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100-918: Canadian independent record label, [REDACTED] This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:   "NorthernBlues Music"  –  news   · newspapers   · books   · scholar   · JSTOR ( December 2012 ) ( Learn how and when to remove this message ) Record label NorthernBlues Music Founded 2001 Founder Fred Litwin Genre Blues Country of origin Canada Location Toronto , Ontario Official website NorthernBlues Music official website NorthernBlues Music

200-597: A Guitar World featured CD, Guitar Masters Vol. 2 , among B.B. King , Jimmy Page , Jeff Beck and Carlos Santana . The Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail referred to Jones as "one of this country's top blues guitar stars". The US Blues Revue magazine' stated that "Jones' style is a fluid amalgam of T-Bone Walker 's big, bright chords, Johnny "Guitar" Watson 's slashing leads, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown 's jazzy sting". Billboard called Jones part of "a new wave of young talent moving onto Canada’s blues stage." Charlie Musselwhite stated, "JW Jones

300-495: A British usage of the 1600s referring to the "intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal". As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils and came to mean a state of agitation or depression. By the 1800s in the United States, the term "blues" was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase ' blue law ', which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. In 1827, it

400-484: A banjo or guitar. Regional styles of country blues varied widely in the early 20th century. The (Mississippi) Delta blues was a rootsy sparse style with passionate vocals accompanied by slide guitar. The little-recorded Robert Johnson combined elements of urban and rural blues. In addition to Robert Johnson, influential performers of this style included his predecessors Charley Patton and Son House . Singers such as Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller performed in

500-415: A break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords. Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. The use of the harmonic seventh interval is characteristic of blues and is popularly called the "blues seven". Blues seven chords add to the harmonic chord

600-567: A center for electric blues from 1948 on, when Muddy Waters recorded his first success, "I Can't Be Satisfied". Chicago blues is influenced to a large extent by Delta blues , because many performers had migrated from the Mississippi region. Howlin' Wolf , Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Jimmy Reed were all born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Their style

700-399: A component of R&B. After World War II, new styles of electric blues became popular in cities such as Chicago , Memphis , Detroit and St. Louis . Electric blues used electric guitars , double bass (gradually replaced by bass guitar ), drums , and harmonica (or "blues harp") played through a microphone and a PA system or an overdriven guitar amplifier . Chicago became

800-497: A guest appearance with Jones at Blues On Whyte in Edmonton , Alberta, on May 27, 2017. The appearance led to radio interviews with Edmonton's Sonic 1029 and The Ryan Jespersen Show ( Global News - 630 CHED) On November 12, 2017, Buddy Guy sang with JW-Jones at Buddy Guy's Legends, and told him "I love the way you play, man" during the appearance. This was the sixth time they have performed together on stage. 'High Temperature'

900-610: A movement known as the Great Migration . The long boom following World War II induced another massive migration of the African-American population, the Second Great Migration , which was accompanied by a significant increase of the real income of the urban blacks. The new migrants constituted a new market for the music industry. The term race record , initially used by the music industry for African-American music,

1000-456: A note with a frequency in a 7:4 ratio to the fundamental note. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval on the conventional Western diatonic scale . For convenience or by necessity it is often approximated by a minor seventh interval or a dominant seventh chord . In melody , blues is distinguished by the use of the flattened third , fifth and seventh of the associated major scale . Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce

1100-594: A part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson 's " Cross Road Blues " as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua , the orisha in charge of the crossroads". However, the Christian influence was far more obvious. The repertoires of many seminal blues artists, such as Charley Patton and Skip James , included religious songs or spirituals. Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music, although their lyrics clearly belong to spirituals. The blues form

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1200-569: A part of ragtime; Handy's signature work was the " Saint Louis Blues ". In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African American and American popular music, also reaching white audiences via Handy's arrangements and the classic female blues performers. These female performers became perhaps the first African American "superstars", and their recording sales demonstrated "a huge appetite for records made by and for black people." The blues evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theaters. Blues performances were organized by

1300-419: A recording career that began in 1926 and spanned forty years. These recordings were typically labeled " race records " to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. These blueswomen's contributions to the genre included "increased improvisation on melodic lines, unusual phrasing which altered

1400-573: A salute to the region’s young business stars who balance business achievement, professional expertise and community involvement. "Belmont Boulevard" was released on October 14 and is Jones's first release for the American blues label Blind Pig Records , recorded in Nashville with the Grammy Award winning producer Tom Hambridge . It debuted at #9 on Billboard' s Blues Charts on November 8, 2014. The disc

1500-406: A separate genre arose during the black migration from the countryside to urban areas in the 1920s and the simultaneous development of the recording industry. Blues became a code word for a record designed to sell to black listeners. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of Afro-American community, the spirituals . The origins of spirituals go back much further than

