Blue Notes Research Articles

Blue Notes 2.0: The Diachronic Resonance of Langston Hughes During the George Floyd Protests: A Foreword

Blue Notes 2.0: The Diachronic Resonance of Langston Hughes During the George Floyd Protests: A Foreword

The Blue Notes: South African jazz and the limits of avant-garde solidarities in late 1960s London

ABSTRACTFor the Blue Notes, an ensemble comprised of South African jazz musicians living in Britain, 1968 was pivotal. After 3 years on the margins of the London jazz scene, their debut album Very Urgent was released in May that year to positive acclaim. Very Urgent was understood as an important statement of the British jazz avant-garde movement that captured the spirit of 1968, infused with the Blue Notes’ musical South Africanisms. In this article, I explore how shifting understandings of jazz in the 1960s aided and undermined the Blue Notes’ musical identities: as mbaqanga, hard bop, and free jazz musicians. I argue that Very Urgent and, to an extent, the Blue Notes cannot be understood solely in the terms favored by their early reception in Britain. Rather, both represent a complex matrix of personal, musical, and political relations that constituted British and South African jazz art worlds in the 1960s.

Blue Notes: Using Songwriting to Improve Student Mental Health and Wellbeing. A Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial.

Higher Education is a period of transition. Students try out identities, develop skills, and explore their shifting sense-of-self. Recent evidence suggests an increase in mental distress in this population, pressurising in-house support schemes. Therapeutic songwriting is a music therapy technique, which can reduce mental distress and improve social engagement in a range of clinical populations; yet it is also an accessible art form, possibly an ideal vehicle for supporting students in distress. This paper examines whether participation in a weekly songwriting program could make a suitable RCT to support wellbeing within the HE environment. We used a methodologically rigorous pre-registered parallel wait-list pilot RCT design. Trial registration: ISRCTN11180007. Participants self-identifying as stressed, anxious, or depressed, or with a pre-existing mental health condition, were randomly allocated to the experimental group (5 weeks, songwriting) (n = 6) or to the wait-list control group (5 weeks, no intervention) (n = 6). Measures were taken at baseline and at the start (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the intervention. Measures included: depression and anxiety scales, social identification, loneliness, and friendship. Change scores were calculated and a Mann–Whitney U revealed that depression levels in songwriters (Mdn = -1.0) differed significantly from wait-list controls (Mdn = 8.5) at T2, U = 5.00, z = -2.085, p < 0.041, r = 2.66. Songwriters’ levels of social connection (Mdn = 2.50) also differed significantly from wait-list controls (Mdn = 3.00) at T2 U = 3.00, z = -2.441, p < 0.015, r = 0.524. There were no other significant differences between control and intervention groups. A therapeutic songwriting intervention may have individual and group level benefits for a student population, alongside possible institutional benefits in student retention. Effects may be seen within depression and social connection metrics, and future RCTs should consider expanding measures for self-efficacy, social isolation, and wellbeing. This type of program illustrates a space for cost-effective, group, face to face additions institutional mental health support provision as part of a package of support for students.

Commentary on Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale by Court B. Cutting

This commentary discusses the target paper Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale by Court B. Cutting. Overall, the paper is an interesting and very valuable attempt to shed light on the intonation practice of blue notes in traditional blues music, using an empirical approach which is based in modern acoustic measurements. While the approach and empirical results presented in the target paper undoubtedly have their merits, the paper nonetheless raises some methodological and conceptual questions, leading to some further thoughts that are discussed in this commentary. The issues raised in this commentary might serve as guidance for future empirical investigations into the nature and usage of blue notes.

Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale

Microtonal evaluation of blue notes in the early blues scale by empirical pitch measurement and statistical characterization has not yet been performed in existing research. To address this, fifteen recorded classic blues performances by acknowledged early masters of the blues were studied. Computer based methods were used to collect the audio frequencies of note samples from each performance. Each note had its frequency ratio with respect to the average tonic tone for the performance converted to microtonal cents format. Cluster analysis was performed on these note collections to identify individual note clusters. The fourth and fifth were clearly identified. Three principal "blue note" clusters were isolated with means of 319.1, 582.8, and 1037.9 cents. These values corresponded closely to the harmonic half diminished seventh chord (i.e. 1, ♭3, ♭5, ♭7 with harmonics 5:6:7:9). The "neutral" third was confirmed to occur in this sample. A similar blending of the perfect fourth and tritone was demonstrated in this study. The flat 7th presented as three separate clusters. Several clusters idiosyncratic to individual performers were also identified. Findings are discussed with regards to the array of theories proposed to explain the blues.

Commentary on Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale by Court B. Cutting

This commentary relates to the target paper by Cutting on the microtonal analysis of pitches in the vocal lines of fifteen blues recordings. After relating Cutting's study to Jeff Todd Titon's Early Downhome Blues, some of its merits and shortcomings are discussed. Finally, it is suggested to surpass the study of an abstract blues scale with research on blues modes, including characteristic ornamentations such as glides as well as typically employed patterns that specify certain blues songs or song types.

