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Jazz Primer for Rock People

INFLUENCE OF BLUES

Jazz and blues started out on the same foot. In the first two decades of the 2Oth century, the two forms borrowed from each other as they took their first formative steps. Many jazz standards and compositions are based on blues progressions, and have a good deal of blues feeling. And many blues musicians approach their instruments as a jazz musician would. During the early recording years of Jazz and Blues (1918-1925), a lot of records sounded very similar in mood and instrumentation (witness some of the records of Bessie Smith, for instance), but by 1925 blues had really developed into its own form, usually identified with a small band (or a solo singer playing guitar and or harmonica) accompanied by raw, guitar based music based on standard blues progressions. Blues eventually led the way to rock and roll. Jazz took blues progressions, incorporated jazz elements (horns, orchestration, tone colors), and went in a totally different direction.