Race Records and Hillbilly Music

1. Race Records and Hillbilly Music

2. Musical Diversification • Record companies targeted new audiences between World War I and World War II (1918–40). • Recorded music derived from the folk traditions of the American South • Migration of millions of people from rural communities to cities such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Nashville in the years following World War I

3. Race Records and Hillbilly Music • Terms used by the American music industry to classify and advertise southern music. • Race Records • Recordings of performances by African American musicians produced mainly for sale to African American listeners • Hillbilly or Old-Time • Music performed by and intended for sale to southern whites

4. Mamie Smith (1883–1946) • Known as the “Queen of the Blues” • Pioneer blues singer, pianist, and black vaudeville performer • In 1920, she recorded the bestsellers “Crazy Blues” and “It's Right Here For You, If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine.” • Mamie Smith’s success as a recording artist opened up the record industry to recordings by and for African Americans.

5. Race Music • The term was first applied by Ralph Peer (1892–1960). • A Missouri-born talent scout for Okeh Records • Had worked as an assistant on Mamie Smith’s first recording sessions

6. Race Records • The performances released on race records included a variety of musical styles: • Blues • Jazz • Gospel choirs • Vocal quartets • String bands • Jug-and-washboard bands • Verbal performances • Sermons • Stories • Comic routines

7. The Blues Definitions: 1. Describes a feeling—“I’ve got the blues” 2. Refers to the blues style of singing or playing • blues vocals—like intensified speech • narrow range; rough, highly inflected timbre 3. Indicates a musical form—twelve-bar chorus, AAB text

8. Blues Form • A standard rhythmic harmonic structure in which a twelve-bar chord progression is tied to the AAB text in three four-bar phrases. • It is also called “twelve-bar blues.”

9. Text of a Blues Song • Rhymed couplet—each chorus of a blues song contains two lines of text with the first line repeated. The text is AAB: • I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down • I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down • It makes me think I’m on my last go-round

10. Form of a Blues Song • Melodic form—each line is sung to its own melodic idea. • Rhythmic form—each phrase of a standard blues chorus lasts four bars. One chorus of a blues song is twelve measures long (3x4). • Harmonic form—the harmony of a blues song is I, IV, and V chords.

11. Twelve-Bar Blues • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011 12 • I IV I V IV I

12. Classic Blues • Classic blues songs were performed by high-class nightclub singers. • Alberta Hunter (1895–1984) • Billed as the “Marian Anderson of the Blues” • Ethel Waters (1896–1977) • Entertained the growing African American middle class in New York, Chicago, and other northern cities

13. Classic Blues • Singers who performed in a somewhat rougher style • Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939) • Popularly known as the “Mother of the Blues” • Bessie Smith (1894–1937) • “Empress of the Blues” • Rainey and Smith developed their singing styles in the rough-and-tumble black vaudeville and tent shows.

14. Bessie Smith (1894–1937) • The “Empress of the Blues” • The most important and influential of the woman blues singers from the early twentieth century. • Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee; began recording in 1923 • Stylistically a blues singer even when performing novelty and vaudeville numbers; had a majestic voice • The centerpiece of Columbia’s race record labels

15. W. C. Handy (1873–1958) • The “Father of the Blues” • The most influential of the classic blues composers • Son of a conservative pastor who forbade him from playing the guitar • Learned to play the cornet instead • Went on to college, received a degree, and became a schoolteacher • Handy cofounded the first African American–owned publishing house. • His music owed much to Tin Pan Alley as well as African American folk traditions. • His biggest hit was “St. Louis Blues,” written in 1914.

16. Listening: “St. Louis Blues,” by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie Smith (1925) • This was the type of recording that introduced much of white America to the blues. • A hybrid approach to the blues • Removed from the “down-home” interpretation by country blues performers and composers such as Charley Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson.

17. Listening: “St. Louis Blues,” by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie Smith (1925) • Accompaniment—reed organ and cornet • Louis Armstrong on cornet • Fred Longshaw on reed organ • Call and response between cornet and Smith • Form • Based on the AABA model commonly seen in Tin Pan Alley songs • The final section is really a “C,” having a new melody but relating to the earlier “A” section of chords. • The “A” and “C” sections represent the twelve-bar blues.

18. Listening: “St. Louis Blues,” by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie Smith (1925) • A • a. I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down • a. I hate to see the eve-nin’ sun go down • b. It makes me think I’m on my last go-round • A • a. Feelin’ tomorrow like I do today • a. Feelin’ tomorrow like I do today • b. I’m gonna pack my truck and make my getaway

19. Listening: “St. Louis Blues,” by W. C. Handy, sung by Bessie Smith (1925) • B • a. St. Louis woman… • b. Pulls my man around… • a. Wasn’t for powder… • b. The man I love… • C I got them St. Louis blues…