Blues American singer. The most famous blues artists

The world of blues is full of brilliant musicians who gave their best on every album, and some of them became legends without ever releasing a single record! JazzPeople chose the 5 best blues albums recorded by great musicians, which influenced not only their own lives and work, but also influenced the entire development of the music of this genre.

B.V. King - Why I Sing the Blues

"King of the Blues" has released more than 40 albums during his long creative career and has forever remained in the hearts of millions of fans around the world. In 1983, his 17th disc was released called Why I Sing the Blues, which literally answered the question of why King sings the blues.

The tracklist includes such well-known compositions of the musician as Ain't Nobody Home, Ghetto Woman, Why I Sing the Blues, To Know You is To Love You, and of course, the first of them was the famous The Thrill is Gone, which received huge popularity and many awards. The music of the blues maestro has always evoked deep emotions and reciprocal feelings in the listeners, and on this disc, the most "tart" songs of King were collected, in fact, allowing us to "enter into a conversation" with the bluesman and listen to his exciting story, in this case, not one.

Robert Johnson

The great Robert Johnson, who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for learning how to play the blues, did not record a single album in his short life (Johnson died at 27), but nevertheless, his music is not just alive to this day , it haunts both famous musicians and blues fans. The whole life of the guitarist was shrouded in a halo of mysticism and strange coincidences, which was directly reflected in his work.

In addition to numerous remakes and reissues of his compositions, the 1998 album definitely deserves attention (the official re-release of the 1961 album) King of the Delta Blues Singers. The album cover itself already sets you up for a solitary listening and complete immersion in the difficult world of Robert Johnson, who seems to be still alive. If you want to try to understand the blues, start with Johnson, with his soulful Cross Road Blues, Walking Blues, Me and the Devil Blues, Hellhound on My Trail, Traveling Riverside Blues.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

The tragically deceased (he crashed in a helicopter in 1990 at the age of 35) still managed to leave a grand mark in the history of blues music. The work of the singer and guitarist stood out for its originality and powerful manner of performance. The musician collaborated and gave concerts with many famous blues figures, such as Buddy Guy, Albert King and others.

In any improvisation, Vaughn conveyed his feelings and emotions with brilliance and genuine openness, thanks to which the world blues was replenished with new hits.

His colorful album Texas Flood, recorded with the Double Trouble team and released in 1983, included the most famous and later brought the most popular compositions to the musician, including Pride and Joy, Texas Flood, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Lenny, and of course, the languid, unhurried Tin Pan Alley. The bluesman shares with his listeners not just his music, but a part of the soul in every melody he performs, and all of them, of course, deserve close attention.

Buddy Guy - Damn Right, I've Got the Blues

It is not surprising that a bluesman with such musical talent was quickly noticed and taken under his protection. The unique, virtuoso playing and charisma of Buddy Guy quickly brought him fame and respect from colleagues and listeners around the world, and an album with a screaming title Damn Right, I've Got the Blues received a Grammy Award in 1991.

The record abounds with excellent lyrics, unique performance and emotional transmission in the compositions, and in terms of styles - electro-blues, Chicago, sometimes even archaic blues. The dynamics and character of the record is set immediately by the first song - Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, continues in Five Long Years, There Is Something on Your Mind, takes us to the night world of the musician in Black Night, after which it awakens the dynamic Let Me Love You Baby, and in the finale of the disc, the musician pays tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn, who died in 1990, in the track Rememberin' Stevie.

T-Bone Walker

You can feel the spirit of real Texas blues by listening to the temperamental T-Bone Walker's album Good Feelin', recorded in 1969 and received a Grammy a year later. The disc contains the artist's great tracks - Good Feelin', Every Day I Have the Blues, Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On, See You Next Time, Vacation Blues.

The bluesman had a significant influence on the work of many talented musicians, including Otis Rush, Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Freddie King and many others. The album reveals the true character of Walker, demonstrating all the greatness of his playing, virtuosity and vocal technique. The peculiarity of the disc was that it begins and ends with Walker's unofficial narration, in which he accompanies himself on the piano. The musician greets the audience and invites them to focus on what comes next.

Now let's take a look at the best blues rock bands from around the world. In addition, I will give you a list of good albums and Russian bands in this genre.

The best blues rock bands

The combination of blues and early rock to develop the blues rock genre did not take place in a vacuum. In many ways, this is an invention of white British children. They were in love with blues records from Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and other artists that were imported to the UK.