1600-494: A single line repeated four times. However, the most common structure of blues lyrics today was established in the first few decades of the 20th century, known as the "AAB" pattern. This structure consists of a line sung over the first four bars, its repetition over the next four, and a longer concluding line over the last bars. This pattern can be heard in some of the first published blues songs, such as " Dallas Blues " (1912) and " Saint Louis Blues " (1914). According to W.C. Handy ,

1700-502: A tune called 'Batyology'!" (an instrumental that Jones wrote in homage to Baty). The Canadian-born Hollywood actor Dan Aykroyd , who is also known for his Blues Brothers persona " Elwood Blues " has called the group an "amazing blues band". Chuck Leavell , a member of the Rolling Stones , wrote "His evolution as a musician and vocalist shine through on this record like never before. Real songs, real playing by real people, and JW

1800-463: A wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock developed, which blended blues styles with rock music . The term 'Blues' may have originated from "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness. An early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman 's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). The phrase 'blue devils' may also have been derived from

1900-449: Is a cyclic musical form in which a repeating progression of chords mirrors the call and response scheme commonly found in African and African-American music. During the first decades of the 20th century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a particular chord progression. With the popularity of early performers, such as Bessie Smith , use of the twelve-bar blues spread across

2000-4975: Is a Canadian independent record label , which specializes in blues music . The label was established in 2001, and a number of its artists and albums have since been nominated for and won Blues Music Awards . President Fred Litwin founded the company to "add substantially to the blues repertoire" with interesting, original music. Artists [ edit ] Carlos del Junco Doug Cox Eddie Turner Homemade Jamz Blues Band JW-Jones Blues Band Mem Shannon Moreland and Arbuckle Paul Reddick Samuel James The Twisters Watermelon Slim Zac Harmon Releases [ edit ] Releases by NorthernBlues Music Date No. Artist Title Remarks 6 March 2001 NBM0001 JW-Jones Blues Band Defibrillatin' 6 March 2001 NBM0002 Otis Taylor White African 31 July 2001 NBM0005 Paul Reddick and The Sidemen Rattlebag 6 November 2001 NBM0006 Archie Edwards The Toronto Sessions 2 April 2002 NBM0007 Otis Taylor Respect The Dead 18 June 2002 NBM0010 JW-Jones Blues Band Bogart's Bounce 4 June 2002 NBM0012 David Jacobs Strain Stuck On The Way Back 1 October 2002 NBM0013 NorthernBlues Gospel Allstars Saved! 4 February 2003 NBM0014 Harry Manx/Kevin Breit Jubilee 20 May 2003 NBM0015 James Cohen High Side of Lowdown 17 June 2003 NBM0016 Tony Lynn Washington Been So Long 15 July 2003 NBM0017 Various Artists Johnny's Blues: A Tribute to Johnny Cash 7 October 2003 NBM0500 Various Artists Beautiful: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot 2 September 2003 NBM0018 Glamourpuss Wine and Wood 2 March 2004 NBM0019 Taxi Chain Smarten Up 20 April 2004 NBM0020 John and The Sisters John and The Sisters 18 May 2004 NBM0021 JW-Jones Blues Band My Kind of Evil 7 September 2004 NBM0022 Janiva Magness Bury Him At The Crossroads 5 October 2004 NBM0023 Dan Treanor and Frankie Lee African Wind 7 September 2004 NBM0024 David Jacobs Strain Ocean Or A Teardrop 7 October 2004 NBM0025 Paul Reddick Villanelle 8 February 2005 NBM0026 Carlos del Junco Blues Mongrel 8 February 2005 NBM0027 Eddie Turner Rise 17 May 2005 NBM0028 Chris Beard Live Wire 19 April 2005 NBM0029 Mem Shannon I'm From Phunkville 13 September 2005 NBM0011 Brian Blain Overqualified For The Blues 12 July 2005 NBM0030 Doug Cox and Sam Hurrie Hungry Ghosts NBM0031 Glamourpuss Bluesman's Prayer 14 February 2006 NBM0032 Watermelon Slim And The Workers Untitled 7 March 2006 NBM0033 Janiva Magness Do I Move You? 15 August 2006 NBM0034 The Sisters Euclid (Kevin Breit) Run Neil Run 18 April 2006 NBM0035 JW-Jones Blues Band Kissing In 29 Days 6 June 2006 NBM0036 Eddie Turner The Turner Diaries October 2006 NBM0037 The Twisters After The Storm 17 April 2007 NBM0038 Watermelon Slim The Wheelman 17 April 2007 NBM0039 Dog Cox and Salil Bhatt Slide To Freedom 22 May 2007 NBM0040 Paul Reddick Revue 10 July 2007 NBM0041 Mem Shannon Live: A Night At Tipitina's 4 September 2007 NBM0042 Mason Casey Sofa King Badass 1 April 2008 NBM0043 Samuel James Songs Famed For Sorrow And Joy 18 March 2008 NBM0044 Moreland And Arbuckle 1861 13 May 2008 NBM0046 JW-Jones Blueslisted 24 June 2008 NBM0047 Watermelon Slim No Paid Holidays 10 June 2008 NBM0048 The Homemade Jamz Blues Band Pay Me No Mind 19 August 2008 NBM0300 Various Artists The Future Of The Blues: Volume III 2 September 2008 NBM0051 Carlos del Junco Steady Movin' 14 October 2008 NBM0050 Paul Reddick SugarBird April 2009 NBM0052 Zac Harmon From

