Post by AlanB on Apr 14, 2015 1:05:00 GMT -5
The following was written 60 years ago. 18 years back I was asked to scan the following by somebody researching this "genre" for a potential book on the subject - it never came to fruition. I think since then there's been several on the topic.
What Is Rhythm and Blues
by Albert J. McCarthy
(From Jazzbook 1955, Cassell, p.84-93)
THE mention of rhythm and blues in the presence of an official of one of the major American recording companies would cause that individual some pain. The rhythm and blues field is very much the prerogative of small recording firms, and the major labels were unaware of the revolution that was taking place in the recording industry until it was too late. Although all the big labels now have a rhythm and blues catalogue, the presence of one of their records in the first twenty big-selling items is a cause for comment. The top sellers in this field can be found on little-known labels like Chess, Imperial, King, Peacock and Trumpet. Rhythm and blues is a Negro music and it was already in full flower when the jazz fans became aware of its existence.
The actual musical content of the average rhythm and blues record is very limited. It is a music in which the tenor saxophone plays the predominant role and one well-known jazz tenor player commented that if one could teach the apes in the zoo the way to play tenor, they would sound like rhythm and blues men. Rhythm and blues is the music of gimmicks and cheap excitement—it is as perfect a music for the 'fifties as the Charleston was for the 'twenties. It expresses perfectly the basic emptiness of modern America. At the same time, it paradoxically gives one a glimpse of the genius of the Negro for instilling life into his music. When many of the great Negro musicians had been seduced by the 'cool' it was an answer, crude yet effective, reminding them of the essential rhythmic aspects of their music. It has come to stay and even Europe is becoming aware of the idiom. Today we can hear ersatz rhythm and blues played by English and French musicians. The original records sell well in Europe and the buzz-saw tone of an Earl Bostic is almost as familiar as the coolness of a Parker. Despite this, few attempts have been made to see the genre in perspective, and it is indeed difficult to get a very clear impression of its growth and roots at this stage.
The era of the great blues singers is over. In a matter of a decade or so the body of Afro-American folk song will become a museum piece. In some of the remote parts of the Southern States this music still has a life of its own, but the spread of the radio and television—the inevitable accompaniments of a higher standard of living—will soon swamp this fine music. As the Negro becomes more closely assimilated into the pattern of American life it is inevitable that his music will become more cosmopolitan. Rhythm and blues are the welding of the Negro blues with the material of Tin Pan Alley and represents, in the truest sense of the word, the commercialization of the blues. Yet, this is not a trend of very recent duration and the signs of what was imminent could be seen as early as the mid-'thirties. By the end of the 'thirties the foundations for rhythm and blues were clearly visible and what followed was a purely logical development.
Anyone who has read one of the newspapers published for the Negro population of the United States will have noted the many advertisements for hair straighteners and bleachers. They make rather pathetic reading. One can hardly blame a people whose lot was very largely one of exploitation, if they are impressed with the surface manifestations of the wealth of their oppressors. There can be little doubt that the lot of the Negro in the United States has improved very considerably in the last decade, and the political needs of a power group who might need every possible support for a war with a rival power clique in the Soviet Union has led to a flowering of 'liberalism' on the part of the State in racial matters. With the new-found liberty, the Negro population is anxious to assert its equality with the white population and this has led to the phenomenon of the Negroes aping the whites in many respects. For this reason, most of the music of the past is associated with an era which is representative of an unhappy time and is conveniently designated as 'Uncle Tom' music. Jazz music must be cleaned up and become respectable—i.e. devoid of any specific Negro characteristics. By an ironic coincidence this happened to take form as an attitude at the same time as the white followers discovered the values of New Orleans jazz, and we now have the spectacle of white musicians trying to play like Negroes and the Negro modernists trying to sound like a white symphony musician. Such an attitude is wholly understandable, but the results have been curious in many instances.