Mediant Mixture and “Blue Notes” in Rock

Rock features extensive use of mediant mixture, that is, the use of both scale-degrees3̂and ♭3̂within a song; it also has been said to employ “blue notes” that fall between these two degrees. In this study we explore these issues, seeking to gain a better understanding of the use of mediant mixture and blue notes in rock. In addition to conventional aural analysis, we use an automatic pitch-tracking algorithm that identifies pitch contours with high accuracy. We focus on the Jackson 5’s “ABC”; several other songs and sections of songs are also considered briefly. Our tentative conclusions are that choices between3̂and ♭3̂in rock are complex but principled, guided by a small set of interacting preferences, and that blue notes are uncommon but do occasionally occur.

Diatonic Developments

Page 24 American Book Review Diatonic Developments Roger Wood Ramblin’ on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues Edited by David Evans University of Illinois Press http://www.press.uillinois.edu 440 pages; cloth, $75.00; paper, $27.00 The cultural impact of American music has reverberated globally since the early 1920s, when sound recordings of popular songs first became widely available to listeners, often via radio. Ever since, certain African American singers and instrumentalists , performing a style that originated within their own uniquely hybridized subculture, have communicated the blues to myriad listeners—indeed, often to people far removed in terms of geography, race, socioeconomic circumstance, and time. Both directly (i.e., blues as unadulterated blues) and indirectly (i.e., blues as a foundational component of jazz, country, rock, and other styles), this music has informed much of the soundtrack of modernity and its aftermath. As an enduring genre (which experienced popular “revival” phases in both the 1960s and 1990s), blues music has long appealed to two sometimes overlapping yet distinct groups—one, a broad base of fans and musicians; the other, a smaller yet substantial interdisciplinary academic cohort comprising certain musicologists, historians, folklorists, anthropologists, sociologists, and others. With the rising number of blues-themed festivals, appreciation societies, conferences, and publications produced in recent decades, these two groups have coexisted in a necessary but occasionally uneasy symbiosis. Lately, the majority of blues books have spoken primarily (via anecdotes, interviews, biographies, and photographs ) to a general readership of enthusiasts for the music; far fewer have adopted more formalized research methodologies to address an audience of scholarly peers. In Ramblin’ on My Mind: New Perspectives on the Blues, editor David Evans and his team of veteran contributors seek to redress that imbalance by collectively approaching their multifaceted topic with impeccable academic precision . The result is a major analytical treatise that yields a bounty of fresh insights on the blues. A distinguished professor in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis and the author of several important tomes and countless articles on the blues, Evans pens the ten-page introduction and one of the ten chapters, the latter a meticulously crafted large-scale survey, categorization, and analysis of nicknames ofAfricanAmerican blues artists who recorded between 1920 and 1970. In both cases, Evans makes clear his devaluing of casual, impressionistic writing in favor of a more rigorously scientific consideration of the blues. That undertone echoes throughout this compilation, signified in part by the abundance of supplementary data provided in the form of charts, graphs, tables of statistics, transcribed music notation (or guitar tabulation), copious endnotes , bibliographies, and other related hallmarks of serious research. As suggested by its title (which alludes to an iconic blues song), the scope of this book is wideranging —“rambling” as it does over diverse intellectual terrain. As Evans writes, These essays include a comparative study of the blues andAfrican music, broad surveys full of detail about solo blues guitar styles, blues nicknames, and lyric themes of disillusion in the years followingWorld War II, an in-depth portrait of an important but neglected early blues “advocate,” detailed studies of individual performances by Son House, Robert Johnson, and Ella Fitzgerald from literary and musicological perspectives, an exploration of an early phase of blues in sheet music and vaudeville prior to commercial recording, and a reinterpretation of a particular style of blues known as zydeco. The contributing writers, three of whom are based in Europe, likewise represent a variety of backgrounds of expertise, ranging from college professors in the field of music, musicology, or folklore to independent historians, researchers, and authors. Several of them have conducted fieldwork and written about the blues for over forty years. All of the essays in this collection reach logical conclusions but shine new light on the blues. As indicated in the book’s subtitle, the chapters present a multiplicity of “new perspectives.” Some are likely to be more readily accessible than others, even to an academic audience fairly well versed in the blues. Perhaps the most revelatory essay is “Bourdon, Blue Notes, and Pentatonism in the Blues: AnAfricanist Perspective” by Gerhard Kubik, which Evans grants headliner status of sorts by making it...

"Domestication" of Blue Notes in the Beatles' Songs

Much of the Beatles' originality stems from the special way in which they handle blue notes. Blue notes, by nature, are alienated from their harmonic environment and have a dissonant relationship with them, giving the blues and all its derivatives a rough, angry character. Nevertheless, the hostility of blue notes toward the surrounding world may be mitigated—“domesticated”—through consonantization. From this perspective, the present paper explains the formation of several of the harmonic idioms that shape the Beatles' style. In broader terms, the paper attempts to uncover the blues affinities in the Beatles' repertoire, even when they are latent and expressed in ostensibly non-blues details. These affinities contribute to the unity of the repertoire despite its diversity and eclecticism.