2100-522: Is characterized by the use of electric guitar, sometimes slide guitar, harmonica, and a rhythm section of bass and drums. The saxophonist J. T. Brown played in bands led by Elmore James and by J. B. Lenoir , but the saxophone was used as a backing instrument for rhythmic support more than as a lead instrument. JW-Jones Jones' first recording contract was signed with CrossCut Records (Germany) in 2000, who released his first seven CDs in Europe. He

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2200-492: Is different from Wikidata Articles needing additional references from December 2012 All articles needing additional references Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated amongst African-Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals , work songs , field hollers , shouts , chants , and rhymed simple narrative ballads from

2300-709: Is often associated with solo piano, boogie-woogie was also used to accompany singers and, as a solo part, in bands and small combos. Boogie-woogie style was characterized by a regular bass figure, an ostinato or riff and shifts of level in the left hand, elaborating each chord and trills and decorations in the right hand. Boogie-woogie was pioneered by the Chicago-based Jimmy Yancey and the Boogie-Woogie Trio ( Albert Ammons , Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis ). Chicago boogie-woogie performers included Clarence "Pine Top" Smith and Earl Hines , who "linked

2400-491: Is often associated with the California blues style, performed a successful transition from the early urban blues à la Lonnie Johnson and Leroy Carr to the jump blues style and dominated the blues-jazz scene at Los Angeles during the 1940s. The transition from country blues to urban blues that began in the 1920s was driven by the successive waves of economic crisis and booms that led many rural blacks to move to urban areas, in

2500-400: Is one of the best guitar players I’ve heard in a long time. He and his band do great tunes with cool arrangements and I love listening to them. They play with taste and fire at the same time." The guitarist Little Charlie Baty has said, "JW is one of the young guns in the blues guitar world who consistently delivers the goods on record and on stage - and of course I'm gonna dig anybody who writes

2600-503: Is the real deal" in the liner notes for the JW-Jones release 'High Temperature'. Jones started as a drummer and was invited to sit in with Mississippi blues artist Big Jack Johnson, New Orleans artist Jumpin' Johnny Sansone, and Ottawa musician Tony D. among others. As a guitarist and singer, Jones, who attended Ridgemont High School in Ottawa, Ontario, won the 1998 R&R Concerts "Battle of

2700-511: The African-American culture . The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz , rhythm and blues , and rock and roll , and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale , and specific chord progressions , of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch , are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce

2800-475: The American South sometimes referred to as a jitterbug or a one-string in the early twentieth century) and the banjo are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. The banjo seems to be directly imported from West African music. It is similar to the musical instrument that griots and other Africans such as

2900-573: The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee where the band took first place in the band category. Jones also won 'Best Guitarist" honours. On August 14, 2020, Jones released his 11th album "Sonic Departures" which was partially recorded during COVID-19 lockdown and features a 13 piece horn section. The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard Blues charts and is nominated for Recording/Producer of

3000-590: The Count Basie Orchestra were also concentrating on the blues, with 12-bar blues instrumentals such as Basie's " One O'Clock Jump " and " Jumpin' at the Woodside " and boisterous " blues shouting " by Jimmy Rushing on songs such as "Going to Chicago" and " Sent for You Yesterday ". A well-known big band blues tune is Glenn Miller 's " In the Mood ". In the 1940s, the jump blues style developed. Jump blues grew up from

3100-548: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 : Backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time I said, backwater rising, Southern peoples can't make no time And I can't get no hearing from that Memphis girl of mine Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the lyrics could also be humorous and raunchy: Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me, It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying

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3200-579: The Igbo played (called halam or akonting by African peoples such as the Wolof , Fula and Mandinka ). However, in the 1920s, when country blues began to be recorded, the use of the banjo in blues music was quite marginal and limited to individuals such as Papa Charlie Jackson and later Gus Cannon . Blues music also adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals , including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment. The style also