Those records which were intended purely for the Negro market in the United States were issued for years under the familiar 'race' designation. The bulk of these releases were urbanized blues, somewhat sophisticated in many instances, but still readily identifiable with the music of the great blues period. In the 'thirties, the race lists began to have an increasing number of items from the Harlem school of musicians—jive novelties and semi-pornographic cabaret songs. The bulk of issues were still by blues singers with a simple instrumental backing, but these artists were now fighting the popularity of artists who were much more on the fringe of Harlem jazz than in the blues field. One or two companies did make some attempt at discrimination and American Decca put the bulk of these releases under a special 'Sepia' heading. It was already obvious in 1939 that the blues artists were fighting a losing battle and such was indeed the case. The war years severely curtailed the record releases and when one again had the opportunity of studying the items made for the Negro market it was apparent that a change of emphasis had taken place. There were still records by the well-known blues artists of the past, but they now, as often as not, sang jive songs and pseudo blues with a Harlem type backing. In the following years most of these artists disappeared from the lists and we were treated to singers in the Billy Eckstine manner and numerous cabaret-type jive specialists. The rhythmic impulse seemed to have vanished, to be replaced by a welter of phoney sentimentality and second-hand jump music. In actual fact, this was a transition period which led to the birth of rhythm and blues as we know it today.
The birth of a new musical form or the transition to a new expression which welds elements from older mediums, is never the work of any one man or group of individuals. There may be certain important leaders in the field, but they are generally the expression of a group urge and merely present the solution in a reasonably coherent form by natural ability or foresight. It is doubtful if many of the musicians who were to assume such importance in the rhythm and blues field were even aware of what they were doing in the early stages. The fact was that an impasse had been reached and the Negro population ardently desired a music which would avoid the stigma of 'Uncle Tom' while retaining the rhythmic drive of the music that had gone before. It so happened, at this time, that two of the large Negro orchestras contained numerous musicians who were shortly to rise to fame in this field—the orchestras in question being those led by Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder.
The group which Lucky Millinder was directing was more obviously associated with the rhythm and blues movement than Hampton's but the latter contributed a great deal in the early 'forties to the development of the style. To begin with, the Hampton band has always had a strong visual attraction and it featured a brand of showmanship which earned for itself a fame which caused many reviewers of its performances to refer to the Lionel Hampton circus. Not only was it strong on the show side, it also included at various times about every known eccentricity of sound, ranging from the phenomenal high-note trumpet work of Cat Anderson to the squealing and honking of those two exuberant tenor saxophone players Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb. From the Hampton fold came 'the fabulous alto of Earl Bostic' and such rhythm and blues stalwarts as Joe Morris and Jack McVea. The type of blues performance which Hampton featured was pure rhythm and blues in style and there can be little doubt that Hampton's musicians were pioneers in the idiom.
Lucky Millinder, at one time a leader of the Irving Mills Blue Rhythm Band, also pioneered in the rhythm and blues style and has included in his group stars like Big John Greer, Sonny Thompson and Frank Galbraith. He has recorded frequently on the King label and the company is one of the biggest to specialize in this field. On a number of occasions he has accompanied that ebullient singer Wynonie Harris— certainly one of the best singers in the idiom. Although he is little known in this country, his following amongst the Negro population in the United States is considerable. Thus, by the mid-'forties, rhythm and blues had crept up on an unsuspecting public and the major companies were unaware of it until all the really outstanding artists had been signed up by dozens of small companies, happily cashing in on this heaven-sent opportunity.
