery as well as what cultural and artistic forms existed during those times. The spirituals, plantation songs, work songs, banjo music, fiddle tunes and dances. All these elements were present, and to understand how and why the blues emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, we must first look at the society of slavery. In 1661 the colony of Virginia legalized slavery and the other colonies soon followed. At the time of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the Northern states declared slavery illegal, but the South did not. The wealth of the Southern land owners depended on it, as did the prosperity of the slave traders of Bistrol and Liverpool. When the slave trade was officially abolished in 1807, the Southern states virtually ignored it and illicit trade continued. The ban had the effect of increasing the value of slaves and breeding was intensified. It was the American Civil War of 1861-1865 which finally dealt the death blow to slavery in the South. Torn from their own environment,
The lives of all black people in America have been fundamentally shaped by the social experience of slavery. There wasn't any formal means of communication among the slaves in the fields, so as a form of communication and comfort they would sing. The memory of enforced servitude in the past has molded attitudes and feelings in the present and has conditioned the black Americans stance in the world. Slaves never sang what is now called the blues, and the term was not used in reference to their music. Although there were many regional differences in the way blues began to be sung, there were also certain recurring, soon "classical" blues verses and techniques that turned up in a great many places simply because a man had been there from Georgia, Louisiana or South Carolina and had shown the locals what his town produced. " That same period also saw the early glimmerings of jazz and blues, both of which had much to do with ragtime, and all of which had a lot to do with black folk culture. Even though New Orleans cannot be thought of with any historical veracity as "the birthplace of jazz," there has been so much investigation of jazz and earlier music characteristics there during the first part of the twentieth century, that from New Orleans conclusions may be drawn concerning the social and cultural phenomena that led to the creation of jazz. terrified and bewildered, the survivors of the Atlantic crossing brought with them what little they could of their own way of life. When primitive or country blues began to be influenced by instruments, it was the 3. When they finally did take up the brass instruments for strictly instrumental blues or jazz, the players still persisted on singing during the "breaks. By the late 1890's the world of entertainment was beginning to absorb a new music emerging from the black culture. Many investigators on the history of jazz say that it began in New Orleans and worked its way up the river into Chicago. The first great soloist of jazz, Louis Armstrong, was a formidable blues singer, as was the great jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton. guitar that had the greatest effect on the singers.
Common topics in this essay:
South Torn,
Chicago Jazz,
Impact Jazz,
South Carolina,
Roll Morton,
African Americans,
Bistrol Liverpool,
War Independence,
Civil War,
Louis Armstrong,
country blues,
blues jazz,
form music,
jazz players,
blues singer,
civil war,
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