3300-741: The Theater Owners Booking Association in nightclubs such as the Cotton Club and juke joints such as the bars along Beale Street in Memphis. Several record companies, such as the American Record Corporation , Okeh Records , and Paramount Records , began to record African-American music. As the recording industry grew, country blues performers like Bo Carter , Jimmie Rodgers , Blind Lemon Jefferson , Lonnie Johnson , Tampa Red and Blind Blake became more popular in

3400-409: The degrees of the progression. For instance, for a blues in the key of C, C is the tonic chord (I) and F is the subdominant (IV). The last chord is the dominant (V) turnaround , marking the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as

3500-468: The "AAB" pattern was adopted to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times. The lyrics are often sung in a rhythmic talk style rather than a melody, resembling a form of talking blues . Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. African-American singers voiced their "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times". This melancholy has led to

3600-414: The "Keyboardist [Pierre] Chretien [on organ and piano] is credited with bringing a jazz influence to Jones' and the band's sound" during that time period. The CD liner notes say that Steve Hiscox played drums on the album and Nathan Morris played upright bass. Morris played on several subsequent albums and played and toured with the band. On subsequent albums, Morris is also credited for electric bass. In

3700-438: The 1920s, among them "the big three"— Gertrude "Ma" Rainey , Bessie Smith , and Lucille Bogan . Mamie Smith , more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African American to record a blues song, in 1920; her second record, "Crazy Blues", sold 75,000 copies in its first month. Ma Rainey, the "Mother of Blues", and Bessie Smith each "[sang] around center tones, perhaps in order to project her voice more easily to

3800-428: The 1920s, when the record industry created the marketing categories " race music " and " hillbilly music " to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. At the time, there was no clear musical division between "blues" and "country", except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that was sometimes documented incorrectly by record companies. Though musicologists can now attempt to define

3900-459: The 2000s, Jones was invited to perform on stage with a number of blues bands and artists, including The Fabulous Thunderbirds , Junior Watson , Little Charlie & the Nightcats , Rusty Zinn , Rick Holmstrom , Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers , Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets , The Mannish Boys and Hubert Sumlin . Jones' second album was Bogart's Bounce , which included performances by

4000-451: The 9-bar progression in " Sitting on Top of the World ", by Walter Vinson . The basic 12-bar lyric framework of many blues compositions is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of 12 bars in a 4/4 time signature . The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a 12-bar scheme. They are labeled by Roman numbers referring to

4100-601: The African American community. Kentucky-born Sylvester Weaver was in 1923 the first to record the slide guitar style, in which a guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle. The slide guitar became an important part of the Delta blues . The first blues recordings from the 1920s are categorized as a traditional, rural country blues and a more polished city or urban blues. Country blues performers often improvised, either without accompaniment or with only

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4200-520: The African call-and-response tradition that transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar, the blues form itself bears no resemblance to the melodic styles of the West African griots . Additionally, there are theories that the four-beats-per-measure structure of the blues might have its origins in the Native American tradition of pow wow drumming. Some scholars identify strong influences on

4300-515: The Bands", at the age of eighteen. The prize package included studio time that was used to record a six song demo that was later reviewed by Blues Revue . The next year, Jones won the 1999 Ottawa Blues Guitar Riff-Off competition. The prize package included studio time that was used to record his first album, Defibrillatin (SBR001-2000 / NBM0001-2001). The album included Steve Marriner , a then-high-school-age Ottawa blues harp player. AllMusic states that

4400-859: The Crossroads - Janiva Magness : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards" . AllMusic . Retrieved 2012-12-05 . ^ Horowitz, Hal (2006-03-07). "Do I Move You? - Janiva Magness : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards" . AllMusic . Retrieved 2012-12-05 . External links [ edit ] NorthernBlues Music Official Site Authority control databases [REDACTED] International VIAF Other MusicBrainz label Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NorthernBlues_Music&oldid=1155453984 " Categories : Canadian independent record labels Blues record labels Record labels established in 2001 Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

4500-655: The RBC Ottawa Bluesfest on July 14, 2013. Jones was asked to co-host the Maple Blues Awards in Toronto on January 20, 2014, which took place mid-way through a tour with Johnny Winter . Jones opened for Jimmie Vaughan in May that year. On June 19, 2014, Jones was presented with a Forty Under 40 Award by Ottawa Business Journal /Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. It is the biggest and best celebration of entrepreneurship in Ottawa,

4600-786: The Root March 2009 NBM0053 Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt Slide to Freedom 2 June 9, 2009 NBM0055 Homemad Jamz Blues Band I Got Blues For You July 2009 NBM0054 Watermelon Slim Escape from the Chicken Coop September 2009 NBM0056 Samuel James For Rosa, Maeve and Noreen June 2010 NBM0059 Watermelon Slim Ringers July 2010 NBM0057 Eddie Turner Miracles & Demons See also [ edit ] List of record labels References [ edit ] ^ Nickson, Chris (2004-09-07). "Bury Him at