To attempt a definition of rhythm and blues is a little difficult as it is a wide field which embraces many sounds and types of performances. The instrumental side of it has been marked by the preponderance of the tenor saxophone in the groups. One thing is common to all the bands and that is a terrific accentuation of the beat. It is a music lacking in any subtlety and has as its object the purveyance of excitement. From beginning to end, the performers attempt to play with the maximum drive against a steady and almost thunderous beat from the rhythm section. Eccentricity of sound, to refer to some of the saxophone noises in a reasonably polite fashion, is encouraged, and the tenor saxophone player in a rhythm and blues performance who is not capable of honking and the occasional squeals d la Jacquet is a weak performer indeed. The key to success is simplicity and one of the most famous performers, Earl Bostic, exemplifies this approach admirably. Bostic, an average sideman until he discovered his 'new sound', has made a great deal of money from playing to Negro audiences all over the country in this idiom. His plan was simply to obtain a driving rhythm section which kept up an incessant beat, add a vibraphone for effect and play long solos over this on his alto saxophone with a tone which can only be described as disturbing. He has distorted the natural tone of his instrument to produce a curious buzzing noise to which is added a driving sense of rhythm that produces one of the most individualistic sounds ever perpetrated on record. There is never a moment of let-up for the listener, and from the opening bar the music falls on him like a series of sledgehammer blows driving him either into a sort of hypnotic fascination or a splitting headache. It is a sort of masochistic toying with the nervous system where only the strong emerge unscathed. The Bostic formula has been copied by numerous other musicians and 'fabulous altos', 'rocking tenors' and 'beatful baritones' have sprung up around us in mushroom fashion, each one torturing the already strained nerves a degree further. Even in England, Geoffrey Taylor, an alto player whom many had considered was a very promising young musician, adopted the Bostic style and produces music which sounds like Bostic in advanced age. Yet, if one is honest, it is necessary to admit that there are times when the rhythm and blues musicians provide an almost pleasant contrast to the zombie-like music of the cool musicians.
If one should ever have cause to erect a memorial to the whole school of rhythm and blues, I can think of no more fitting one than crossed tenor saxophones with the simple epitaph 'we honked'. On the vocal side of the music the ever-present tenor sax is there to take its chorus at some point. Rhythm and blues in the vocal sense have produced some singers who have great talent. Wynonie Harris, Willie Mae Thornton, Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, B. B. King and many others are natural entertainers who can produce pleasing records on occasions. The blues element is always present in their work and they are modernized city versions of the great blues singers of the past. If their material is usually written for them by smart commercial operators and the emotional content is often very false, one has to remember that the social conditions in which the blues were born and flourished are no longer operative. It is too simple to attempt a direct comparison but one could say that while the early blues artists were essentially rural singers expressing the hopes and sorrows of their environment, the modern rhythm and blues man or woman is a city entertainer whose main function is to keep an urban population amused. Even so, there is often a social content in some of the modern blues songs and they are far from being completely expressive of the Tin Pan Alley concept. The humour is saltier and the sorrow more genuine than in the current Hit Parade numbers.
Today there must be hundreds of thousands of rhythm and blues records sold annually to the Negro population of the United States. The curious factor about it is that many talented Negro jazz stars and even some white ones, have attempted to make a quick dollar by playing in this style. While it is unlikely that many of these records sell to the white population in America, they do enjoy a reasonable sale in England, France and some other European countries. Singers like Wynonie Harris (certain of his records are available in this country on the Vogue label), Ivory Joe Hunter, Fats Domino and B. B. King enjoy enormous popularity amongst coloured audiences and their position is comparable to that of Bessie Smith, Leroy Carr and Ma Rainey in the 'twenties. The difficulty which faces a novice who might get hold of a rhythm and blues catalogue is that the term is used in an all-embracing sense, like the 'race' lists in the past. On the one hand, there are listed singers who are entirely commercial in the sense that say Billy Eckstine and Nat 'King' Cole are commercial. They are singing the popular Tin Pan Alley songs of the day and only the fact that they are coloured results in this categorization. On the other hand, there are what are usually called 'Southern blues'. These are records of genuine blues similar to the great performances of the past, and the artists would be of the type of Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) and Lightning Hopkins. It must not be forgotten that there is still a considerable sale for the authentic blues in the rural areas of the Southern States, and that the traditional type performances are issued regularly to meet the demand. Then there are odd instrumental records which are really nearer to jazz proper than anything else. Finally, before coming to the rhythm and blues proper, the collector would be bound to find many records listed by the interminable vocal groups.
