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Kenny Dorham - Like Someone In Love Take 2

In the early 20th century, the blues was considered disreputable as white audiences began listening to blues. Blues came into its own as an important part of the country’s relatively new popular culture in the 1920s with the recording, first, of great female classic blues singers and, then, of the country folk blues singers of the Mississippi Delta, the Piedmont of the Carolinas, and Texas. The first copyrighted song was in 1912, the Dallas Blues. As huge numbers of African Americans left the South at this time due to failed Reconstruction, dismal economic conditions, oppression in the South and the hope of better treatment in the North between 1915 and 1940s, the blues went with them, and settled in the urban centers of the North, especially Chicago. A more urban, electric blues developed as a result, which eclipsed the rural blues of the South and eventually became both rock and roll and what would become known as rhythm and blues.

Blues fell somewhat out of popular favor until the later 1950’s... Blues had a huge influence on American popular music. Popular musicians Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, with their enthusiastic playing styles, departed from the melancholy aspects of blues. After this time, the blues became increasingly merged with rock music to form the rock blues bands of the 1960s and 70s.

When the country blues moved to the cities and other locales, it took on various regional characteristics. These were called the St. Louis Blues, the Memphis Blues, the Louisiana Blues, etc. Today there are many different shades of blues. Forms include:

Traditional country Blues, A general term that describes the rural blues of the Mississippi Delta, the Piedmont and other rural locales. Jump Blues, A danceable amalgam of swing and blues and a precursor to rhythm and blues. Boogie woogie, A piano based blues derived from barrel house and ragtime. Chicago Blues, Delta blues electrified. Cool Blues, A sophisticated piano based form that owes much to jazz. West Coast Blues, Popularized mainly by Texas musicians who moved to California, heavily influenced by the swing beat.


Kenny Dorham - Like Someone In Love Take 2
  • Recorded at: Peter Ind Studio
  • Released in: 1990
  • Genre: Jazz

"Kenny Dorham's later quartet consisted of some well known jazz musicians, Tommy Flanagan, piano, Paul Chambers, double bass, and Art Taylor, drums. Dorham recorded frequently throughout the 1960s for Blue Note and Prestige Records as leader and as a sideman."

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