Jazz History July 11th Blues

I enjoyed listening to all the great recordings Lewis brought in yesterday and our discussion of the definition of Blues. As a jazz trumpeter I expect to perform a tune that is a blues or is blues"ish" every time I go out and play. Therefore I try and always work on it in practice and I try to explore blues sounds in "non blues" tunes. For my ears, the sound of the blues is the contrast of the tensions (altered tones) in the chord with the consonant chromatic neighbor tones. For example; alternately stressing the #9 and the Maj 3rd, or the b5 next to the natural 5, etc. I think real seasoned blues musicians are masters of the tension and release associated with these chromatic relationships. I thought the lyrics conversation was interesting, with the symbolism in the lyrics leaving a great deal open to interpretation (and the references being so outdated that its hard to figure out what the singer is even talking about). I think in some cases the sound of the words and the rhythm they make when spoken are probably half the reason they were chosen. Anyway, thanks John for setting up this blog. See you guys on Wednesday.