Robey's Role In Houston Music

The Blues also became a hit in the 1920s after Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues” and it grew into a huge part of the Jazz Industry. African Americans were given credit for the creation of the Blues industry of music as well. Bessie Smith was known as the “most famous of the 1920s Blues singers.”

The impact that Ray Charles has had on American culture is nearly indescribable. Although unable to see, he was successful in making his artistic visions come to life by fusing the sounds of blues, gospel, jazz, and R&B, making him one of the leading soul artists of the 1950s. The legendary musician is recognized for being a pillar in the industry, credited with making strides in desegregating musical genres. Although he composed many of his early hits, Charles is considered to be an interpreter of music, offering his distinct personal vision of many classics. Over the course of his career, which spanned five decades, he recorded over 60 albums and sold millions of records worldwide.

On February 19, 1940 Smokey Robinson was born. Save for founder Berry Gordy, no one has been more connected with the recording empire in Detroit known as Motown than the great William “Smokey” Robinson. First he leads the Miracles singing Group then he did other things such as being a producing at Motown, writing sons for them, he also became very close to Gordy you can say he was his right hand man. Smokey Miracles were signed second in Gordy’s management and production company. Motown was just a big old family and everyone knows family have affairs. The Primettes best known as the Supremes because they had later changed their name. They ended up auditioning at Motown because they knew Diana Ross she was a neighbor of Robinson’s. Between 1960 and 1971 the Miracles was really popping they scored twenty-seven pop soul hits with their leader Smokey Robinson songs such as “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “Mickey’s Monkey,” “Going to a Go-Go” and “I Second That Emotion”.

Around 1903 when my parent's died to survive, my brother, Andrew, and I began to perform a musical act on the streets of Chattanooga. I sang and my brother accompanied me on the guitar, often in front of the White Elephant Saloon. In 1912, when Clarence my older brother returned to Chattanooga, he persuaded the managers of his troupe, Lonnie and Cora Fisher, to give me an audition. Consequently, I was hired as a dancer with the Moses Stokes Company, to perform in a show that included the Mother of the Blues, Ma Rainey. Intriguing rumors surround our meeting—legend has it that Ma Rainey literally kidnapped me, that she and her husband forced me to tour with their show, teaching me in the process how to sing the blues. Some rumors say we had

King’s celebrated music career emerged from very modest beginnings. At the age of 18, King started to perform his renditions of traditional Delta blues music at churches around local areas in Mississippi; but his talents saw him gradually travel further up north over the years, as many blues musicians, and many other African-Americans

was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS’ Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987, and has received honorary doctorates from Tougaloo(MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990; Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.

A single source of blues music cannot be traced, but Ma Rainey is rightfully credited with introducing it to the world. Hence the reason she was dubbed as “The Mother of the Blues”. During an interview in the 1930s, Ma told musicologist John Work, that she heard what would be called blues, for the first time around 1902. She was in a small town in Missouri working a show at the time, and one morning a local girl came into the tent singing about a man whom had left her. This new style of soulful music drew in Ma Rainey so much she later had the girl teach her the song. Rainey performed the song as an encore in a show soon after, earning a special place in the show, and marking the start of her career (Jas Obrecht Archive).

in Kansas City and became one of the most famous jazz musicians of all time. He led us

On the other hand, Blues were basically from work songs of African Americans slaves at the time. “It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country, or, to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives”(pp.17), said Jones and Baraka. In Jazz – A History, Frank Tirro wisely analyzes and explains the relationship between the unique background and

     Before even hitting a year as a soloist, Miles Davis put out his first album as a soloist named Birth of the Cool. This was definitely something to be marked down on the timeline of Jazz. The album was accurately named, being responsible for the stardom of Cool Jazz, a movement that the very new to the Jazz movement, Miles Davis, invented within his first year of success. The Cool Jazz, which featured Gil Evans, first appeared in the latter days of 1949.

Charley Patton is known as the father of the delta Blue. His official year of birth is unknown but is speculated to be between 1887, 1891. He wasn’t born in the Mississippi Delta however, his family moved there and he spent much of his life there. I believe his Blues came from the fact he was of mixed heritage having black, Cherokee Nation and certainly not in the dominant whit culture. His family moved to the Dockery Plantation which was renowned for its favorable treatment of it sharecroppers and lenience on the musical indulgences of its residents. At the Dockery Plantation, Patton and other gave birth to the Delta Blues. He learned from a man named Henry Sloan who played what is viewed as an early Blues style. He influenced many other artists at the Dockery plantation including younger protégé‘s like Robert Johnson and Howling Wolf. Although Patton as of diminutive stature, he had a gritty, growly voice of a much bigger man which is said to have influenced the distinctive raspy voice of Wolf.

Nps.gov states that some of the greatest musician in America History has come from the jazz side of the world. Artist such as Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Jelly “Roll” Morton, pave the way for jazz to reach its height as it did in the early 20’s with the upbeat tempo and smooth classical sound. These artist brung a unique sound to jazz that was not there. Louis Armstrong contribute to jazz is so remarkable, he played the trumpet like no other. His sound was so soothing to the ears. When you think about jazz, Louis Armstrong is one of the first names most people relate to jazz. Jelly “Roll” Morton was probably the most influence artist there is. An innovative piano stylist and composer, began his odyssey outside of New Orleans as early as 1907. He continue his work throughout the 1920’s and was mainly consider the reason of the swing era.

In the 1960s as the genre became more popular icons such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis became overly remarkable successes.

The main theme of the blues was built upon racism in the surrounding. The music expressed the bad treatment, and starvation that blacks received from the dominant race. An example of the music is by Ma Rainey, who was one of the earliest connections between the male country blues artists that roamed the backroads of the South and their female equivalent; she made her professional debut in 1900 at the age of l4 at the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia. She was one of the first to feature the blues on stage. Ma Rainey said from "Chain Gang Blues":

Frankie Knuckles is known as “The Godfather of House Music”. He was a DJ at Chicago’s “Warehouse” in the late 1970s to the early 1980s; the club became well-known and diverse because of him. Frankie Knuckles experimented with sounds, and usually played a mixture of disco and European electronic dance music; which eventually came to be known as house music. He eventually left “The Warehouse” and opened his own club, “The Power Plant” in Chicago. Ron Hardy was a producer of early house music and DJ in Chicago from the late 1970’s to the mid-1980’s.