jazz_guitar@... wrote:
Original Message:
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 22:33:52 -0000
From: kuboken1@...
Subject: Re: The difference between Jazz & Blues
Most musicians will tell you they are the same. (However, the
difference between blues and gospel is that gospel is about God and
blues is about women (or the lack thereof).
Nope. Bluesers ALWAYS gots wimin, or one, at least. It's
simply a matter of who is abusing whom or the priveleges
thereof, or who ain' woikin', or she lef' fer anudder man,
or he got caught cheatin', or two of 'em got their notes on
ya together an' EEYOWY, "it" hoits so bad; BUT, the bottom
line is; NO MONEY, HONEY! ;)
But the 'record store' definition would be (in general):
Blues: basically 3 chord tunes with solos on a minor pentatonic
scale. Blues club = Really drunk, loud, rowdy, fun, crowd
(think 'party')
I dunno, take some of the turnarounds that Ted Greene or
Lenny Breau came up with and... Well, maybe that makes 'em
jazz, but then the solos, well, except for those
turnarounds, but then... Also, I've been in blues joints in
Chicago where you'd swear everyone was on Thorazine, well
coulda been 'Ludes, tho... ;)
(Early blues: imagine some guy in the deep south with a guitar
singing a tune that starts with "I woke up in the morning and my
woman was gone..." (melody in 2 notes: the minor third and tonic))
that's blues.
Nah... It's no shoes, or durty or no socks, hole inna
pocket, no money, feelin' low down, an' usin' a B string for
a low E an' two others jis' missin'... But da wimins is
flockin' all aroun' to feed me dem chittlins con carne...
BTDT. :)
Jazz: complex chord changes with solos that non-Jazz people can't
follow. Jazz club = Really quiet, serious, crowd... (think 'museum',
or art gallery)
One of the worst fights I ever saw was at a "serious" venue,
between two guys in three piece suits... The cops broke one
guy's arm before he'd stopped swinging. Sh*t happens. And,
morons are everywhere.
(Early Jazz: think of dixieland jazz (not necessarily the earliest
but...)
Having said that, music is all just hearing it. If you have doubts
about the difference between jazz and blues, just go to amazon.com
and listen to B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy etc... That's
BLUES. Listen to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis etc...
That's Jazz. (but be careful with this categorization because jazz
guys 'play the blues', but blues guys usually don't 'play the jazz')
If they all sound the same to you, good for you because it's all just
really, really great music.
Who cares what its called....(as long as you know where to find it at
Tower!)
I suppose one could be concerned with aesthetics enough to
want actual history... So, in that case, The Blues came
first; before Jazz, that is. That (Blues), coming from
Gospel Music, and that coming from the "Field Chants" of
African slaves in America, and THAT coming from reworked
African tribal stuff of varying celebrations, feasts,
gathering of food, etc. Then came the so-called Delta Blues,
which worked it's magic into Urban Blues, and jazz evolved
at about the same time, taking on many directions almost
spontaneously. I think history shows that Dixieland took it
from bluesers jamming and became a fixed idiom that remains
today ala the Na'Lenz Jazz Funeral, and that "today's jazz"
probably evolved from folks wanting to hear one solo at a
time rather than all of 'em at once. White folks poked
around in there somewhere; ostensibly, to make the crude,
"acceptable..." q:P~~~ Regardless, all of those roots are
grounded firmly in "The Blues." And, if you can't play the
Blues, I sure wouldn't give ya two hoots for yer jazz... :)
(And, before anyone gets down on Americans for their abuse
of "natives," just know that there are no "Native
Americans." American Indians are not indigenous to this
country, they just got here before anyone else in MODERN
history. Wherefore, there is archeological evidence that
they probably moved out some humans who were here long
before them, as well... Also, some Injuns kept slaves, as
did some Africans, for that matter...)
We should be especially careful now about categorization because of
all the new stuff going on. What I consider jazz, some guys will
say 'that ain't jazz' (Wynton says that alot about a lot of people,
and its his way of putting people down, but this is really silly
too. No one woke up and 'created' jazz. It just happened... and it
is happening now, so no one can really say it is or it ain't jazz.)
Anyway, that't another topic altogether that I would rather not get
into (unless someone REALLY wants to! ;))
Geez, there's so many variations, only an arrogant ass would
call one form "jazz" and another "not jazz." I've heard
people say there ain't no jazz in rock 'n roll, and yet,
there is, Fusion i.e. Same for C&W, 69b5 chords keep
creepin' in, Chet Atkins "broke the ice..." BB King can play
some wicked "mainstream jazz," I heard him doing it from his
dressing room at the Jazz Medium in Chicago about 20 years
ago. I recorded an album with Jethro Burns (Chet's
brother-in-law, BTW) in the mid-70s (about a year after
Homer died) on which he played Django stuff (and a killer
dedication original) on Mandolin, then he proceeded to play
the same stuff on a Martin D-45, soloing so well that it
intimidated the crap outa me, his then sorta mediocre (by
comparison) rhythm guitarist. Buddy Emmons (Nashville Steel
Guitarist) plays killer jazz on pedal steel... He plays
blues too, and recorded with Albert King, no less. Every
form of music has seen jazz creep in at some point or
another, even folk music. Brazilian music has it combined
with classical music. Then, there's all of this Afro-Latin
stuff... So, a better questions might be, what ISN'T jazz?
:)
Regards,
...z
On the other hand, you have different fingers...
-- =---Seek the truth, speak the truth!---= --
L.G. "Zeek" Duff
WHAT!Productions!
Blue Wall Studio
303.485.9438
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