4700-470: The USA, Europe, United Kingdom, Russia, Australia and Brazil. On June 19, 2014, Jones was presented with a Forty Under 40 Award by Ottawa Business Journal /Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. It is a celebration of entrepreneurship in Ottawa - a "salute to the region’s young business stars who balance business achievement, professional expertise and community involvement." In May 2009, Jones' song "Parasomnia" appeared on

4800-626: The Year at the Maple Blues Awards happening in February 2021. On February 1, 2021, Jones won Best Jazz/Blues Artist at the Ottawa Awards. In February 2022, Jones won Best Jazz/Blues Artist at the Ottawa Awards for the second year in a row. On August 15, 2022, Jimmie Vaughan recorded with Jones, produced by Gordie Johnson ( Big Sugar ) in Austin, Texas. In February 2023, Jones won Best Jazz/Blues Artist at

4900-561: The album have been played on the internationally syndicated House of Blues Radio Hour . The music reviewer Brad Wheeler from Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper praised the "graceful ability he (Jones) shows on guitar" in the album. Wheeler wrote, "...the Ottawa player makes retro moves, layering swinging blues with keyboards and very noticeable horns that never dominate the fine-lined fills and lead work." The Allmusic review of My Kind of Evil , by Chris Nickson, says, "He's very good on covers, such as "I Don't Know," but his own songs —

5000-420: The back of a room". Smith would "sing a song in an unusual key, and her artistry in bending and stretching notes with her beautiful, powerful contralto to accommodate her own interpretation was unsurpassed". In 1920, the vaudeville singer Lucille Hegamin became the second black woman to record blues when she recorded "The Jazz Me Blues", and Victoria Spivey , sometimes called Queen Victoria or Za Zu Girl, had

5100-467: The band Little Charlie & the Nightcats, which records on Alligator Records ), Junior Watson , Richard Innes and Larry Taylor . The liner notes are written by Dan Aykroyd. On May 6, 2009, Hubert Sumlin (then 77), a blues guitarist who worked with Howlin' Wolf for more than 20 years and was named in the 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, recorded with JW-Jones at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The rhythm section

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5200-591: The band for the fourth time in seven months, at his club on November 15, 2015. On July 17, 2015, Canned Heat invited Jones to perform during their set at Ottawa Bluesfest in Ottawa, and on September 12, 2015, invited Jones to perform during their set at Southside Shuffle Jazz & Blues Festival in Mississauga , Ontario , In Mar/Apr 2016, Jones performed in England, Scotland, and Wales, on his first UK Tour. On September 6, Guy sang with JW-Jones at Buddy Guy's Legends,

5300-544: The beginning of the 20th century. They are now lost. Other recordings that are still available were made in 1924 by Lawrence Gellert . Later, several recordings were made by Robert W. Gordon , who became head of the Archive of American Folk Songs of the Library of Congress . Gordon's successor at the library was John Lomax . In the 1930s, Lomax and his son Alan made a large number of non-commercial blues recordings that testify to

5400-441: The blues are also closely related to the religious music of the African-American community, the spirituals . The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery , with the development of juke joints occurring later. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music

5500-647: The blues from the melodic structures of certain West African musical styles of the savanna and sahel. Lucy Durran finds similarities with the melodies of the Bambara people , and to a lesser degree, the Soninke people and Wolof people , but not as much of the Mandinka people . Gerard Kubik finds similarities to the melodic styles of both the west African savanna and central Africa, both of which were sources of enslaved people. No specific African musical form can be identified as

5600-568: The blues in the same year in Missouri ; and W.C. Handy , who first heard the blues in Tutwiler, Mississippi , in 1903. The first extensive research in the field was performed by Howard W. Odum , who published an anthology of folk songs from Lafayette County, Mississippi , and Newton County, Georgia , between 1905 and 1908. The first non-commercial recordings of blues music, termed proto-blues by Paul Oliver , were made by Odum for research purposes at

5700-460: The blues is usually dated after the Emancipation Act of 1863 , between 1860s and 1890s, a period that coincides with post- emancipation and later, the establishment of juke joints as places where African-Americans went to listen to music, dance, or gamble after a hard day's work. This period corresponds to the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production, and

5800-516: The blues narrowly in terms of certain chord structures and lyric forms thought to have originated in West Africa, audiences originally heard the music in a far more general way: it was simply the music of the rural south, notably the Mississippi Delta . Black and white musicians shared the same repertoire and thought of themselves as " songsters " rather than blues musicians. The notion of blues as

