Jazz and blues

[Chrome]

The great song writer/bass player Willie Dixon came up on another thread and that got me wondering... considering all the jazzers who play the blues, how come there isn't more crossover among the musicians? Going in both directions?

Are there any jazz sets that feature players more well-known for their blues work? I've heard Buddy Guy do "Moanin'" and I'm thinking about that kind of thing.

Or the other way, like Jimmy Smith's "Dot Com Blues"?

...and yes, it's a VERY slow day at work.

[Rooster_Ties]

The Hot Spot [Original Soundtrack] - with Miles, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, et al.

Edited December 9, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[Chrome]

Wow! I've never heard of that before, but it sounds pretty amazing. Do you know if this lives up to its AMG review?

[kh1958]

Look for Melvin Taylor, one of today's best blues guitarist, who also plays jazz (actually, I suspect he can play anything, his technique is so brilliant). He records for Evidence.

[JSngry]

Bnois King (a Dallas standby for as long as I can remember) fits into this category as well. Great blues player, great jazz player, totally at home either way. No albums of his own, though, at least not yet.

[Rooster_Ties]

Wow! I've never heard of that before, but it sounds pretty amazing. Do you know if this lives up to its AMG review?

Mostly, yes. The album kind of 'drifts around' for my tastes, but I'm not really a big Blues nut either. However, the vibe here is real and fairly deep, and nothing seems forced. I seem to remember liking the uptempo tunes best.

(Haven't heard it in 3+ years, but oddly enough - it's in a stack of CD's not 3 feet from my computer -- for reasons I have no earthy explaination for. Why it's there - I have no idea. Guess that means I should give it a spin!!)

[scottb]

Stevie Ray tipped his hat to Kenny Burrell with a version of Chitlins Con Carne.

TBone Walker and Gatemouth Brown played very jazzy blues and their musical descendants Duke Robillard, Pat Boyak, Ronnie Earl (has done versions of Idle Moments and Round About Midnight on recent albums and Jimmy McGriff was featured on his album Healing Time) continue in the tradition.

Robben Ford previously played with Miles is playing "modern" blues.

[John L]

Jazz musicians used to play a lot of blues, not just in jazz contexts but more straight blues as well. Take a look at the session musicians who played in the R&B bands in the 1940s and early 1950s.

It would seem that fewer blues musicians played jazz primarily for technical reasons. You can learn to play good and original blues without learning to play jazz, but (at least in the past) not visa-versa.

Now that a lot of directions in jazz are moving away from blues, and blues is no longer the music of the street, it seems to me that the number of accomplished jazz musicans who can play good original blues is declining very fast. I cry a big tear for it, but time has to march on somehow.

[Sundog]

Ray Charles

[chris olivarez]

Roomful of Blues has jazz tunes on several of their cd's.