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Originally Posted by BassChuck  If you are really interested in the 'roots of blues' you might check out the Alan Lomax recording he made in the late 1940's of black prisoners in an Alabama prison. These older folks had learned the songs from their parents who were pretty close in age to the slaves of the 19th century. They are singing as they do their work. This is as close to slave songs and we can get. What is interesting is that you can hear the same harmony changes and little phrases in the singing along with typical vocal inflections. The recordings are not uplifting and in fact quite depressing, but very, very interesting. |
+1. One of the best classes I ever took when I was getting my undergraduate degree was The History of Miles Davis. Miles was a blues guy, so naturally we studied a lot of blues. My professor was a cat by the name of James Newton, jazz flutist who had toured and played with Miles. Anyway, he had us listen to an old library of congress recording of a slave preacher giving a sermon at a makeshift church on an actual slave plantation. His intonation, and melodic way of speaking was the blues. Even the call and response he had with his sermon.
