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The blues is described by many as more than just music, it was a way of life. T-Bone Walker said it best when he said, "The Blues? I didn't start playing the blues ever. That was in me before I was born and I've been playing and living the blues ever since" (Shadwick 121). The blues is based directly on scales from West Africa and Western Europe. The scales combined with "blue notes" give the music a vocal quality. This vocal quality gives the blues a unique expressiveness.
The blues started in the 17th century in the slave states of the United States, and is still alive and flourishing today. The two main styles of blues are Delta Blues and Memphis Blues. Delta Blues originated in the delta region of the Mississippi River. The first major blues artist from the delta was Charley Patton. The blues style Charley Patton and his contemporaries played is the style most people would associate with the blues today: one man singing with a guitar and possibly a small quartet behind him. This style of blues still lives with one of the best blues singers around, B. B. King.
Memphis Blues usually had a full blues or jazz band accompaniment. One of the more famous blues singers of the day, Bessie Smith, played with different bands during her carrer, including Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong. Memphis Blues is based on the same principles as the Delta Blues. The background and the tempo are the main differences in the music. The tempo of Memphis Blues is quicker and livelier than that of Delta Blues. Because of the faster tempo and stronger background, Memphis Blues was used in dance halls.
Blues has changed little over the years. Its style has been refined and its meaning expanded. As T-Bone Walker said, blues is a way of life, not just music.
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