Abstract
This paper examines the blues' tradition of explanation. It examines the blues as an explanatory force and examines what we can learn from studying the blues as a social force in post-Civil War America.

From the Paper
"According to Clyde Woods in his book "Development Arrested", the blues was born in the rural South of the United States amid the socio-economic dislocations following the abolition of slavery and later the end of Reconstruction. The blues epistemology involves a long-standing tradition of explaining reality and change. The blues was a culturally acceptable, alternative way for black Americans to lament, observe, comment, criticize, parody and ridicule the plantation regime and society at large, as well as the problems and inequities that they faced in an..."

Tags:The Blues, Blues Tradition, Antebellum South, Civil War, Reconstruction, Inequality, Lynching, Second-Class Citizens, Social Protest

Abstract
The paper discusses how most individuals listen to music and focus on it from the perspective of how it makes them feel at a given time and place or point in their lives. The paper describes how memories of songs echo in the mind in a manner that brings up joyous memories or sad reflections and the music becomes a personal experience. The paper asserts, however, that all too often, music is not viewed by how it has shaped a culture or a specific society. Yet, the paper discusses how there are those that argue that to completely comprehend the African American culture of today, one must also understand the roots of blues and jazz and how these forms of music served to liberalize this population and promote a cathartic means of dealing with oppression. This paper investigates the concept that jazz and blues supported the evolution of African Americans into the mainstream American culture and that because of the liberalizing effects of jazz and the cathartic qualities of the blues music gave those of the Black culture a voice in society.

Tags:jazz, music, blues

Abstract
In this paper, the writer introduces, discusses, and analyzes the development of jazz and the blues. The roots of these two forms of American music are traced. The author also explores the influence of African-American slave music on these forms of music. Several notable jazz and blues artists are discussed. The author concludes by stating jazz and blues are popular forms of music throughout the world.

From the Paper
"Some of the more recognizable blues artists include Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Patton, Son House, T-Model Ford, Howlin' Wolf, BB King, Muddy Waters, and Leadbelly (Gioia). Many jazz musicians have influenced the music and become famous in their own right, too. Early musicians include Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. Jazz continues to evolve today, with "smooth jazz" gaining in popularity, and modern influential artists include Wynton Marsalis and Kenny G. Advocates included many black and white writers of the times, such as Richard Wright and Langston Hughes, who recognized the importance of the music and helped spread interest about it around the world."

Tags:jazz, blues, American, music, New, Orleans, slavery, African-Americans

Abstract
The paper discusses the history and tradition of Mississippi Delta blues. The paper includes an interview with a blues musician.

From the Paper
"The unique features of what is known as Mississippi Delta blues are deeply rooted in the traditional culture of African-American rural people many of whom lived their lives as sharecroppers working in the cotton fields of the region. Delta blues culture draws its inspiration from the relative poverty experienced by black residents and sharecroppers in a culture that for most of the twentieth century remained largely feudal. The first Delta blues were made up by rural laborers and..."

Tags:Delta blues, Mississippi Delta, musicians

Abstract
This paper presents a comparison and contrast analysis of James Baldwin's story "Sonny's Blues." The paper covers Sonny's addiction to heroin and the suffering this causes. tHe paper addresses his musical talent as a blues musician and his experience as an African-American male.

From the Paper
"James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues" is a first-person narrative account by one brother on the life of another brother, the Sonny of the story's title. Sonny is a complex character whose addiction to heroin and his consciousness of the inherent suffering that accompanies all life is coupled with his enormous talent as a blues musician. What defines Sonny is his musical talent and his capacity for knowing that "I've been something I didn't recognize, didn't know I could...""

Tags:literature, James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues, story, addiction, character

Abstract
The paper discusses a passage from Feinberg's "Stone Butch Blues" and talks about the specific gender issues that come up from and within the specific passage. Mostly, the apper addresses how society repressed the "other" and how the protagonist is made to conform to the psychosexual values of our society at large.

From the Paper
""They cuffed my hands so tight behind my back I almost cried out. Then the cop unzipped his pants real slow, with a smirk on his face, and ordered me down on my knees. First I thought to myself, I can't! Then I said outloud to myself and to you and to him, "I won't!" I never told you this before, but something changed inside of me in that moment. I learned the difference between what I can't do and what I refuse to do." An Excerpt from Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, pg. 10 This passage from Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues is a good- albeit..."

Tags:gender, politics, stone butch blues

Abstract
This paper begins by discussing how Mississippi Delta was the birthplace of the Blues movement and introduces the first musicians of this form of music. It then discusses how the Blues movement developed into a form of community bonding and how it benefited the community. It mentions landmark institutions which developed from the Delta Blues. These include the Delta Blues Museum and the The Delta Blues Education Program, The Delta Blues Hall of Fame and The Mississippi Delta Blues Society.