For some reason, the popularity of vocal quartets and larger groupings has increased tremendously during the past few years, and many of them use material in the rhythm and blues vein. The Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots and other such artists have been well known for many years, but there has been a great rise to prominence of such groups as the Dominoes, the Swallows and the Ravens, to name only three of the outstanding performers. Although the material they use includes many ballads, they also specialize in novelty blues which are rendered in a very rhythmic fashion and have a great deal of drive and swing. They enjoy considerable popularity with the Negro record buyers and are considered part of the rhythm and blues catalogue, although, strictly speaking, most of their records are not really in that category. Some of them have accompaniments by well-known rhythm and blues artists.
The appeal of rhythm and blues outside the Negro market must be limited. It is a form which allows little variation and presents no great challenge to a musician who can handle his instrument in a reasonably competent fashion. The European musicians who have recorded in this style are exploiting a novelty appeal. On the other hand, the effect of rhythm and blues has been felt well outside the fold. Some large swing orchestras have used material of this nature and one of them, Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra, has attained some degree of fame as a result. Some big selling popular hits have come from this idiom and have been recorded by jazz or near jazz bands in a number of countries. In one sense it is a healthy influence, as the drive and beat are factors which are too often overlooked by today's jazzmen. It is difficult to see any way in which it can be an influence for good in any other respect. There is so little room for innovation within its narrow confines that it can hold no musical interest for the younger jazzman.
The hold that rhythm and blues has on the Negro market shows no sign of abating at the moment. Perhaps, despite the growing sense of identification with the America of the white man, the Negro population will cling to something in their music which is readily identifiable as part of their heritage. It requires some imagination to see this type of music as anything but a rather reprehensible bastardization of a fine folk form, but perhaps the trappings are a superficiality and the solid core of really worthwhile music will emerge unscathed. It is also rather difficult to see how much of the following is genuine and how much it is inspired by commercial interests. The real point about it is that however much the lover of real blues may lament the passing of a great form, this is a stage better than the ordinary manufactured popular song. The core of greatness may be difficult to unfold from the mass of spurious trimmings, but anyone who listens to a record by a singer like Wynonie Harris can discern it is still present. Perhaps with equality becoming a reality, the Negro may yet recover a sense of proportion which will not cause him to merely imitate the white man and his music. It seems somewhat unlikely as things are at the moment, but if rhythm and blues retains some of the greatness of his past musical achievements, then it can be welcomed as a step in the right direction.
Behind the honking tenors, the fabulous altos and the electric guitars whining interminably, there is a core of the blues that serves to remind one of greater things. If for sociological and psychological reasons the present-day Negro population wish to ostensibly turn their back on the past, then rhythm and blues may be important as providing a medium whereby, when the present tensions have been conquered, a return to a music more vital and less spurious can be attempted. At least this can be said of the style at the moment—it has some vitality. If the vitality induces in many of us a desire for aspirins instead of emulation, then it is possible that our own lifelessness is the cause and not the music. In the society of the 'fifties, irrespective of the label it attaches to itself, vitality can seem almost indecent. Better the fiftieth repetitive honk than the hypodermic!
The following is a representative selection only Rhythm and Blues Records available in Great Britain
EARL BOSTIC Flamingo/Sleep Vogue V2145
TINY BRADSHAW Walk That Mess/Breaking Up the House Vogue V2146
THE DOMINOES Have Mercy Baby/That s What You're Doing Vogue V2135
H-BOMB FERGUSON Feel Like I Do/My Love Esquire 10-372
WYNONIE HARRIS Lovin' Machine/Luscious Woman Vogue V2111
WYNONIE HARRIS Good Morning Judge/Just Like Two Drops Vogue V2128
THE RAVENS Rock Me All Night Long/ Write Me One Oriole CB1148
THE SWALLOWS Roll, Roll, Pretty Baby/ It Ain't The Meat Vogue V2136
SONNY THOMPSON Real, Real Fine—Pts. 1 & 2 Vogue V2148
WILLIE MAE THORNTON Hound Dog/Mischievous Boogie Vogue V2284
What Is Rhythm and Blues
by Albert J. McCarthy
(From Jazzbook 1955, Cassell, p.84-93)
THE mention of rhythm and blues in the presence of an official of one of the major American recording companies would cause that individual some pain. The rhythm and blues field is very much the prerogative of small recording firms, and the major labels were unaware of the revolution that was taking place in the recording industry until it was too late. Although all the big labels now have a rhythm and blues catalogue, the presence of one of their records in the first twenty big-selling items is a cause for comment. The top sellers in this field can be found on little-known labels like Chess, Imperial, King, Peacock and Trumpet. Rhythm and blues is a Negro music and it was already in full flower when the jazz fans became aware of its existence.
