64 years (1910–1975)

Walker’s career began to wind down after he suffered a stroke in 1974. He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March 1975, at the age of 64.

T-Bone Walker

T-Bone Walker was the pioneer of the blues, shaping the genre with his trailblazing use of early electric guitars. T-Bone Walker was the first to make a guitar wail, cry out and buckle under the weight of his emotion. He has influenced the likes of B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton.

He first recorded, as Oak Cliff T-Bone, in 1929 and toured in Texas, where he became a friend of Charlie Christian, who became the first major jazz electric guitarist. Walker settled in California in 1934. T-Bone Walker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

jump band. In the late 1940s, a small band-rhythm section plus a few horns that played a rhythm-and-blues style influenced by big-band swing and electric blues.

Blues

Urban blues developed when these musicians began forming groups with other musicians instead of only accompanying themselves on solo guitar. Groups included rhythm sections with drums, bass, guitar or piano, and solo instruments (usually saxophones or some other wind instrument).

One of the biggest influences on Louis Jordan’s career was Fats Waller. Waller, a popular jazz artist from the 20’s and 30’s, was well known for songs that employed silly wordplay and that displayed a larger than life persona.

What spirited and lively piano style developed by African Americans was an important influence on the development of rock and roll? Chicago blues combined swing jazz and boogie-woogie piano influences with the passion of the delta blues.

The name of this great American music probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

Why The Blues Isn’t Just a Sad Emotion There are celebratory songs. Traditionally blues music has captured a wide range of emotions. Whole subgenres of the blues, like jump blues, evoke a feeling that is upbeat, cheerful, positive and even happy.

The blues describes a musical form, as we have seen. Other blues are angry, moody, scary, frightened, and some are bouncy, joyous, exuberant, happy. Clearly, the blues is unusually rich in emotional expression. So, no, the blues is not sad music, and they do not tend to make us sad.

1960s