History of Blues

There is no contention that black Americans pioneered the blues after Civil War period. However, the musical and poetic form of the blues became popular between 1910 and 1915. The composition and publication of “Memphis Blues” by William Christopher Handy in 1912 played a major role in enhancing the popularity of the music. However, vocal blues first recorded in 1920 by Mamie Smith (Tackley, 2012).

During the first three decades of 20th century, the blues were mainly recorded by black Americans. In early 1930s, Fletcher Henderson had the most popular band that recorded and played blues. Prior to 1934, the blues were perceived as the preserve of the blacks and thus, they were not popular among the whites (Tackley, 2012). Despite this, the whites welcomed and supported Benny Goodman’s blues, yet Goodman could have hardly been successful without the support of the blacks.

Goodman was a business man prior to venturing in music. He started venturing in blues by purchasing arrangements such as “Jingle Bells” and “Get Happy composed by Henderson, Spud Murphy and other blacks. He also hired Henderson to train his band until it achieved success in composing and playing blues. Although some of Goodman’s hits such as “sing sing sing” achieved significant popularity, the success could have hardly been achieved without the support of the black singers. For instance, Henderson contributed immensely to instrumental performance of “sing sing sing” (Tackley, 2012). In short, the success of Goodman’s band in performing blues highly depended on the support of blacks

References

Tackley, C. (2012). Benny Goodman’s Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Oxford:

Oxford University Press,