The actual musical content of the average rhythm and blues record is very limited. It is a music in which the tenor saxophone plays the predominant role and one well-known jazz tenor player commented that if one could teach the apes in the zoo the way to play tenor, they would sound like rhythm and blues men. Rhythm and blues is the music of gimmicks and cheap excitement—it is as perfect a music for the 'fifties as the Charleston was for the 'twenties. It expresses perfectly the basic emptiness of modern America. At the same time, it paradoxically gives one a glimpse of the genius of the Negro for instilling life into his music. When many of the great Negro musicians had been seduced by the 'cool' it was an answer, crude yet effective, reminding them of the essential rhythmic aspects of their music. It has come to stay and even Europe is becoming aware of the idiom. Today we can hear ersatz rhythm and blues played by English and French musicians. The original records sell well in Europe and the buzz-saw tone of an Earl Bostic is almost as familiar as the coolness of a Parker. Despite this, few attempts have been made to see the genre in perspective, and it is indeed difficult to get a very clear impression of its growth and roots at this stage.
The era of the great blues singers is over. In a matter of a decade or so the body of Afro-American folk song will become a museum piece. In some of the remote parts of the Southern States this music still has a life of its own, but the spread of the radio and television—the inevitable accompaniments of a higher standard of living—will soon swamp this fine music. As the Negro becomes more closely assimilated into the pattern of American life it is inevitable that his music will become more cosmopolitan. Rhythm and blues are the welding of the Negro blues with the material of Tin Pan Alley and represents, in the truest sense of the word, the commercialization of the blues. Yet, this is not a trend of very recent duration and the signs of what was imminent could be seen as early as the mid-'thirties. By the end of the 'thirties the foundations for rhythm and blues were clearly visible and what followed was a purely logical development.
Anyone who has read one of the newspapers published for the Negro population of the United States will have noted the many advertisements for hair straighteners and bleachers. They make rather pathetic reading. One can hardly blame a people whose lot was very largely one of exploitation, if they are impressed with the surface manifestations of the wealth of their oppressors. There can be little doubt that the lot of the Negro in the United States has improved very considerably in the last decade, and the political needs of a power group who might need every possible support for a war with a rival power clique in the Soviet Union has led to a flowering of 'liberalism' on the part of the State in racial matters. With the new-found liberty, the Negro population is anxious to assert its equality with the white population and this has led to the phenomenon of the Negroes aping the whites in many respects. For this reason, most of the music of the past is associated with an era which is representative of an unhappy time and is conveniently designated as 'Uncle Tom' music. Jazz music must be cleaned up and become respectable—i.e. devoid of any specific Negro characteristics. By an ironic coincidence this happened to take form as an attitude at the same time as the white followers discovered the values of New Orleans jazz, and we now have the spectacle of white musicians trying to play like Negroes and the Negro modernists trying to sound like a white symphony musician. Such an attitude is wholly understandable, but the results have been curious in many instances.
