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Blues in the 1920's

K

Knotted

Bet the horse knew his name
ska invita asked me to do a thread on 1920’s blues. This was a little while ago and I had some life happening so I put it off.

But I didn’t forget!

So here we are. I listen to this stuff but I’m really no expert on the history, and I’ve tried to do a bit of research, it would good if this were good but I can only do my best.

I’m going to be focusing on the earliest recordings. But feel free to add whatever.
 
The first recordings were women singers in an effectively jazz band context applying a certain tradition whose origins are lost in time. Of course just looking at recordings provides a skewed history as there were obviously people doing things and not recording. These are very much live traditions.

Let’s start in 1920 with Mamie Smith and Crazy Blues. Arguably the first blues recording – Mamie did a couple recordings before this which are bluesy but feel tempered. This recording really is the full whack. She was a Harlem singer with a vauderville background and in terms of instrumentation it sounds just like New Orleans jazz. Sliding trombone in the bass, shrill clarinet over the top and a horn or two in the middle. But otherwise to my ears this is pretty full on developed blues ie. vocal jazz with a lilting melancholia. Blue notes and blues scale – it’s all there fully formed. So I guess she was drawing on an already well established tradition.

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Mamie Smith - Crazy Blues (1920) - YouTube

The thing that isn’t there is the 12 bar (or 8 bar or whatever) “classic” blues structure. That’s just not a thing at this time. The blues has this reputation for being formulaic and one the things that’s refreshing about going back to these old recordings is that there wasn’t formula.

Got to say that's a great sound for 1920 and a real game changer as it proved popular.
 
Looking at solo/duo blokes with guitars let’s start with a bloke with a banjo guitar.

Papa Charlie Jackson had a jazz pedigree with one of Freddie Keppard’s Jazz Cardinals and had worked with Ma Rainey.

Here he is posing with a fancy National tricone resonator. Which is a shame because I don’t think he ever played one.

1626622657008.png]

This is 1924 and a very early recording for this style of lone troubadour blues singer.

Airy Man Blues by Papa Charlie Jackson (1924) - YouTube

And a bit later

Papa Charlie Jackson - Shake That Thing (1925) - YouTube
 
These guys had to cut their mustard in juke joints and dances. They had to be loud and that thumping rhythm had to cut through. There isn't much in the way of guitar solos. These old acoustic guitars they used were not the loudest things. So I think there's a certain style born out of necessity. And also the use of slides and consequent open tunings lends itself to certain harmonic progressions. The sheer physicality of playing guitar for an audiance just looking to have a good time is what makes this music what it is.
 
Going through all this it’s interesting what got recorded first. We still haven’t got onto any delta blues recordings and it’s the east coast Piedmont blues fellas getting it down first. So it’s 1926 and Blind Arthur Blake with West Coast Blues. Which is a tricky little jaunty rag. Big influence on Gary Davis.

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West Coast Blues - BLIND BLAKE (1926) Ragtime Blues Guitar Legend - YouTube.

A slower and bluesier number here

Early Morning Blues (Blind Blake, October 1926) [Remastered] - YouTube
 
Lonnie Johnson from New Orleans as were early Jazz musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, quite a few of them around there back then I think.

In 1925, Johnson entered and won a blues contest at the Booker T. Washington Theatre in St. Louis, the prize being a recording contract with Okeh Records.[12] To his regret, he was then tagged as a blues artist and later found it difficult to be regarded as anything else. He later said, "I guess I would have done anything to get recorded – it just happened to be a blues contest, so I sang the blues."
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I’ve missed out Sara Martin with Sylvester Weaver and this 1923 recording of Longing for Daddy Blues. Must admit I don’t know about either of them. Sara Martin seems to have worked with several of the New Orleans jazz greats, but this is a straight blues guitar/singer duet.

1626625820900.png

Longing For Daddy Blues - YouTube
 
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Hopping over to Texas quickly for some of the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson. Can’t really leave it without mentioning him. This is for the Paramont label and a real soulful number from 1926.

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Blind Lemon Jefferson-Jack 'O Diamond Blues - YouTube

Blind Lemon Jefferson-Long Lonesome Blues - YouTube

Several musicians from this time were called Blind something. I think Jefferson really was completely blind from birth. I’m really not sure what the story is behind these recordings but they’re well crafted songs not just knockabout dance numbers.
 
Just for comparison here's Jelly Roll Morton with Dr Jazz


As a non blues jazz number this is obviously a lot more upbeat and there's more going on and I dare say the musicians are more capable than those with Ma Rainey or Mamie Smith. The vocals are however an add on, they could easily have made it an instrumental. There is something about these early blues singers that's very direct and relatively simplified.

By contrast here's this famous clip of Bessie Smith singing in the film St Louis Blues. OK there's this extraordinary choral backing that would have been brought in for the film, but you can see how much it was about the power of the singer.

 
I don’t know if anybody has seen the Robert Johnson documentary on Netflix, but it’s well worth a watch. Obviously Johnson was recording in the 1930’s so I won’t be covering him. But the documentary really emphasises just how religious/conservative the American south was and just how disreputable it was being a blues musician not to mention the problems with segregation and the Klan at their peak.

East coast musician Blind Willie Johnson (no relation to Robert) was a rare example of a blues man and preacher. He could do something very special with a slide and a guitar. The instrumental Dark was the Night, Cold Was the Ground, is a must listen.

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Blind Willie Johnson - Dark was the night... - YouTube

That’s one of the songs NASA sent into space.

A couple more songs

Blind Willie Johnson - In My Time Of Dying / Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed - YouTube
Blind Willie Johnson - John the Revelator - YouTube
 
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So these guys like Blind Lemon Jefferson would just play and sing all night.

Jefferson began playing the guitar in his early teens and soon after he began performing at picnics and parties. He became a street musician, playing in East Texas towns in front of barbershops and on street corners.[9] According to his cousin Alec Jefferson, quoted in the notes for Blind Lemon Jefferson, Classic Sides:


They were rough. Men were hustling women and selling bootleg and Lemon was singing for them all night... he'd start singing about eight and go on until four in the morning... mostly it would be just him sitting there and playing and singing all night.
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