Exploring Jazz Winter, 2016

The Role of the Blues in Jazz Blues is an African American folk form that has been profoundly and pervasively influential in jazz. Blues and jazz are not synonymous; jazz uses blues, in both its folk form and in an extended, non-formal sense. Jazz compositions and performances are often based on the strict blues form (see accompanying page), although the blues form is often used so flexibly and imaginatively that it is not easily identifiable as blues. Jazz can also be “bluesey” – incorporate a blues tonality into music that is not based on the blues in any formal way. For example, vocalist Billie Holiday’s biography is entitled Lady Sings the Blues but most of her repertoire was not based on the blues in any formal way. However, her intonation and the way she interprets melody evoke the blues tonality, or a blues feeling, even when the material is a simple pop song. Thus, there is an extended sense of music being “bluesey” without being “a blues” in its form. Explanation of the illustration on the next page: The example on the next page presupposes an understanding of musical notation for those who can read it. But there is no need to be able to read musical notation to understand and, more importantly, to hear the presence of blues in jazz. Example 1 shows an approximation of the blues scale. There is a theory that the blues scale is neither major nor minor but relies on “swoops’ and “glides” around the 3rd, 5th, and 7th degrees of the scale. In other words, the blues scale, which is derived from West African melodic practices, cannot really be notated in our western musical notation. Example 2 shows a “map” of the blues in its generic form. It has twelve measures (“bars”) and a specific harmonic pattern within those measures. The Roman numerals refer to the scale degree on which the harmony (or “chord”) is based. The superscript number refers to a degree of the chord. For example V7 means denotes a dominant seventh chord built on the fifth degree of the scale. In the key of C, that would be a G-dominant seventh. The fact is that you don’t have to know any of this to appreciate the form of the blues and to hear it underlying jazz performances. Example 3 shows on of many ways in which jazz musicians alter the harmony of the blues to make it more interesting and open up different melodic possibilities. As you have heard in the examples in the classroom by Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk, the variations on the blues played by jazz musicians disguise the blues form very well, so you need to pay close attention to recognize that many of their compositions and solos are based specifically on the blues form.