Those records which were intended purely for the Negro market in the United States were issued for years under the familiar 'race' designation. The bulk of these releases were urbanized blues, somewhat sophisticated in many instances, but still readily identifiable with the music of the great blues period. In the 'thirties, the race lists began to have an increasing number of items from the Harlem school of musicians—jive novelties and semi-pornographic cabaret songs. The bulk of issues were still by blues singers with a simple instrumental backing, but these artists were now fighting the popularity of artists who were much more on the fringe of Harlem jazz than in the blues field. One or two companies did make some attempt at discrimination and American Decca put the bulk of these releases under a special 'Sepia' heading. It was already obvious in 1939 that the blues artists were fighting a losing battle and such was indeed the case. The war years severely curtailed the record releases and when one again had the opportunity of studying the items made for the Negro market it was apparent that a change of emphasis had taken place. There were still records by the well-known blues artists of the past, but they now, as often as not, sang jive songs and pseudo blues with a Harlem type backing. In the following years most of these artists disappeared from the lists and we were treated to singers in the Billy Eckstine manner and numerous cabaret-type jive specialists. The rhythmic impulse seemed to have vanished, to be replaced by a welter of phoney sentimentality and second-hand jump music. In actual fact, this was a transition period which led to the birth of rhythm and blues as we know it today.
The birth of a new musical form or the transition to a new expression which welds elements from older mediums, is never the work of any one man or group of individuals. There may be certain important leaders in the field, but they are generally the expression of a group urge and merely present the solution in a reasonably coherent form by natural ability or foresight. It is doubtful if many of the musicians who were to assume such importance in the rhythm and blues field were even aware of what they were doing in the early stages. The fact was that an impasse had been reached and the Negro population ardently desired a music which would avoid the stigma of 'Uncle Tom' while retaining the rhythmic drive of the music that had gone before. It so happened, at this time, that two of the large Negro orchestras contained numerous musicians who were shortly to rise to fame in this field—the orchestras in question being those led by Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder.
The group which Lucky Millinder was directing was more obviously associated with the rhythm and blues movement than Hampton's but the latter contributed a great deal in the early 'forties to the development of the style. To begin with, the Hampton band has always had a strong visual attraction and it featured a brand of showmanship which earned for itself a fame which caused many reviewers of its performances to refer to the Lionel Hampton circus. Not only was it strong on the show side, it also included at various times about every known eccentricity of sound, ranging from the phenomenal high-note trumpet work of Cat Anderson to the squealing and honking of those two exuberant tenor saxophone players Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb. From the Hampton fold came 'the fabulous alto of Earl Bostic' and such rhythm and blues stalwarts as Joe Morris and Jack McVea. The type of blues performance which Hampton featured was pure rhythm and blues in style and there can be little doubt that Hampton's musicians were pioneers in the idiom.
Lucky Millinder, at one time a leader of the Irving Mills Blue Rhythm Band, also pioneered in the rhythm and blues style and has included in his group stars like Big John Greer, Sonny Thompson and Frank Galbraith. He has recorded frequently on the King label and the company is one of the biggest to specialize in this field. On a number of occasions he has accompanied that ebullient singer Wynonie Harris— certainly one of the best singers in the idiom. Although he is little known in this country, his following amongst the Negro population in the United States is considerable. Thus, by the mid-'forties, rhythm and blues had crept up on an unsuspecting public and the major companies were unaware of it until all the really outstanding artists had been signed up by dozens of small companies, happily cashing in on this heaven-sent opportunity.