Blues godfathers Alexis Korner and John Mayall created the genre. He still finds a response in the hearts of many listeners today. Here are the earliest and best blues rock artists.

Alexis Korner (Alexis Korner)

Known as " father of british blues". A musician and leader of his bands, Alexis Korner was an integral part of the 1960s blues scene in England.

His own musical groups contributed to the popularization of the blues. And at the start of this decade, Korner was performing with a long list of British royal music.

In all his work, he never enjoyed huge commercial success. Thus, his influence on the development of blues rock is beyond doubt. What can not be said about his peers and junior assistants.

John Mayall (John Mayall)

British musician John Mayall has made a significant contribution to the development of such genres as jazz, blues and blues rock during his fifty-year career.

He discovered and developed the instrumental talents of Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mike Taylor.

Mayall has a lot of albums in his luggage. They show blues, blues rock, jazz and African musical styles.

Peter Green (Peter Green) and the band Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac is primarily known worldwide for its revolutionary chart-topping pop rock act. Led by guitarist Peter Green, the band made a name for themselves as psychedelic blues.

The group was formed in 1967. She released her first in 1968. A combination of original compositions and blues cover art, the album became a commercial success in the UK, spending a year on the charts.

In 1970, due to his illness, Peter Green left the band. But even after his departure, Fleetwood Mac continued to perform and work on new compositions.

Rory Gallagher (Rory Gallagher) and the group Taste

In the second half of the 1960s, at the height of the British blues rock fashion, Rory Gallagher showed performances of his band Taste.

Due to their dynamic showmanship, the band toured with superstars Yes and Blind Faith. She even performed in 1970 on the Isle of Wight.

The band was formed in 1966 by Rory Gallakher, bassist Eric Ketherin and drummer Norman Damery.

After a concert in the UK, Rory Galakher's band disbanded.

After moving to London, the 20-year-old guitarist assembled a new version of his Taste team with bassist Richard McCracken and drummer John Wilson. After signing a contract with Polydor, began recording and touring in the US and Canada.

For decades, The Rolling Stones have been the coolest rock band on the planet. She had the best selling albums. Especially in the USA. Therefore musicians are very successful. Their contribution to the development of rock music is very huge.

The Yardbirds and British blues rock

The Yardbirds were one of the most influential and innovative British blues rock bands of the early 1960s. Their influence is felt far beyond their fleeting commercial successes.

Formed in the early 1960s as the Blues Metropolis quartet, by 1963 the group was known as the Yardbirds.

Featuring vocalist Keith Ralph, guitarist Chris Drah and Andrew Topham, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith and drummer Jimi McCarthy, the band quickly made a name for themselves with an electrifying, fusion of classic Blues and R&B.

The first Yardbirds album was called "Five Live Yardbirds". It was recorded in 1964 at the Marquee Club. Performers began to add elements of pop, rock and jazz.

Eric Clapton left the band in 1965 to play pure blues with Bluesbreakers John Mayall. New guitarist Jeff Beck has brought a new dimension to the band's sound. In 1968, the team broke up.

Top Blues Rock Albums

Below I want to present the best blues rock albums. I recommend listening to them at your leisure. Here is the list:

Blues performers almost never enjoyed the same popularity as the kings of pop music, and not only in our country, but also in the homeland of this style - in the USA. Complicated sound, minor melody and original vocals often repel the mass listener who is used to simpler rhythms.

Musicians who adapted this music of the black South and created more accessible derivatives of it (rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie and rock and roll) gained great fame. Many superstars (Little Richard, Ray Charles and others) started their careers as blues performers and returned to their roots many times.

Blues is not just a style and way of life. He is alien to any narcissism and thoughtless optimism - traits inherent in pop music. The name of the style is derived from the phrase blue devils, which literally means "blue devils". It is these bad inhabitants of the underworld that torment the soul of a person who has everything wrong in this life. But the energy of music demonstrates an unwillingness to submit to difficult circumstances and expresses full determination to fight them.

Folk music, stylistically formed during the 19th century, became known to the mass listener in the twenties of the next century. Huddy Ledbetter and Lemon Jefferson, the first popular blues artists, in a way broke the monolithic cultural picture of the Jazz Age and diluted the dominance of the big bands with a new sound. Mami Smith recorded Crazy Blues, which suddenly became very popular among the white and colored population.

