Whatâs the Difference Between Blues and Jazz?
Blues and jazz are both profoundly influential African American music styles that developed in the South about the turn of the 20th century. So closely are they related that jazz great Billie Holiday titled her 1956 autobiography Lady Sings the Blues. Yet there are key differences between the two music forms.
Differences in origins and development
First, blues is slightly older than jazz. Blues developed after the Civil War (1861â65) and was influenced by 19th-century work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, and church music such as spirituals and hymns, as well as the folk and popular music of white Southerners. The earliest references to blues date to the 1890s and early 1900s. Jazz arose in the earliest years of the 20th century, springing from blues and ragtime. In this sense, blues is a grandparent of jazz, which also contains elements of popular dance music, music for brass bands, funeral processions, and parades (think of the tune âWhen the Saints Go Marching Inâ), and touches of European opera, theater, and concert music.
Second, blues began as a rural music. Early blues was largely played by Southern Black men, most of whom were agricultural workers. Key regions in its development include Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas, and, of course, the Mississippi Delta. Eventually, blues traveled north to Chicago and other urban centers, but not until the 1920s and â30s. By contrast, jazz was born in the city, specifically in New Orleansâto be more exact, in Congo Square, a public square in the TremĂ© neighborhood that was set aside by city officials for enslaved and free African people to dance, worship, and play music, especially drums. At first, the gathered musicians played the rhythms brought from Africa and the Caribbean. But over time they began embellishing and improvising, just as later jazz musicians would do.
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This highlights another difference between the two styles of music: Blues was initially performed by solo musicians, whereas jazz, from the very beginning, was communal, involving an interplay between multiple musicians. In time, however, blues musicians came together to form bands, and soloing became a notable feature of jazz performances.
Differences in musical structure and instruments
In terms of form, blues is characterized by a repeating harmonic structure with melodic emphasis on the flatted (or âblueâ) third and seventh notes of the scale. Other notable characteristics are its 12-bar pattern, which uses the chords of the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the scale, and its âblues stanza,â a three-line lyric stanza in which the words of the second line repeat those of the first. This is also described as an AAB pattern, as in the opening lines of Robert Johnsonâs âLove in Vain.â
And I followed her to the station with a suitcase in my hand (A)
And I followed her to the station with a suitcase in my hand (A)
Well, itâs hard to tell, itâs hard to tell, when all your loveâs in vain (B)
Another common feature of blues is call-and-response, which can be thought of as a conversation between two parts of music. Both parts may be vocal or instrumental, or they may be a mix of the two. For example, listen to the way the instruments respond to Muddy Watersâ callâessentially to each vocal lineâin his classic song âMannish Boy.â
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Jazz uses most of these elements but with much more deviation from the basic structure. Again, in jazz, improvisation is the name of the game, and the heights of it can be heard in saxophonist John Coltraneâs rendition of âMy Favorite Things,â from the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Coltraneâs fully instrumental version famously takes a familiar tune and steers it into uncharted musical waters.
Indeed, jazz musicians are notorious for employing complex chord changes and more syncopation, in which âoffâ beats disrupt the standard metrical patterns in a tune and create a fast-tempo, forward-driving momentum. You hear it in swing. These elements, especially improvisation, can be expressed vocally too, as in scat.
Another difference between blues and jazz is the choice of instruments. In blues the human voice is preeminent, although there are many examples of instrumental blues songs. Other important instruments in blues are guitar, harmonica, and piano. Bass (double or electric) provides the foundational, driving rhythm of ensemble blues, while drums set the tempo and backbeat.
Common instruments in jazz include piano, double bass, trombone, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, and drums, with an emphasis on the mighty cymbal. The prominence of horns in jazz influenced blues; these instruments began to be used in bigger blues bands, especially in New Orleans-style blues.
Subgenres of jazz, such as jazz-rock and Latin jazz, introduced more electronic- and guitar-based sounds and a wide range of percussion instruments, from conga and bongo drums to vibraphone. Notwithstanding the many great jazz vocalists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Nat King Cole (a few of whom, like Billie Holiday, also sang the blues), jazz became a primarily instrumental music early on in its development.
Differences in mood
A final difference between blues and jazz is the ingredient of emotion. Although jazz can be powerfully expressive of a composer or musicianâs personal idiosyncrasies and attitude (think of Miles Davis or Sun Ra), blues is the domain of raw emotion. Some musicians tell stories, and some inspire their listeners to dance, but blues singers, perhaps more than any other popular musical artists, express their feelings.
They accomplish this through specific vocal techniques such as inserting falsetto breaks, howls, and yodels or sustaining a single syllable across several pitches (known as melisma). Many instrumental techniques of blues are also intended to imitate the emotion of human speech, such as âchokingâ or bending guitar strings on the neck or applying a metal slide or bottleneck to the strings to create a plaintive or whining sound. This is as true of the electrified Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Howlinâ Wolf, and Koko Taylor and the blues-based rock of such bands as the Rolling Stones and the Black Keys as it is of early acoustic blues.