To attempt a definition of rhythm and blues is a little difficult as it is a wide field which embraces many sounds and types of performances. The instrumental side of it has been marked by the preponderance of the tenor saxophone in the groups. One thing is common to all the bands and that is a terrific accentuation of the beat. It is a music lacking in any subtlety and has as its object the purveyance of excitement. From beginning to end, the performers attempt to play with the maximum drive against a steady and almost thunderous beat from the rhythm section. Eccentricity of sound, to refer to some of the saxophone noises in a reasonably polite fashion, is encouraged, and the tenor saxophone player in a rhythm and blues performance who is not capable of honking and the occasional squeals d la Jacquet is a weak performer indeed. The key to success is simplicity and one of the most famous performers, Earl Bostic, exemplifies this approach admirably. Bostic, an average sideman until he discovered his 'new sound', has made a great deal of money from playing to Negro audiences all over the country in this idiom. His plan was simply to obtain a driving rhythm section which kept up an incessant beat, add a vibraphone for effect and play long solos over this on his alto saxophone with a tone which can only be described as disturbing. He has distorted the natural tone of his instrument to produce a curious buzzing noise to which is added a driving sense of rhythm that produces one of the most individualistic sounds ever perpetrated on record. There is never a moment of let-up for the listener, and from the opening bar the music falls on him like a series of sledgehammer blows driving him either into a sort of hypnotic fascination or a splitting headache. It is a sort of masochistic toying with the nervous system where only the strong emerge unscathed. The Bostic formula has been copied by numerous other musicians and 'fabulous altos', 'rocking tenors' and 'beatful baritones' have sprung up around us in mushroom fashion, each one torturing the already strained nerves a degree further. Even in England, Geoffrey Taylor, an alto player whom many had considered was a very promising young musician, adopted the Bostic style and produces music which sounds like Bostic in advanced age. Yet, if one is honest, it is necessary to admit that there are times when the rhythm and blues musicians provide an almost pleasant contrast to the zombie-like music of the cool musicians.
If one should ever have cause to erect a memorial to the whole school of rhythm and blues, I can think of no more fitting one than crossed tenor saxophones with the simple epitaph 'we honked'. On the vocal side of the music the ever-present tenor sax is there to take its chorus at some point. Rhythm and blues in the vocal sense have produced some singers who have great talent. Wynonie Harris, Willie Mae Thornton, Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, B. B. King and many others are natural entertainers who can produce pleasing records on occasions. The blues element is always present in their work and they are modernized city versions of the great blues singers of the past. If their material is usually written for them by smart commercial operators and the emotional content is often very false, one has to remember that the social conditions in which the blues were born and flourished are no longer operative. It is too simple to attempt a direct comparison but one could say that while the early blues artists were essentially rural singers expressing the hopes and sorrows of their environment, the modern rhythm and blues man or woman is a city entertainer whose main function is to keep an urban population amused. Even so, there is often a social content in some of the modern blues songs and they are far from being completely expressive of the Tin Pan Alley concept. The humour is saltier and the sorrow more genuine than in the current Hit Parade numbers.
Today there must be hundreds of thousands of rhythm and blues records sold annually to the Negro population of the United States. The curious factor about it is that many talented Negro jazz stars and even some white ones, have attempted to make a quick dollar by playing in this style. While it is unlikely that many of these records sell to the white population in America, they do enjoy a reasonable sale in England, France and some other European countries. Singers like Wynonie Harris (certain of his records are available in this country on the Vogue label), Ivory Joe Hunter, Fats Domino and B. B. King enjoy enormous popularity amongst coloured audiences and their position is comparable to that of Bessie Smith, Leroy Carr and Ma Rainey in the 'twenties. The difficulty which faces a novice who might get hold of a rhythm and blues catalogue is that the term is used in an all-embracing sense, like the 'race' lists in the past. On the one hand, there are listed singers who are entirely commercial in the sense that say Billy Eckstine and Nat 'King' Cole are commercial. They are singing the popular Tin Pan Alley songs of the day and only the fact that they are coloured results in this categorization. On the other hand, there are what are usually called 'Southern blues'. These are records of genuine blues similar to the great performances of the past, and the artists would be of the type of Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) and Lightning Hopkins. It must not be forgotten that there is still a considerable sale for the authentic blues in the rural areas of the Southern States, and that the traditional type performances are issued regularly to meet the demand. Then there are odd instrumental records which are really nearer to jazz proper than anything else. Finally, before coming to the rhythm and blues proper, the collector would be bound to find many records listed by the interminable vocal groups.