5900-411: The blues, usually dating back to the middle of the 18th century, when the slaves were Christianized and began to sing and play Christian hymns , in particular those of Isaac Watts , which were very popular. Before the blues gained its formal definition in terms of chord progressions, it was defined as the secular counterpart of spirituals. It was the low-down music played by rural blacks. Depending on

6000-479: The boogie-woogie wave and was strongly influenced by big band music. It uses saxophone or other brass instruments and the guitar in the rhythm section to create a jazzy, up-tempo sound with declamatory vocals. Jump blues tunes by Louis Jordan and Big Joe Turner , based in Kansas City, Missouri , influenced the development of later styles such as rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Dallas-born T-Bone Walker , who

6100-479: The emphasis and impact of the lyrics, and vocal dramatics using shouts, groans, moans, and wails. The blues women thus effected changes in other types of popular singing that had spin-offs in jazz, Broadway musicals , torch songs of the 1930s and 1940s, gospel , rhythm and blues , and eventually rock and roll ." Urban male performers included popular black musicians of the era, such as Tampa Red , Big Bill Broonzy and Leroy Carr . An important label of this era

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6200-429: The expansion of railroads in the southern United States. Several scholars characterize the development of blues music in the early 1900s as a move from group performance to individualized performance. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people. According to Lawrence Levine, "there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon

6300-575: The fifth time they have performed together on stage. Later that month, Jones performed two shows in Argentina, the 23rd country in which he has performed. Jones' ninth record, High Temperature , produced in Nashville by Colin Linden with liner notes written by Chuck Leavell , a touring musician with The Rolling Stones , was released on October 28, 2016. In November, JW-Jones' ninth release, High Temperature

6400-410: The four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa . The origins of

6500-417: The genre took its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performers. However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Call-and-response shouts were an early form of blues-like music; they were a "functional expression ... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure". A form of this pre-blues

6600-751: The hell out of me. Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom 's " It's Tight Like That " (1928) is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being " tight " with someone, coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Blues songs with sexually explicit lyrics were known as dirty blues . The lyrical content became slightly simpler in postwar blues, which tended to focus on relationship woes or sexual worries. Lyrical themes that frequently appeared in prewar blues, such as economic depression, farming, devils, gambling, magic, floods and drought, were less common in postwar blues. The writer Ed Morales claimed that Yoruba mythology played

6700-454: The huge variety of proto-blues styles, such as field hollers and ring shouts . A record of blues music as it existed before 1920 can also be found in the recordings of artists such as Lead Belly and Henry Thomas . All these sources show the existence of many different structures distinct from twelve- , eight- , or sixteen-bar . The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known. The first appearance of

6800-434: The individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues." Levine stated that "psychologically, socially, and economically, African-Americans were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did." There are few characteristics common to all blues music, because

6900-586: The low rate of literacy among rural African Americans at the time. Reports of blues music in southern Texas and the Deep South were written at the dawn of the 20th century. Charles Peabody mentioned the appearance of blues music at Clarksdale, Mississippi , and Gate Thomas reported similar songs in southern Texas around 1901–1902. These observations coincide more or less with the recollections of Jelly Roll Morton , who said he first heard blues music in New Orleans in 1902; Ma Rainey , who remembered first hearing

7000-516: The music industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Other chord progressions, such as 8-bar forms, are still considered blues; examples include " How Long Blues ", " Trouble in Mind ", and Big Bill Broonzy 's " Key to the Highway ". There are also 16-bar blues , such as Ray Charles 's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars" and Herbie Hancock 's " Watermelon Man ". Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are occasionally used, such as

7100-489: The propulsive left-hand rhythms of the ragtime pianists with melodic figures similar to those of Armstrong's trumpet in the right hand". The smooth Louisiana style of Professor Longhair and, more recently, Dr. John blends classic rhythm and blues with blues styles. Another development in this period was big band blues. The " territory bands " operating out of Kansas City , the Bennie Moten orchestra, Jay McShann , and

7200-458: The religious community a musician belonged to, it was more or less considered a sin to play this low-down music: blues was the devil's music. Musicians were therefore segregated into two categories: gospel singers and blues singers, guitar preachers and songsters. However, when rural black music began to be recorded in the 1920s, both categories of musicians used similar techniques: call-and-response patterns, blue notes, and slide guitars. Gospel music

7300-456: The savannah, are conspicuously absent. According to the historian Paul Oliver , "the roots of the blues were not to be found in the coastal and forest regions of Africa. Rather... the blues was rooted in ... the savanna hinterland, from Senegambia through Mali, Burkina Faso, Northern Ghana, Niger, and northern Nigeria". Additionally, ethnomusicologist John Storm Roberts has argued that "The parallels between African savanna-belt string-playing and

