Jazz History Homework #5 Name ______________________________

Chapter 5 – The Blues

All answers will be found in the book unless designated (R) – research question

1. There are three main definitions for “the blues” as it pertains to music.

a.

b.

c.

2. Had it not been for the ____________________, the blues artists of the 1920s and 30s

would be virtually unknown to us today.

3. Field recordings were made of prisoners on work gangs in prison farms chiefly throught he

pioneering efforts of ____________________.

4. The ______________________ blues, sometimes called _______________ blues or

________________ blues is a rural folk expression usually performed by a male singer.

5. We believe that blues form was originally ___________ and ________________ from 8 – 16

measures in length but that a predominant form emerged: the ________________________

of three lines each accompanied by simple chordal harmony of tonic, subdominant, and

dominant.

6. In country blues with vocal lines approximately two measures long the singer was able to

play _______________________ between each phrase. This pattern is commonly cited as

the tie between American blues and African _____________________________ singing.

7. The country blues gave jazz not only one of its most important ________________ but also a

mode of performance with all its naturally associated sounds and attitudes.

8. The lowered third and seventh scale steps are commonly called __________________.

9. Country blues is such a _________________ for it is perpetuated by ___________________.

Songs are passed on by word of mouth, and performance tradition is learned by watching

and _____________________.
10. In July, 1924, Paramount Records of Chicago produced the first country blues record

_________________________ by “Papa” Charlie Jackson.

11. Perhaps the best-known rural blues singer of the 1920s was ______________________.

12. One song associated particularly with Blind Lemon was _________________________.

13. _________________________ was a blues singer who received long jail sentences from

several Texas and Luisiana prisons for violent crimes. It was here that he was “discovered”

by Alan Lomax and first recorded the prison songs for their collection. These songs are now

preserved in the archives of the ___________________________________________.

14. ___________________________ was one of the first black female vocalists who performed

____________________ to the accompaniment of jazz band or piano. She earned the title

“Mother of the Blues” both as a leading early figure and as the mentor of _______________.

15. A man largely responsible for the spread and popularity of the blues as we know it today was

___________________________. A black composer, cornetist and bandleader who

designated himself the title of ________________________.

16. The first blues tune ever to be published was one of Handy’s own compositions

______________________________. His most famous composition was the _____________

written in 1914 and given a classic performance in 1925 by _____________________ and

_____________________.

17. (R)__________________ made the first blues recording to be made by an African American

singer. She recorded “That thing I love” and “You can’t keep a good man down” for the

____________ record label.

18. (R) The ___________ record label was taken from the initials of _______________________.

19. (R) In 1920 Mamie Smith’s recordings were a huge success for the label. In 1922 Okeh hired

_______________________ as the director of “race recordings.”

20. (R) In 1922 the label opened a studio in ________________ and soon became the center for

jazz in the 1920s.