For some reason, the popularity of vocal quartets and larger groupings has increased tremendously during the past few years, and many of them use material in the rhythm and blues vein. The Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots and other such artists have been well known for many years, but there has been a great rise to prominence of such groups as the Dominoes, the Swallows and the Ravens, to name only three of the outstanding performers. Although the material they use includes many ballads, they also specialize in novelty blues which are rendered in a very rhythmic fashion and have a great deal of drive and swing. They enjoy considerable popularity with the Negro record buyers and are considered part of the rhythm and blues catalogue, although, strictly speaking, most of their records are not really in that category. Some of them have accompaniments by well-known rhythm and blues artists.
The appeal of rhythm and blues outside the Negro market must be limited. It is a form which allows little variation and presents no great challenge to a musician who can handle his instrument in a reasonably competent fashion. The European musicians who have recorded in this style are exploiting a novelty appeal. On the other hand, the effect of rhythm and blues has been felt well outside the fold. Some large swing orchestras have used material of this nature and one of them, Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra, has attained some degree of fame as a result. Some big selling popular hits have come from this idiom and have been recorded by jazz or near jazz bands in a number of countries. In one sense it is a healthy influence, as the drive and beat are factors which are too often overlooked by today's jazzmen. It is difficult to see any way in which it can be an influence for good in any other respect. There is so little room for innovation within its narrow confines that it can hold no musical interest for the younger jazzman.
The hold that rhythm and blues has on the Negro market shows no sign of abating at the moment. Perhaps, despite the growing sense of identification with the America of the white man, the Negro population will cling to something in their music which is readily identifiable as part of their heritage. It requires some imagination to see this type of music as anything but a rather reprehensible bastardization of a fine folk form, but perhaps the trappings are a superficiality and the solid core of really worthwhile music will emerge unscathed. It is also rather difficult to see how much of the following is genuine and how much it is inspired by commercial interests. The real point about it is that however much the lover of real blues may lament the passing of a great form, this is a stage better than the ordinary manufactured popular song. The core of greatness may be difficult to unfold from the mass of spurious trimmings, but anyone who listens to a record by a singer like Wynonie Harris can discern it is still present. Perhaps with equality becoming a reality, the Negro may yet recover a sense of proportion which will not cause him to merely imitate the white man and his music. It seems somewhat unlikely as things are at the moment, but if rhythm and blues retains some of the greatness of his past musical achievements, then it can be welcomed as a step in the right direction.
Behind the honking tenors, the fabulous altos and the electric guitars whining interminably, there is a core of the blues that serves to remind one of greater things. If for sociological and psychological reasons the present-day Negro population wish to ostensibly turn their back on the past, then rhythm and blues may be important as providing a medium whereby, when the present tensions have been conquered, a return to a music more vital and less spurious can be attempted. At least this can be said of the style at the moment—it has some vitality. If the vitality induces in many of us a desire for aspirins instead of emulation, then it is possible that our own lifelessness is the cause and not the music. In the society of the 'fifties, irrespective of the label it attaches to itself, vitality can seem almost indecent. Better the fiftieth repetitive honk than the hypodermic!
The following is a representative selection only Rhythm and Blues Records available in Great Britain
EARL BOSTIC Flamingo/Sleep Vogue V2145
TINY BRADSHAW Walk That Mess/Breaking Up the House Vogue V2146
THE DOMINOES Have Mercy Baby/That s What You're Doing Vogue V2135
H-BOMB FERGUSON Feel Like I Do/My Love Esquire 10-372
WYNONIE HARRIS Lovin' Machine/Luscious Woman Vogue V2111
WYNONIE HARRIS Good Morning Judge/Just Like Two Drops Vogue V2128
THE RAVENS Rock Me All Night Long/ Write Me One Oriole CB1148
THE SWALLOWS Roll, Roll, Pretty Baby/ It Ain't The Meat Vogue V2136
SONNY THOMPSON Real, Real Fine—Pts. 1 & 2 Vogue V2148
WILLIE MAE THORNTON Hound Dog/Mischievous Boogie Vogue V2284