7400-517: The singer and blues "harp" player Kim Wilson (from The Fabulous Thunderbirds ) and the pianist Gene Taylor (from The Blasters ). His third album with his band, My Kind of Evil (2004), was produced by the multi- Grammy nominee Kim Wilson (singer for The Fabulous Thunderbirds), and includes vocals by the Canadian singer/guitarist Colin James on two tracks, and Roxanne Potvin on another. Songs from

7500-510: The single direct ancestor of the blues. However the call-and-response format can be traced back to the music of Africa . That blue notes predate their use in blues and have an African origin is attested to by "A Negro Love Song", by the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor , from his African Suite for Piano , written in 1898, which contains blue third and seventh notes . The Diddley bow (a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of

7600-446: The songs "can't be sung without a full heart and a troubled spirit", conditions that have inspired countless blues songs. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues " became the first copyrighted blues composition. In lyrics, the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. Early traditional blues verses often consisted of

7700-406: The southeastern "delicate and lyrical" Piedmont blues tradition, which used an elaborate ragtime-based fingerpicking guitar technique. Georgia also had an early slide tradition, with Curley Weaver , Tampa Red , "Barbecue Bob" Hicks and James "Kokomo" Arnold as representatives of this style. The lively Memphis blues style, which developed in the 1920s and 1930s near Memphis, Tennessee ,

7800-528: The suggestion of an Igbo origin for blues, because of the reputation the Igbo had throughout plantations in the Americas for their melancholic music and outlook on life when they were enslaved. Other historians have argued that there is little evidence of Sub-Sahelian influence in the blues as "elaborate polyrhythm, percussion on African drums (as opposed to European drums), [and] collective participation" which are characteristic of West-Central African music below

7900-507: The techniques of many blues guitarists are remarkable. The big kora of Senegal and Guinea are played in a rhythmic-melodic style that uses constantly changing rhythms, often providing a ground bass overlaid with complex treble patterns, while vocal supplies a third rhythmic layer. Similar techniques can be found in hundreds of blues records". The lyrics often relate troubles experienced within African American society. For instance Blind Lemon Jefferson 's "Rising High Water Blues" (1927) tells of

8000-446: The trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and they form a repetitive effect called a groove . Characteristic of the blues since its Afro-American origins, the shuffles played a central role in swing music . The simplest shuffles, which were the clearest signature of the R&;B wave that started in the mid-1940s, were a three-note riff on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff

8100-444: The trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove . Blues music is characterized by its lyrics , bass lines , and instrumentation . Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern , consisting of a line sung over

8200-495: The vast majority of this disc — have plenty of life." In 2006, Jones released his fourth album, Kissing in 29 Days , which included performances by David "Fathead" Newman on tenor saxophone. Newman was the main saxophone player with Ray Charles for 12 years. In Blues Revue magazine, Bret Kofford wrote, "JW-Jones is highly regarded in blues circles." On May 13, 2008, the fifth album, Bluelisted went on sale. The recording includes special guests Little Charlie Baty (leader of

8300-526: Was Richard Innes and Larry Taylor (who appear on Bluelisted ). Midnight Memphis Sun (NorthernBlues/CrossCut/Ruf) was released on August 10, 2010. In April 2011, Jones signed an endorsement deal with Gibson Guitars . Jones' seventh album, Seventh Hour , released on March 27, 2012, reached #1 on B.B. King 's Bluesville on XM Sirius Satellite Radio, and led the band to performing at Buddy Guy 's Legends in Chicago in February 2013, and opening for B.B. King at

8400-532: Was a formally trained musician, composer and arranger who helped to popularize the blues by transcribing and orchestrating blues in an almost symphonic style, with bands and singers. He became a popular and prolific composer, and billed himself as the "Father of the Blues"; however, his compositions can be described as a fusion of blues with ragtime and jazz, a merger facilitated using the Cuban habanera rhythm that had long been

8500-504: Was a free-born black woman from Pennsylvania who was working as a schoolteacher in South Carolina, instructing both slaves and freedmen, and wrote that she "came home with the blues" because she felt lonesome and pitied herself. She overcame her depression and later noted a number of songs, such as "Poor Rosy", that were popular among the slaves. Although she admitted being unable to describe the manner of singing she heard, Forten wrote that

8600-399: Was closely related to ragtime , which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music". The musical forms and styles that are now considered the blues as well as modern country music arose in the same regions of the southern United States during the 19th century. Recorded blues and country music can be found as far back as

8700-457: Was heard in slave ring shouts and field hollers , expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content". Blues has evolved from the unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves imported from West Africa and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States. Although blues (as it is now known) can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and

8800-416: Was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues , Delta blues and Piedmont blues , as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues . World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to

