Cross Road Blues Analysis

He started using electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, and organ to achieve different effects. Some of his compositions leaned towards a more modern sound, but he was never able to fully abandon his authentic blues-focused hard bop

He is known to be the “best-known blues performer. ”(A&E Television Networks 3) When he went to church every weekend, the band played during mass. When the band played, he liked to hear them and thought they sounded good. Since he heard them sing and play, he liked it and thought it was a good career to go into.

The Miles Davis Quintet was so influential to jazz history because they were able to spontaneously explore changes in temp, mood, and form walked a fine line between hard bop and free jazz that is still used today. The younger member in the quintet also energized Davis so he was playing with such

Charley Patton was the scrawny child of sharecropper parents. In 1900, his family moved 100 miles north to the Delta and the Will Dockery Plantation. There Patton fell under the spell of guitarist Henry Sloan and would follow him to gigs. By 1910, he had become proficient as a performer and songwriter, having already composed "Down The Dirt Road Blues," a slow drag called "Banty Rooster Blues," and his theme song "Pony

In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, August Wilson exposes how blues singers in the 1920s

Robert Leroy Johnson was the most influential and the most significant singer of the Delta Blues during 1920s. Johnson was regarded as the master of the blues because he totally influenced many rock musicians. Eric Clapton, a well-known rock and blues guitarist, has even called Johnson "the most important blues singer that ever lived.” Unfortunately, Robert Johnson, the legendary blues musician, passed away at his age 27. His obscurely documented life led him to a legend which really made a great affect on modern music genres and musicians

Her next most harmonic and popular song was “St. Louis Blues.” Many did not consider this a blues because the form and content did not follow traditional blues format of 12-bar progressions. But even though it was not traditional

The genre of blues exploded into the blues craze during the 1920’s. During this time, white record producers saw the untapped goldmine that was blues music performed by people of color. Ma Rainey was one of them, and to some, one of the first, giving her the title, ‘The Mother of Blues’. The 1920’s was not only an era of continuing homophobia from the past (although that would change, briefly, into a mild form of acceptance until the more conservative 1930’s), but also of harsh racism. And yet, one singer, Ma Rainey’s, broke these restrictions.

Without the blues, the genesis of rock and roll music would not have materialized. In the song, “Walkin’ Blues”, by Skip James, he expresses personal emotions in regard to waking up one morning to find his love has gone. He conveys that he is lost without her; suggesting he requires his shoes to “walk” the thought of her away. James is playing the guitar utilizing the technique known as picking. Picking has a very defined sound that is timeless and deeply emotional.

Chris Thile is an American singer and songwriter. He was born in Oceanside, California on February 20, 1981. On September 12, 2006, Chris Thile released his album “How to Grow a Woman from the Ground” featuring a song titled Brakeman’s Blues. The song is written about a young man who is carefree and travels from place to place. This song contains many music structures.

In Rita Williams-Garcia’s book, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, the plot revolves around Clayton, who strongly believes in his self-manifested identity, to become a Bluesman. At a young age, Clayton was deeply affected by the death of his grandfather, who he idolized to become. While Clayton’s dismissive mother fails to understand his loss, Clayton ran away from his house to reconcile with the Bluesmen, whom he thought would relate to his grief. The tragic events that Clayton had to face played an imperative aspect on his journey to self-discovery. Even though the author makes Clayton face difficult challenges throughout the story, the struggles helped Clayton attain a sense of self-identity and be at peace with his grandfather’s death.

When the narrator accompanies Sonny to the nightclub to listen to him play his music; Sonny’s music portrays his wisdom as he plays about his brother’s frustrations with the trials and sufferings they both endured. Sonny’s artful playing of the blues opens the narrator’s heart to listen genuinely. If one listens to what lies on the inside that is the key to finding oneself. Joseph Flibbert states in the article “Sonny’s Blues” Overview, “In the music he hears, he sees his mother’s face, and that of his little girl … The powerful incantations of Sonny’s art reaches his soul, and for the first time, he listens to the dark voice within”.

The genre of jazz music was first born out of the woes and suffering of the then modern black society. Sonny’s brother on the other hand chose to be an algebra teacher; he was respected by the white culture and his teaching credential earned him the right to be accepted. His aspiration to become an African American teacher implied that his desire was to hide from prejudice, unlike Sonny who really embraced his ethnicity and African American culture. An algebra teacher is very logical and structured by nature, whereas a musician is more free spirited and creative by nature.

Blues music as a genre and form was developed by African Americans in the south of the United States at the end of the 19th century. The genre has origins in many cultures such as in African music, African-American work songs and European-American folk music. Blues music incorporates field hollers, shouts, chants, etc. The blues form, found in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, and also the twelve-bar blues structure, which is the most common feature. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times.

These lines are describing the blues musician playing as it is capturing the motion and the rhythm of the music and the musician. Hughes is creating a baseline for the music