The thirties and forties of the XX century became the era of boogie-woogie. This new direction was characterized by an increase in the role of application and organs, an acceleration of the tempo and an increase in the expressiveness of the vocals. The overall harmony remains the same, but the sound is as close as possible to the tastes and preferences of the mass listener. blues of the mid and late forties - Joe Turner, Jimmy Rushing - created the basis for what in a few years would be called rock and roll, with all the characteristic features of this style (a powerful rich sound created, as a rule, by four musicians, dance rhythm and extremely exalted stage manner).

Blues artists of the early 1940s and 1960s, such as BBC King, Sony Boy Williamson, Ruth Brown, Besi Smith and many others, created masterpieces that enriched the treasury of world music, as well as works that are practically unknown to the modern listener. Only a few amateurs who know, appreciate and collect records of their favorite artists enjoy this music.

The genre is popularized by many modern blues performers. Foreign musicians such as Eric Clapton and Chris Rea perform compositions and sometimes record joint albums with older classics who have made a huge contribution to the formation of the style.

Russian blues players ("Chizh and Co", "Road to the Mississippi", "League of Blues", etc.) went their own way. They create their own compositions, in which, in addition to the characteristic minor melody, ironic texts play an important role, expressing the same rebelliousness and dignity of a good person who feels bad ...

Lance is one of the few guitarists who can boast that he started his professional career at 13 (by the age of 18 he was already sharing the stage with Johnny Taylor, Lucky Peterson and Buddy Miles). Even at an early age, Lance fell in love with guitars: every time he passed a music store, his heart skipped a beat. Uncle Lance had a whole house filled with guitars, and when he came to him, he could not tear himself away from this instrument. His main influences have always been Stevie Ray Vaughn and Elvis Presley (Lance's father, by the way, served with him in the army, and they remained close friends until the death of the king). Now his music is a combustible mixture of blues-rock Stevie Ray Vaughn, psychedelic Jimi Hendrix and melodic Carlos Santana.

Like all real bluesmen, his personal life is a black, hopeless hole, not to mention drug problems. However, this only spurs his creativity: between long sprees, he records unprecedented albums that claim to be the most driving. Lance wrote most of his songs on the road, as he played in groups of famous bluesmen for a long time. His musical upbringing allows him to flow from one genre to another without losing his unique sound. While his debut album Wall of Soul is blues-rock, his 2011 album Salvation From Sundown leans heavily into traditional blues and R&B.

If you think that real blues can only be written if its author is constantly pursued by misfortune, then we will prove the opposite to you. So, in 2015, Lance got rid of his drug and alcohol addiction, then got married and assembled one of the coolest supergroups of the last decade - Supersonic Blues Machine. The album features session drummers Kenny Aaronoff (Chickenfoot, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Santana), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Walter Trout, Robben Ford, Eric Gales and Chris Duarte. A lot of peculiar musicians have gathered here, but their philosophy is simple: a band, like a machine, consists of many parts, and the blues is the driving force for them all.

Robin Trower

Robin is considered one of the key musicians who shaped the vision of British blues in the 70s. He began his professional career at the age of 17 when he formed the Rolling Stones' favorite band of the time, The Paramounts. However, his real success came when he joined Procol Harum in 1966. The group greatly influenced his work and directed him on the right path.

But she played classic rock, so we'll fast-forward to 1973 when Robin made the decision to go solo. By this time he wrote a lot of guitar music, so he was forced to leave the group. Twice's debut album Removed From Yesterday barely charted, but despite this, his next album, Bridge Of Sights, immediately took off to the top spot and to this day sells 15,000 copies a year worldwide.

The first three albums of the power trio are famous for their Hendrix sound. For the same reason - for the skillful combination of blues and psychedelia - Robin is called the "white" Hendrix. The band had two strong members, Robin Trower and bassist James Dewar, who complemented each other perfectly. The peak of their creativity came in 1976-1978, on the albums Long Misty Days and In City Dreams. Already on the 4th album, Robin began to reorient himself towards hard rock and classic rock, pushing the blues sound into the background. However, he did not completely get rid of it.

Robin was also famous for his project with Cream bassist Jack Bruce. They released two albums, but all the songs there were written by the same Trower. The albums feature both Robin's croaking guitar and Jack's sharp, funky bass sound, but the musicians didn't like this collaboration, and their project soon ceased to exist.

JJ Cale

John is literally the most humble and exemplary musician in the world. He is a simple guy with a rural soul, and his songs, calm and sincere, fall like a balm on the soul amidst constant worries. He was worshiped by rock icons - Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and Neil Young, and the first glorified his work throughout the world (the songs Cocaine and After Midnight were written by Cale, not Clapton). He led a calm and measured life, nothing like the life of the rock star he is considered to be.