"Something Patterned, Wild, and Free": Robert Hayden's Angles of Descent and the Democratic Unconscious

[Interviewer] it is nearly a cliche to say that Robert Hayden has the best underground reputation of any poet in America. How do you respond to that? [Hayden] (Laughs.) I say Hear! Hear! (Hayden, Collected Prose 203) diver had to admit that he couldn't surface again alone, without help. Certainly, for me, an admission of almost complete defeat.... Well, this sounds like melodrama, sure enough, but it's ice cold reality of which I speak. (Hayden, in a letter to Michael Harper [Nicholas 997]) Poetry is really distilled empathy. (Yusef Komunyakaa, Blue Notes 126) In Answering 'The Waste Land': Robert Hayden and the Rise of the African American Poetic Sequence, Brian Coniff shows how Hayden's poems alter assumptions about the intersection of history and modernist poetics. Coniff terms modernist poetics such as Hayden's post-traditional. He explains that the post-traditional poet is certainly conscious--in fact, often intensely conscious--of tradition. At the same time, though, he or she manages, in one way or another, to view any distinctly literary tradition as historically contingent....Most often...to address some perceived crisis (489). He follows with brilliant readings which show how Hayden's vision goes beyond the mainstream modernist grounding in private neurosis [that] Eliot's poetry had helped make fashionable (496). Coniff supplies crucial insights into how African-American approaches to modernism emerge from the distinctive features of black encounters with the history of modernity. Like all modernisms, African-Ameri can modernisms have one foot in the historical past, one in the present. While they've attracted almost no critical attention at all, Hayden's poems set in his cultural present contribute to this cultural axis of black modernism. Like all notable African-American modernist artists, Hayden understood that confrontations with modernity are historically contingent. Indeed, nearly all of the scholarship devoted to Hayden concerns his treatment of nineteenth-century subject matter in poems such as Middle Passage, Runagate Runagate, The Ballad of Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass. Very little has been written about Hayden's nuanced appreciation of how modernist poetics are culturally contingent. For all the histrionics surrounding Hayden's universalism and his refusal join the Black Arts Movement in the late 1960s, Hayden's poems are replete with deeply resonant images of immediate black cultural reality through which he explores the complex interactions between psychological depth and cultural tradition. Hayden's poetry consistently demonstrates the ability to excavate the interlocking and cultural contingencies and freedoms of black subjectivity while eluding the oppositional politics which confined the political and cultural era in which he lived. In these poems he explores the classic modernist intersections between objectivity and subjectivity, intimacy and abstraction. He combines the oppositional poles to achieve points of view and review impossible from one or the other. In the present essay, using The Diver as the methodological paradigm, I show how Hayden's artistic vision achieves a depth of perception from which the divisions that inform oppostional politics become unstable. Far from a naive universalism, as The Diver images and the epigram above confirms, the pressure of that depth perception was as dangerous for Hayden as it was necessary to the (post) tradition of black modernism. result is Hayden's complex poetic vision of the strife and possibility embedded in America's fragmented intra-and inter-racial/cultural landscape. In his best work, Hayden derives, sustains, and refines this vision in relation to his excavation of what I'll call the democratic unconscious. In this space, Hayden explores the ever-shifting, non-rational nature of the unconscious to create montages of democratic exchange. …

Is there such a thing as the ‘blue note’?

Among the most frequently repeated formulae in the description of the traditions most often called Afro-American music, in particular the styles of jazz, blues, soul and rock, is the concept of the `blue note’. It may also seem that this is a most widely accepted idea. The ‘blue note’ is usually thought of as a kind of basic element in those styles, as constituting the `ethnic’ or ‘African’ aspect of those musics as opposed to the ‘Western’ contributions of harmony.My main attempt here is to step into the somewhat muddy waters of musicological and sociological/anthropoligical/ cultural studies discourses of ‘the blue’ and ask what the ‘blue idea’ really is about. In rethinking the concept of the ‘blue note’, I find it necessary to differentiate between two concerns that often seem to be somewhat unconsciously or muddily mixed together:(1) the idea of the ‘blue note’ as referring to pitch, thinking of the note as an ‘item’, commonly thought of as the slight altering of the minor third and the flattened seventh; and(2) the general concept of `blue feeling’ linked to the idea of playing ‘blue notes’: in short, the performance of music with a ‘blue feel’.

Blue Notes: Essays, Interviews, and Commentaries

Yusef Komunyakaa discusses the influences of blues and jazz music and poetry on his own writing, comments on some of his own poems, selects interviews that reveal the artistic sensibility of poets and explores some of his own current interests.'

Blue Notes and Blue Tonality

Blue Notes and Blue Tonality