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The Origins Of The Blues, With Vic Hobson
A conversation with blues historian Vic Hobson tests familiar origin stories using early jazz, vaudeville women, folk song and later blues recordings.
21 selections · 13 with a playable sample
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Original Dixieland Jazz Band · Livery Stable Blues
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The origins of the blues, with Vic Hobson
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Songs in order
- 2Livery Stable Blues · Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Why it was chosen To raise a question about how the blues influenced jazz.
- 3Basin Street Blues · Doctor John
Why it was chosen To keep the New Orleans theme going, connect to a local theme as the artist often plays gigs at the university, and because the speaker likes it.
- 4Untitled · Jarivo Skovets And Jan Verek
Why it was chosen To demonstrate that the blues didn't travel in easy directions and predictable ways, using a 1931 recording from the Czech Republic.
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Why it was chosen To find a recording earlier than the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's 1919 European tour.
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Why it was chosen To give an indication of what the blues sounded like in Mississippi around 1908, when the bow weevil moved into the area.
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Why it was chosen As an example of an older repertoire of material retrospectively called blues, and as a good indication of what Buddy Bolden was playing.
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Why it was chosen To explore the presence of the blues in New Orleans in the early years of the century, specifically regarding what Morton heard Mamie Desdune playing around 1901.
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Why it was chosen Because the speaker thinks it would be nice to listen to as she is not especially well known these days.
- 10Crazy Blues · Mamie Smith
Why it was chosen To illustrate the second great blues craze of 1920, which was kicked off by this track.
- 11Jasmine Blues · Lucille Hegeman
Why it was chosen To illustrate that at this period, one could not differentiate between jazz and blues as they were so closely interrelated.
- 12Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out · Alberta Hunter
- 13Boom Boom Boom · John Lee Hooker
Why it was chosen To connect to the 60s blues revival and to link back to a previous show topic regarding bass players.
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Why it was chosen As an example of an active attempt to write women out of jazz history, as the original recording was doctored to edit out May Alex's vocal.
- 15Butter And Egg Man · Louis Armstrong
Why it was chosen The speaker notes that the recording has been restored to include May Alex, who was previously cut out, and mentions it as a "very early recording" representing a "transition between women and men"
- 17St. Louis Blues · Bessie Smith
Why it was chosen Because of Ma Rainey's supposed influence on Bessie Smith and because this is probably the most recorded blues track of them all.
- 18I'm Alabama Bound · Papa Charlie Jackson
- 19Me And My Crazy Self · Lonnie Johnson
- 20I Got Nothing But The Blues · Three Bs
Why it was chosen To make a point about the extent to which the blues can be expanded, featuring a local musician performing a Duke Ellington composition.
- 21Caracar · Boubacar Traore
Why it was chosen To hear the blues as it is played in Africa, where the genre supposedly originally came from.