These slaves sang a rhythmic "call and response" to ease their brutal labour and to converse without knowledge of their masters. They were known as field hollers. One of the workers would shout a solo line, and then the others would repeat a harmony line, all while being in tempo with the work at hand. This is the seeds of the blues, and the improvisational style of early jazz would form from this as well. In Europe something interesting was developing.
At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, many of the Jewish people lived in The Pale of Settlement. This included the territory of present-day Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus. The Jewish people from these Eastern European parts borrowed and synthesized music from different cultures, including styles with North Africa. When this Jewish culture started arriving as a whole in America's northern cities, they brought with them a style of music called the "Klezmer,” a word created when combining the words vessel and song together.
African Americans were escaping poverty, and in America's south headed for a new beginning in the great cities of the industrial north. They brought the blues with them and started to form a new lifestyle away from oppression. In the formation of the blues, vocalists developed a style that was familiar, but at the same time not heard of before. During this time, horn and string players studied these blues singers, imitated their techniques and altered the sound to their own instrumental accompaniment.
W.C. Handy was one of these horn players and would eventually be known as the Father of the Blues. Jewish people and African Americans would live together in the big cities of New York, Boston, and Chicago; sharing their experiences with similar impoverished roots.
A professional scholar of musical studies could better explain the musical notes and the similarity in the Jewish musical roots to that of the blues. The facts are there, I’ll let you discover them if the interest is there. There is no coincidence, and I can think of one person in particular that best links the two cultures together and his name is Al Jolson. Jolson’s The Jazz Singer (celebrating its 80th Anniversary this year) was the first movie to use sound as dialogue. The movie is a creation of Jewish imagination and it tells the story of a dream and new found ambition in conflict with old world values in America at the time. Musically it’s a mix of Jazz and Yiddish Blues by way of Tin Pan Alley.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Man, what a fantastic article! I think its time that the Blues Blogger unmask himself and reveal his true identidy to Blogcritics and to the world. This was so well-written, in-depth, and passionate I simply don't know where to begin. Great, great piece. Bravo to the Blues Blogger!
-Glen
2 - Pico
Nice article! As soon as I saw the title with "Blues" and "Jewish" in it I thought of Michael Bloomfield. Man, what a talent he was. On the jazz side, John Zorn comes to my mind because of his Masada project and also his fostering of Klezmer jazz bands like The New Klezmer Trio. You could probably go on for a long time about the contributions Jews made to both genres.
3 - Glen Boyd
I wonder if Kenny G has any jewish in him Pico. Maybe we need to email his assistant...
-Glen
4 - Pico
I get a sneaky feeling that this conversation is about to take an interesting turn...
5 - Jon Sobel
Very thought-provoking article. I have always noticed an affinity between the minor-key strains of traditional Jewish music (ancient Sefardic music, Torah chants, klezmer, etc.) and the "blue notes" that define what we call the blues. It's very interesting to reflect that these may be related not simply through the psychology of a shared experience of persecution, but actually, to some degree in modern times, through musical cross-pollination.
(Note: I think your reference to Joshua Redman is an error. He is not a Jewish musician from the golden age of jazz...)
6 - The Blues Blogger
Thanks for all your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Jon you are definitely right. Not sure how that happened. I was probably thinking of Red Buttons or something ridiculous like that. Who knows …weird… I promise you this; I’ll never buy that brand of red wine again. I’ve sent an email off to Glen to fix it.
7 - JC Mosquito
I've got a green bullet harp mike just like the one in your picture. Funny... it didn't look...
8 - Glen Boyd
I didn't read that email until late this evening, but consider it fixed.
-Glen
9 - Robert
Well,(one of) Jack Bruce's middle names is Asher.
Hmmmm.
As a Jewish Blues based guitarist myself, I can see what Bloomfield had going on. Peter Green is somewhat of a mystery to me. One of those acid casualties that drifted into a cult and then seemingly had his Oliver Sachs moment, afterward.
I don't know if you want to lump Paul Kossoff soelly in the camp of Blues players, but he was a HUGE influence on me. Hendrix was, too. Do a bit of genealogical nosing around on Jimi's surname. You might be very surprised!
Sorry to hear about the Heart Attacks, man. I had two M.I.'s at the end of 2004. Would have traded both of them for massive Strokes.
Peace, Brother!
-Robert
10 - Tony Stock
Bill Wyman called Dylan "the greatest white blues singer". It would be interesting to look at Dylan's influences, and his association with people like Ramblin' Jack Elliott, real name Aronowitz (from memory).
LIstening to songs like 'One More Cup of Coffee..' and having heard Dylan perform numbers like 'Little Moses' and 'Let My People Go', we can be left in no doubt that Dylan has been heavily influenced by his religous roots.
11 - joe
I love it when you say the jews and blacks lived together bull the jews used the blacks and would never live near them or any other white goiam....the jews used the blacks....jews live in comfort when blacks live in poverty...jews control everything the media and the usa..