8900-440: Was in the sense of a sad state of mind that John James Audubon wrote to his wife that he "had the blues". In Henry David Thoreau 's book Walden , he mentions "the blues" in the chapter reflecting on his time in solitude. He wrote his account of his personal quest in 1845, although it was not published until 1854. The phrase "the blues" was written by Charlotte Forten , then aged 25, in her diary on December 14, 1862. She

9000-567: Was influenced by jug bands such as the Memphis Jug Band or the Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers . Performers such as Frank Stokes , Sleepy John Estes , Robert Wilkins , Kansas Joe McCoy , Casey Bill Weldon and Memphis Minnie used a variety of unusual instruments such as washboard , fiddle , kazoo or mandolin . Memphis Minnie was famous for her virtuoso guitar style. Pianist Memphis Slim began his career in Memphis, but his distinct style

9100-660: Was named the "Hot Shot Debut" landing at No. 8 on the Billboard Top 10. On February 4, 2017, High Temperature won "Best Self-Produced CD Award" in Memphis at the International Blues Challenge , representing the Ottawa Blues Society . It was selected as a top 5 finalist a month earlier out of over 90 entries from worldwide blues societies. Chad Smith , drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers made

9200-659: Was nevertheless using musical forms that were compatible with Christian hymns and therefore less marked by the blues form than its secular counterpart. The American sheet music publishing industry produced a great deal of ragtime music. By 1912, the sheet music industry had published three popular blues-like compositions, precipitating the Tin Pan Alley adoption of blues elements: "Baby Seals' Blues", by Baby Franklin Seals (arranged by Artie Matthews ); "Dallas Blues", by Hart Wand ; and " The Memphis Blues ", by W.C. Handy . Handy

9300-414: Was nominated for Recording/Producer of the Year at Maple Blues Awards with Colin Linden , and Jones' longtime bassist, Laura Greenberg was nominated for Bass Player of the Year. Jones released his tenth album, and first live album, entitled LIVE on September 28, 2018. JW-Jones competed with HOROJO Trio representing the Ottawa Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge , an annual event by

9400-420: Was played over the bass and the drums, the groove "feel" was created. Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as " dow , da dow , da dow , da" or " dump , da dump , da dump , da": it consists of uneven, or "swung", eighth notes. On a guitar this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back. Hart Wand 's " Dallas Blues "

9500-430: Was published in 1912; W.C. Handy 's " The Memphis Blues " followed in the same year. The first recording by an African American singer was Mamie Smith 's 1920 rendition of Perry Bradford 's " Crazy Blues ". But the origins of the blues were some decades earlier, probably around 1890. This music is poorly documented, partly because of racial discrimination in U.S. society, including academic circles, and partly because of

9600-844: Was released in Canada on October 7, distributed by Stony Plain Records . It debuted and held the #1 position on Roots Music Report, the radio air-play chart, in Canada for thirteen weeks between October 2014 and February 2015. The album was nominated as Blues Album of the Year at the Juno Awards and Recording of the Year at Maple Blues Awards , and Jones was nominated for Guitarist of the Year. After Buddy Guy sang with JW-Jones at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago, Illinois, on April 14, 2015, he asked Jones to play guitar with him during two sold-out shows at Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa on April 27 and 28, 2015. Guy joined

9700-507: Was replaced by the term rhythm and blues . This rapidly evolving market was mirrored by Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues chart . This marketing strategy reinforced trends in urban blues music such as the use of electric instruments and amplification and the generalization of the blues beat, the blues shuffle , which became ubiquitous in rhythm and blues (R&B). This commercial stream had important consequences for blues music, which, together with jazz and gospel music , became

9800-444: Was smoother and had some swing elements. Many blues musicians based in Memphis moved to Chicago in the late 1930s or early 1940s and became part of the urban blues movement. City or urban blues styles were more codified and elaborate, as a performer was no longer within their local, immediate community, and had to adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic. Classic female urban and vaudeville blues singers were popular in

9900-536: Was the Chicago-based Bluebird Records . Before World War II, Tampa Red was sometimes referred to as "the Guitar Wizard". Carr accompanied himself on the piano with Scrapper Blackwell on guitar, a format that continued well into the 1950s with artists such as Charles Brown and even Nat "King" Cole . Boogie-woogie was another important style of 1930s and early 1940s urban blues. While the style

10000-611: Was the first artist signed to the NorthernBlues Music label in Toronto and released his first six recordings with the label. Jones has also worked with Ruf Records in the USA, and Blind Pig Records . He has released nine studio albums and one live album. He has played in 23 countries on four continents and continues to tour extensively. Jones, who lives in Ottawa , Ontario , has performed at blues festivals, theatres and clubs in Canada,

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