Cale began his career in the 50s in Tulsa, where he shared the stage with his friend Leon Russell. For the first ten years, he moved from the south coast to the west, until he settled in 1966 at the Whiskey A Go Go club, where he played as the opening act for Love, The Doors and Tim Buckley. It was rumored that it was Elmer Valentine, the owner of the legendary club, who dubbed it JJ to distinguish it from John Cale, a member of the Velvet Underground. However, Cale himself called it a duck, as the Velvet Underground were little known on the West Coast. In 1967, John recorded the album A Trip Down the Sunset Strip with the Leathercoated Minds. Although Cale hated the record and “if I could destroy all these records, I would,” the album became a psychedelic classic.

When his career began to decline, John headed back to Tulsa, but as fate would have it, he returned to Los Angeles in 1968, moving to the garage at Leon Russell's house, where he was left to himself and his dogs. Cale has always preferred the company of animals to man, and his philosophy was simple: "life among birds and trees."

Despite a slowly unraveling career, John released his first solo album, Naturally, on Leon Russell's Shelter label. The album was as easy to record as was Cale's temperament - it was ready in two weeks. Almost all of his albums were recorded at this pace, and some of the most famous songs are even demos (for example, Crazy Mama and Call Me the Breeze, which Lynyrd Skynyrd later recorded his famous cover on). Really, Oakie and Troubadour albums followed, hooking Eric Clapton and Carl Radl on their cocaine.

After the famous 1994 concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, he and Eric became good friends (Eric was also known for his modesty in his early career) and kept in touch. The fruit of their friendship was the 2006 album Road to Escondido. This Grammy-winning album is an idealistic representation of the blues. The two guitarists balance each other so much that a feeling of complete peace is created.

JJ Cale died in 2013, leaving the world his work, which to this day inspires musicians. Eric Clapton released a tribute album to John, where he invited his fans - John Mayer, Mark Knopfler, Derek Trucks, Willie Nelson and Tom Petty.

Gary Clark Jr.

Barack Obama's favorite musician, Gary is the most innovative artist of the last decade. While all the girls in the US are crazy about him (well, and John Mayer, no way without him), Gary turns music into a psychedelic mixture of blues, soul and hip-hop with his fuzz. The musician was brought up under the strict guidance of Jimmy Vaughn, brother of Stevie Ray, and listened to everything that came to hand - from country to blues. All this can be heard on his first album in 2004 110, where you can hear classic blues, and soul, and country, and nothing stands out from the style of the album, black Mississippi folk music of the 50s.

After the release of the album, Gary went underground and played with numerous musicians. He returned in 2012 with a melodic and electric album that blew everyone away from Kirk Hammett and Dave Grohl to Eric Clapton. The latter wrote him a letter of thanks and said that after his concert he wanted to pick up the guitar again.

Since then, he has become a blues sensation, "the chosen one" and "the future of blues guitar", participates in the Eric Clapton Crossroads charity concert and receives a Grammy for the song Please Come Home. After such a debut, it is difficult to keep the bar high, but Gary never cared about the opinions of others. He released his next album “for the sake of the music itself”, and in his case this philosophy worked well. The Story of Sonny Boy Slim turned out to be less heavy, but its electric soul blues fits perfectly with the style of the entire album. Even if some of his songs sound pop, they have something that is so lacking in modern music - individuality.

This album may sound softer, as it is very personal (when it was being recorded, wife Gary gave birth to their first child, which made him rethink his life), but it turned out to be just as bluesy and melodic, taking his work to a whole new level.

Joe Bonamassa

There is an opinion among the people that Joe is the most boring guitarist in the world (and for some reason no one calls Gary Moore boring), but every year he becomes more and more popular, sells his shows in the Albert Hall and rides all over the world with concerts . In general, no matter what they say, Joe is a talented and melodic guitarist who has made great progress in his work since the beginning of his career.

It can be said that he was born with a guitar in his hands: at the age of 8 he already opened shows for BB King, and at 12 he played full-time in clubs in New York. He released his debut album quite late - at the age of 22 (before that he played in the band Bloodline along with the sons of Miles Davis). A New Day Yesterday was released in 2000, but only reached the charts in 2002 (ranking 9th among blues albums), which is not surprising: it consisted mainly of covers. However, two years later, Joe released his most iconic album, So, It's Like That, which was chosen by everyone who could.

