2/9/22 Update: New Orleans Blues phenom Chris Thomas King has deftly set the record straight in his 2021 book: The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture. We finally have the gaps filled in – at least in America from the turn of the century onward! King has also provided the thread which reaches back much further all the way to Egypt. The Blues – which was both what Anglos coopted and called “jazz” and “Dixieland jazz,” and which is the basis for what became Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, Rock, Soul, Hip Hop & Rap – all originated in at least the mid-1880s if not before in New Orleans with educated, highly trained, free Creole musicians playing what they called The Blues, inspired by the French exclamation “sacre bleu,” as a rebellious response to attempted Protestant Anglo constrictions after the U.S. bought Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803. Free Creoles of African descent had actually settled in the territory first named La Florida by the Spanish who claimed it as early as 1513 – 100 years before the 1619 landing of enslaved Africans in Jamestown. The first noted wafts of the bold, fierce, joyful, freeing Blues infecting the air of downtown were heard from Mamie Desdunes piano playing her 2:19 Blues (Mamie’s Blues)- the first known Blues composition – in the late 1880s, while trumpeter “The Black Rose” Buddy Bolden blasted The Blues from 1894-1907 so far forward – there was no going back. Pianist Jelly Roll Morton, who heard Mamie playing as a child, carried The Blues from there, along with trumpeters King Oliver (Louis Armstrong’s mentor), trombonist Kid Ory, guitarist Lonnie Johnson – and a free-spirited, cosmopolitan city and international port chock full of free Creole highly -trained musicians creating high art. It was Lonnie Johnson who carried The Blues on guitar to the Mississippi Delta, through touring and phonograph records. He was the inspiration for what came later out of Robert Johnson, (no relation – but whom Robert Johnson tried to claim to be, or at least related to, and definitely tried to imitate) and all of the other Mississippi Delta blues guitarists. As the New Orleans Blues musicians began to tour and record, The Blues (erroneously called “jazz”) infectiously became the 1920s soundtrack in a craze spread around America and the world. The Blues party that is still New Orleans was spread by speakeasies, flappers, and phonographs like fire around the globe. In fact, it is now known that W.C. Handy actually saw New Orleans musician Prince McCoy performing Jelly Roll Morton’s “Winin’ Boy Blues” in Mississippi, and appropriated this song calling it his and publishing it as “Memphis Blues.” He wasn’t the first one to co-opt New Orleans Blues – and he certainly wasn’t the last. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery – but I’m sure these New Orleans original Blues musicians would have rather gotten paid for their art and gotten credit where credit is due. It is never too late to give credit where credit belongs.
Source: Thomas King, C. (2021) The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and My Culture. Chicago Review Press Inc.
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Groove (Neo-Soul) History
Groove (Neo-Soul) History: Well, Sech made up the name Groove Music and specifically, “Groove Music for Lifemates” — but it was conceived out of the sweet, smooth side of Soul Music with one thing on its mind.
Soul Ballads from Aretha Franklin like “Givin’ Him Something He Can Feel,” James Brown, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Chaka Kahn — and so many more were the impetus for Sech, with the help of composer-producer Sherese Timeless, to create Groove Music for Lifemates.
While R&B captured the exuberance of Gospel, Soul drilled down to Gospel’s emotional essence. There was too much to be said beyond spiritual topics — the proclaiming emotion of independence and the sensual emotion of love — all possible if you’re still standing on the giant shoulders of the Blues.
From a cultural view that celebrates sensuality, fertility, while striving for faithful love, Soul gave us intimate songs to sing to our love with the chase over, consent given, content in the familiar. From this well of inspiration, Sech wanted to expand the repertoire of songs for Lifemates in the Groove.
Check out our Groove Artist Sech
Eliyora Entertainment LLC. Ever Entertainment.® © Paradunai LLC. All international rights reserved. All trademarks property of Paradunai LLC. All personas, concepts and original songs created and performed by Sherese Chrétien.
