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The Blues And Bebop Are Two Forms Of Jazz That Have Given

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The blues and bebop are two forms of jazz that have given us many amazing artists whose talents and arrangements still have relevancy in our society today. Because of their emergence, our musical inventory has expanded greatly. This essay will review these two forms of Jazz while comparing their similarities and difference while also discussing some of the artists who were within their musical genres.

Progression to the Blues

The blues is a genre of jazz that developed in its earliest development. It evolved from early musical practices of African slaves in the form of Spirituals and Work songs when slaves were forbidden their traditional religious songs by slave owners. Over the next century of enslavement, their music began to be …show more content…

His deep lyrical sense seemed to call to those around him with rich vocals along with the melody flowing from his guitar unique in itself.

One of the unique properties of the blues was the use of blue notes. Blue notes occur when certain notes are flatted by the musician. The songs usually were in a 12 measure format, which was used commonly in Country blues and was usually built around the standard three chords progression:

Section

Chord

A

I Chord

A

IV Chord*

B

V Chord*

*chords may differ, but usually played as shown.

An example of this song format would be Robert Johnson’s song, “Dust my broom”.

In 1986, Robert Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame and Eric Clapton was quoted as saying “Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived…I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.”(1) As I went back and listened to his music, I could definitely agree with that statement. Though his live and his career was short, with Johnson dying at age twenty-seven, he remains one of the pillars of country blues and of blues in general.

B.B. King, Muddy waters, Eric Clapton and Robert Cray and many others are also well known titans within the genre. They helped to revive the blues after it had fallen out of popularity, and also forge new grounds, helping to

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