Since then, Joe has routinely released albums every year or two, which have been heavily criticized, but hit at least the Top 5 according to Billboard. His albums (especially Blues Deluxe, Sloe Gin and Dust Bowl) sound viscous, heavy and bluesy, not letting go of the listener until the very end. In fact, Joe is one of the few musicians whose worldview evolves from album to album. His songs become shorter and livelier, and his albums become conceptual. His latest release was recorded literally on the first try. According to Joe, today's blues is too slick, the musicians don't strain much, because everything can be formatted or played again, they have lost all energy and drive. So this album was recorded over a five day jam and you hear everything that happened there (no second takes and minimal post-production to keep the atmosphere).

Therefore, the key to his work is not to listen to songs in albums (especially early work: your brain will be raped by endless solos and tension that only intensifies at the end of the album). If you are a fan of technical music and twisted solos, Joe will definitely appeal to you.

Philip Says

Philip Says is a Toronto-based guitarist whose playing is so impressive that he was invited to take part in Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival. He grew up on the music of Ry Cooder and Mark Knopfler, and his parents had a huge collection of blues albums, which could not but influence his work. But Philip owes his breakthrough to the professional scene to the legendary guitarist Jeff Healy, who took him under his wing and gave him an excellent musical education.

Jeff somehow got to Philip's concert in Toronto, and he liked his playing so much that the next time they met, he invited him on stage to jam. Philip was at the club with his manager, and as soon as they sat down, Jeff approached them and invited Philip to join his group, promising to put him on his feet and teach him how to play on big venues.

Philip spent the next three and a half years touring with Jeff Healy. He performed at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival, where he shared the stage with blues giants such as BB King, Robert Cray and Ronnie Earl. Jeff gave him a huge opportunity to learn from the best, play with the best, and improve himself. He opened for ZZ Top and Deep Purple, and his music is an endless drive.

Philip released his first solo album Peace Machine in 2005, and this is his best work to this day. It combines the raw energy of blues-rock guitar and soul. His subsequent albums (Inner Revolution and Steamroller should be highlighted) get heavier, but still have that Stevie Ray Vaughn-style blues drive that is part of his style - you can only tell from one of his crazy vibratos that he uses, playing live.

Many will find a similarity between Philip Says and Stevie Ray - the same tattered stratocaster, shuffle and crazy shows, and some believe that he is too much like him. However, Philip's sound is different from his mastermind: it sounds more modern and heavy.

Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks

As Louisiana slide guitar icon Sonny Landreth said, he knew in five seconds that Derek Trucks would be the most promising guitar player in the white blues jam scene. The nephew of The Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, he bought himself an acoustic guitar for five dollars at the age of 9 and began learning to play slide guitar. He shocked everyone with his playing technique, no matter who he played with. By the end of the 90s, he was a Grammy winner thanks to his solo project, managed to play with The Allman Brothers Band and toured with Eric Clapton.

Susan, on the other hand, became famous not only for her skillful guitar playing, but also for her magical voice, which captivates listeners from the first moment. Since she released her debut album Just Won't Burn, Susan has been touring tirelessly, recording with Double Trouble, sharing the stage with Britney Spears at the Grammy Awards, performing with Buddy Guy and BB King, and even sang side by side with Bob Dylan.

Decades after starting their careers, Susan and Derek not only got married, but formed their own team called the Tedeschi Trucks Band. It's really damn hard to find the words to express how good they are: Derek and Susan are like Delaney & Bonnie of the present. Blues fans still can't believe that two blues legends created their own group, and an unusual one at that: Tedeschi Trucks Band consists of the best 11 musicians of the modern blues and soul scene. They started out as a group of five and gradually added more musicians. Their latest album features two drummers and an entire horn section.

They instantly sell out all tickets for concerts in the USA, and everyone is simply delighted with their show. Their group retains all the traditions of American blues and soul. Slide guitar perfectly complements Tedeschi's velvety voice, and if in terms of technique Derek is in some way better than his guitarist wife, then he does not overshadow her at all. Their music is a perfect fusion of blues, funk, soul and country.

John Mayer

Even if you hear this name for the first time, believe me, John Mayer is very famous. He is so famous that he is in 7th place in terms of the number of followers on Twitter, and the press in America discusses his personal life in the same way as the yellow press in Russia discusses Alla Pugacheva. He is so famous that all American girls, women and grandmothers not only know who he is, but also dream that all guitarists in the world look up to him, and not Jeff Hanneman.

