Post 328: EIGHT-BAR BLUES?

Blind Blake (1896 - 1934)

The 12-bar blues is, of course, one of the staple components of traditional jazz. No concert is complete without one. Audiences seem to love them, especially if some (e.g. Squishin' Bees or Shake That Thing) are played at rock-n'roll tempos.

Yet many musicians I have spoken to are not so keen. They find the 12-bar blues too formulaic, too repetitive. They notice they are playing virtually the same solo in several different blues. They want different challenges and more variety. So they prefer to include no more than two 12-bar blues in a concert.

Many tunes called 'blues', of course, do NOT fall into the 12-bar structure, so musicians object less to playing them. Tishimingo Blues is a good example, with a pleasant harmonic progression: its Chorus comprises 32 bars. (It also happens to have a 12-bar Verse - but that is hardly ever played.)

Wild Man Blues is another very appealing number - but it also comprises 32 bars.

Basin Street Blues is very popular but it is not a 12-bar: it uses a 16-bar theme, based on The Georgia Progression.

Atlanta Blues, Michigander Blues, Big House Blues, Jazz Me Blues, Wolverine Blues, Winin' Boy Blues, Wabash Blues and Faraway Blues are all very appealing to play because they have good melodies and (in some cases) challenging structures. But not one of them is a 12-bar blues.

And then there are some famous blues that DO incorporate 12-bar themes but are so interestingly composed, with multi-part structures (possibly including a change of key or a section in a minor key) that everybody enjoys playing them. Examples are Royal Garden Blues, St. Louis Blues, Riverside Blues, Savoy Blues, Yellow Dog Blues and Beale Street Blues.

But here's an idea for adding a bit of interest to a routine performance of a 12-bar blues. Play Too Tight Blues, as performed by 'Blind' Arthur Blake (the great guitarist) in 1929. Too Tight Blues is actually an EIGHT-Bar Blues, the melody and chord progression of which are very easy to pick up. When you play it (with or without vocals), you can do what Blind Blake does: throw in some choruses of improvised 12-bars, using the standard 12-bar chord progression. Then you have some variety. You can pick it up from Blind Blake with the help of YouTube:  CLICK HERE.

Post 78: BLIND BLAKE

BLIND BLAKE (correct name Arthur Blake) lived from 1896 to 1934. A singer-guitarist, he made about 80 recordings (probably in Chicago) for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932. He is thought to have been born in Virginia and to have been blind from birth. He was technically brilliant on the guitar, capable of making it sound like a ragtime piano.

His most popular tunes seem to have been West Coast Blues, Blind Arthur's Breakdown, Diddie Wa Diddie, Police Dog Blues, That'll Never Happen No More, Southern Rag, Seabord Stomp, Too Tight [currently popular in New Orleans], Georgia Bound, and Hastings Street. These and more can be found on YouTube.

If you would like to hear a young traditional jazz band in 2014 playing Too Tight,
CLICK HERE.
And to hear Blind Blake himself (in 1929) perform the song,
CLICK HERE.

Post 71: PEG LEG HOWELL

I have been led to Peg Leg Howell by the YouTube videos of young musicians in the streets of New Orleans. I had not previously heard of him. Many of today's performers have been inspired by Early American Black Country Music and they have revived the 90-year-old tunes of such guitarists as Peg Leg Howell, Frank Stokes and Blind Blake.

PEG LEG HOWELL (1888 - 1966) lived in Georgia and really did have a peg leg (a leg having been amputated after he was shot in a fight). His real name was Joshua Barnes Howell. He was a farm labourer and a self-taught busking guitarist. 

Howell's Trio
He is on the right; Williams on the left; Anthony centre.

As required by the mythology that often surrounds such characters, he served time in prison for alcohol offences. But in the 1920s he also made over twenty influential recordings of songs with Columbia Records. The two I must mention as having been particularly taken up again recently in New Orleans are: Banjo Blues and Too Tight Blues. Too Tight is an unusual blues in having several 8-bar three-chord vocals, interspersed with standard 12-bar instrumental improvisations. To see a jazz band playing it recently (though eschewing the 12-bar option),
CLICK HERE.
For a great foot-tapping version of Banjo Blues by fifteen of today's New Orleans buskers,
CLICK HERE.
And to hear the original 1928 recording by Peg Leg himself (with Eddie Anthony on violin),
CLICK HERE.

You can find a full Peg Leg Howell discography   BY CLICKING ON HERE.