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In this episode we ask, is blues the core of Jazz, is it even the mother of all modern music? Is as BB King once said that "Jazz is the Big Brother of the Blues" or that Blues is High School and Jazz is College? Well its social and economic roots cannot be denied, a rural music versus the city one of the agricultural Delta not the bustling Port City, based on poor cheap transportable instruments, e.g. guitar and harmonica. Surrounded by an aura of suspicion as the "devil's music," the subterranean reservoir of Voodoo that lay beneath was never entirely hidden. ` A highly profane music of work and the carnal life, it is the first person singular voice of existential challenge.

Musically, based around the pentatonic scale and non-tempered “blue” notes. These are crafted out of regular microtonal bends on the notes, most often on the 3,5,7 notes Out of this fairly defined 12/16 Bar,3 line AAB form, literally thousands of hit songs emerged, an inexplicable alchemy. These semi-tones create a sense of ambiguity between major and minor.

Not published nor orchestrated, even the identities of that very first generation of Missippii Delta players remain shrouded in mystery. For all the myth around Robert Johnson, he was last in a long line of forebears unknown to the after world. :

For musical selections today, two masters of the electric blues showcasing each of the primary instruments, Muddy Waters on Guitar and Sonny Boy Williamson on Harmonica.

Suggested reading:

· Songs of Slavery and Emancipation, Callahan , Kelley, et al.

· And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, Joe Boyd

· http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/

· http://www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html

Suggested Listening:

Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson

Blind Lemon Jefferson - Match Box Blues

W.C. Handy "St. Louis Blues" On The Ed Sullivan Show

Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out

Son House – Preaching Blues