From the Paper
"The Mississippi Delta is not a large area geographically, yet writer Robert Palmer argues that it has contributed more to American music than any other region (Palmer, 1993, p. 11). Famous Delta blues musicians include Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, B.B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Floyd Jones and Howlin' Wolf. And even though Delta natives such as Albert King and John Lee Hooker left for more promising opportunities elsewhere, hundreds of other artists stayed behind and kept the blues tradition alive at home where today it is played at weddings, house parties, fish fries, juke joints and festivals (Clarksdale, 1999)."

Tags:society, fame, museum, education, institution, music, jazz

Abstract
This paper is an in-depth examination of the Blues. It begins by taking a look at the Deep South roots of the original Blues during slavery and how it began to spread north to Harlem in the late 1900s. The birth of contemporary Blues in the 1940s is detailed and it looks at some of the musicians, such as Scott Joplin who began incorporating these rhythms into their music. The next area covered is the building of the Blues, and traces the growth of different genres from the original blues. According to this author, the legacy of the blues was set, when it reached the ears of Elvis Presley, which led to the birth of rock and roll.

From the Paper
"The music that was originally known as the blues developed from a variety of hereditary and regional musical influences and practices popular among the people of the southern portion of the United States. The roots of all varieties of blues music can be traced to the southern states, particularly those that comprise the area of the nation known as the Deep South. The music originating in the hills and backwoods of Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, music that has become most commonly associated with "hillbilly" bands and rhythms, is in fact a variety of the blues genre that is often referred to as "country blues" (Pooley 86). The style and genre that is most commonly associated with the blues, however, is also commonly associated with the nation's African-American sector and stems from the "Delta blues", a form of the blues that originated among the slave populations of the antebellum south and developed alongside its country "cousin" (86). This distinct musical style and form developed from the West African rhythms and beats that were brought to America by African slaves imported during the early years of slavery, rhythms and beats that were kept alive and passed down from generation to generation by the traditional music and songs of southern slaves."

Tags:musicians, south, deep, harlem, genre, rhythm, slavery, music, american, ragtime, emancipation, style, note, rock, roll

Abstract
This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, a short story set in New York City's Harlem. Specifically, the the paper discusses the role the blues plays in the story. The paper shows that "Sonny's Blues" is about being lost, and trying to be found, within the context of being a black man in this society; and of finding oneself as so many black men have, through the blues: both as music, and as storytelling.

From the Paper
"But if blacks recognize each other in the rarefied smoky atmosphere of the jazz clubs, black society at large often doesn't even honor its own. It's sometimes impossible to earn a living as a musician--something the narrator warned Sonny about after their mother died. The narrator doesn't even know who Charlie Parker is perhaps the greatest jazz musician of all time. If blacks themselves can't recognize the geniuses among them, what chance does Sonny have? "You'll have to be patient with me. Now. Who's this Parker character?, the narrator asks Sonny, who becomes sullen and turns his back. "He's just one of the greatest jazz musicians alive." Sonny, too, will turn out to be a creative genius. For the black man, this means spontaneous improvisation: "Baldwin's bastardized characters must legitimize self through endless improvisation"[they] begin with memory, then bursts out into improvised song." (Tsomondo, p. 197)"

Tags:Charlie, Parker, jazz

Abstract
This paper examines the history of blues and rock music and how modern rock and pop have devolved away from their blues origins. The writer explains how blues music was born from African rhythms and the tragic atmosphere of slavery. Music was improvised on the spot to encompass the task or event at hand, and blues music thus became a combination of an awareness of the brutality of life coupled with a consciousness of its moments of grace. The exact birth of rock music is more difficult to define and started as a mix of the raw emotion of blues, the folk ideals of country music, and the innovative style of jazz. The writer traces its evolution through the folk revolution, the British (or Beatles) revolution, the 70s and 80s, and on to the present day, where it has lost much of its immediacy, honesty and emotion.

From the Paper
"The earliest form of American black music was a blend of their own African traditions and the missionary zeal of the Europeans. During the peak of the slave trade many Christian missionaries took it upon themselves to convert the African pagans into good Christians. The musical result of this was the development of what was loosely termed "Negro spirituals." This music was a combination of native African rhythms and European liturgical music. It mingled the diatonic scale of European music with the pentatonic scale of African music--a development that would mark all later black music. Spirituals were the first example of African music adapted to the social environment of the New World."

Tags:Zeppelin, music video, MTV vision musician genre freedom rebellion