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very important section by mentioning a Sonny Terry LP (Vogue LDE 165) and a Big Bill Broonzy EP (Vogue EPV 1107). There are many others, as the various record companies' catalogues will show you.
The Blues, first country-born and belonging to the open spaces of the South and West, later spread to the growing negro populations in the towns and cities. Here the woman came into her own, for the mantle of folk balladeer was snatched from the male shoulders by the female singers of the travelling tent shows: Ma Rainey (London AL 3502) and Bessie Smith (Phillips BBL 7019). Both these singers are regarded as head and shoulders above their contemporaries, and both provide urban Blues singing of a very high order.
One of the first signs of organised musical activity by negro artists came with the guitar, banjo and piano accompaniments to singers, and the honky-tonk piano which developed mainly out of the old stringed instrumental style of playing which simply transferred the strumming right hand of the banjoist and guitarist to the bouncing left hand of the old-time saloon and dive pianist.
Many names spring to mind of pioneer piano players, but, as an overall example of the kind of barrelhouse music they provided, I would mention Will Ezell (London AL 3539) and the various musics of men like Meade Lux Lewis, Wesley Wallace, Cow Cow Davenport and others (London AL 3506). |
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