He is also the only instrumentalist who is on par with today's pop idols. As he himself once told a British magazine: “You can't make music and be popular. Celebrities make really, really bad music, so I write mine like a musician.”

John picked up the guitar for the first time at the age of 13, inspired by Texas bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughn. He played local bars in his hometown of Bridgeport until he graduated from high school and went to study at Berklee College of Music. There he studied for two semesters until he left for Atlanta with $1,000 in his pocket. He played in bars and quietly wrote songs for his 2001 debut album, Room For Squares, which went multi-platinum.

John has several Grammys to his credit, and his combination of impeccable melodies, quality lyrics, and well-thought-out arrangements has made him as great as Stevie Wonder, Sting, and Paul Simon, the musicians who turned pop music into art.

But in 2005, he turned off the track of a pop artist, was not afraid to lose his listeners, changed his acoustic Martin to a Fender Stratocaster and joined the ranks of blues legends. He played with Buddy Guy and BB King, he was even invited by Eric Clapton himself to the Crossroads Guitar Festival. Critics were skeptical about this change of scenery, but John surprised everyone: his electric trio (along with Pino Palladin and Steve Jordan) produced an unprecedented blues-rock with a killer groove. On the 2005 album Try! John focused on the softer side of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King's playing, and with his melodic solos, he brilliantly beat all the blues clichés.

John has always been melodic, even his last album of 2017 turned out to be surprisingly soft: here you can hear soul and even country. With his songs, John not only drives 16-year-old girls crazy in the USA, but also remains a real professional musician, constantly evolving and every time he brings something new to his music. He perfectly balances his reputation as a pop artist and his development as a musician. If you take even his most pop songs and break them down, you'd be surprised how much is going on there.

His songs are about everything - love, life, personal relationships. If they were performed by someone else, they would most likely become ordinary folk songs, but thanks to John's soft voice combined with blues, soul and other genres, they become what they are. And they certainly don't want to be turned off.

Blues, a vast layer of musical culture, appeared more than a hundred years ago. Its origins should be sought on the North American continent. The style of blues music was initially determined by jazz trends, and further development was completely independent.

Blues are classified into two main styles: "Chicago" and "Mississippi Delta". In addition, blues music has six directions in composition structure:

• spirituals - a slow thoughtful melody, full of hopeless sadness;
• gospel (gospel) - church hymns, usually Christmas;
• soul (soul) - characterized by a restrained rhythm and rich accompaniment of wind instruments, mainly saxophones and pipes;
• swing (swing) - the rhythmic pattern is varied, over the course of one melody it can change shape;
• boogie-woogie (boogie-woogie) - very rhythmic, expressive music, usually performed on the piano or guitar;
• rhythm and blues (R & B) - as a rule, juicy syncopated compositions with variations and rich arrangements.

Blues players are mostly professional musicians with live experience. And what is characteristic, among them you will not meet academically trained, each owns two or three instruments and has a well-trained voice.

Blues Patriarch

Music in any form is a responsible matter. Therefore, as a rule, blues performers give themselves to their favorite work without a trace. A good example of this is the recently departed patriarch of blues music, BB King, a legend in his own way. Blues players of any level could look up to him. The 90-year-old musician did not let go of the guitar until the last day. His hallmark was the composition The Thrill Is Gone ("The feeling is gone"), which he performed at each of his concerts. BB King was one of the few blues musicians who gravitated toward symphonic instruments. In the composition The Thrill Is Gone, the cello creates the background, then at the right moment, "with the permission" of the guitar, the violins enter, leading their part, organically intertwining with the solo instrument.

Vocals and accompaniment

There are a lot of interesting performers in the blues. Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin and Anna King, Albert Collins and the unrivaled Wilson Pickett. One of the founders of the blues Ray Charles and his follower Rufus Thomas. Harmonica master Curry Bell and vocal virtuoso Robert Grey. You can't list everyone. Some blues performers leave, new ones come in their place. Talented singers and musicians have always been and hopefully will be.

The most famous blues artists

Among the most popular singers and guitarists are the following:

• Howlin' Wolf;
• Albert King;
• Buddy Guy;
• Bo Didley;
• Sun Seals;
• James Brown;
• Jimmy Reed;
• Kenny Neal;
• Luther Ellison;
• Muddy Waters;
• Otis Rush;
• Sam Cook;
• Willie Dixon.