Blues, once a popular and influential musical genre, has become scarce in many Black communities, with seeming abandonment by young Black-Americans. At just 24 years years old, Kingfish (Christone Ingram), represents a resurgence of the blues due to his remarkable talent, life story, youthful energy, & dedication to the blues.
This song is Crazy Blues by Mamie Smith. In early 1920, Smith became the first Black singer to have a record released - in the face of huge opposition from the wider music industry - with That Thing Called Love.
But her next release, Crazy Blues, had the biggest impact. At a time when songs called this-or-that Blues were invariably recorded by white artists, this was the first such release not just by a Black singer but with a Black band (That Thing Called Love featured the white Okeh Rags Orchestra, but Smith assembled her own all-Black band, the Jazz Hounds, before recording Crazy Blues) - and crucially, it was immensely popular. The huge numbers in which the record sold brought down the industry's colour bar, ending the insistence on Black music being exclusively performed by white musicians.
Perhaps the single most influential record ever released, maybe this isn't so much #OldSchool as #FirstSchool.
Someone here was giving examples of cultural appropriation and like half of it was #Jewish#Swing musicians. Denying the influence of #klezmer on #Jazz is almost as bad as denying the influence of #blues and #ragtime... But I guess that that would be considered an embarrassment, like a problematic fave from an author's youth, or an ill-considered early collaboration...
They'll edit us out of #American cultural history just like they did from Poland to Iraq. Nu... Nothing is new under the sun.
A long long time ago, when I was nothing but a teenage band dropout with a bad bass clarinet habit, I ended up on a school trip to Sacramento to debate at the state level. The debates were held at the Hyatt, where we also stayed for the night....
Robert Johnson was born on this day in 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
This is an amazing thread from @Deglassco on the history of Black-American recording artists which features artists and bands from the era I've been obsessed with recently - the 1920s and 1930s 😊
"Blues Express" by Anna Waluś & Anna Kluza in Zakrzewo, Poland
W listopadzie 2023 r. zabytkową stację kolejową w Zakrzewie (obecnie posterunek policji) ozdobił #mural nawiązujący do festiwalu Blues Express, który przyjeżdża tam latem od 30 lat. Malowidło zostało zaprojektowane i wykonane przez przez Annę Waluś przy współudziale pani Anny Kluzy. Fot. Ryszard Smulkowski
I just moved here from sysad.ninja. I'm a #IT & #cybersecurity instructor/course developer.
I am a mediocre upright bass player focusing on #celticmusic, #blues and melodic #jazz. I've also done sound, run theatres, written and produced a play, etc.
My wife and I are currently beginning a small market farm, so you'll also see lots of posts about plants, trees, and the war against invasive privet.
Went to an evening of snacks and wine at a local winery and caught an excellent live #music performance from Michele D'Amour and the Love Dealers ("Old school R&B, #blues, and #funk to move you!"). Chatting with the guitar player afterward, my wife discovered they had sang in a community chorale together almost 30 years ago.
The #BassGuitar player was amazing. All of them, really. I don't expect I will ever be that good, but I can be a little better every day.
🎧 #NewMusic | A collector's edition of #TomPetty's MOJO drops October 20 to coincide with Petty's birthday. The live performances on the LP were recorded at the band's rehearsal space — "The Clubhouse" — with no overdubs.
He said, "It's blues-based. Some of the tunes are longer, more jammy kind of music. A couple of tracks really sound like the Allman Brothers – not the songs but the atmosphere of the band."
I recorded a podcast with WUNC in North Carolina on the #history of #music in prisons in the South! We talked about the Lomaxes, and musicology, and then music today. This sprang out of the article I wrote for Scalawag this summer, and critically, he also spoke with my interviewees. Check it out!
Buddy Guy. 87yo when this performance was recorded. He is a consummate musician and performer. Still doing it, still lucid, still burning them strings!
It seems there a thing going on here on Mastodon: folk are sharing hashtags of what makes 'em tick in order find like-minded weirdos. Here I go. Stand back...
The Blues are universal, sweetheart.
A long long time ago, when I was nothing but a teenage band dropout with a bad bass clarinet habit, I ended up on a school trip to Sacramento to debate at the state level. The debates were held at the Hyatt, where we also stayed for the night....