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2 - Rhythm & Blues

2 – R&B

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2 – Rhythm & Blues

Rhythm and Blues coalesced out of several forms of the blues and boogie-woogie swing jazz, with gospel and folk music in the mix as well. The boogie-woogie craze was revived in 1938 & 1939 and carried over during the war years. Urban Blues, Gospel, rural blues and jump blues were other popular forms of the “race records” categories in the years just after WWII.

A) Early Classic R&B

(1948-1954) – Generally, classic R&B starts when Billboard magazine opened up a chart for R&B hits in 1949. Blues, Gospel, Jump Blues and many other “race” records were then all under the R&B category. It was in Classic R&B that rock & roll grew out of eventually in 1955, but in 1949 rock & roll was just getting started.

1) Jump Blues – 1945-1950 – A conglomerate of country stomp, western swing, and electric blues barrelhouses came “Jump Blues”. At the time jump blues was a fresh danceable shuffle eight to the bar style of dance music. Check out Louis Jordan, Big Mama Thorton, Amos Milburn, Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, and much more. 

2) Classic Early R&B – 1948-1954 – Many names from jump blues were instrumental in the growth of R&B and rock & roll. Many other names in classic R&B are the Treniers, Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88”, the Orioles, the Ravens, Goree Carter, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, the Dominos, the Drifters, Joe Turner, the Crows, Ruth Brown, Lavern Baker, the Coasters and much more. 

B) Rock & Roll

(1955-1959) – Rhythm & Blues music of enormous crossover popularity, dubbed rock & roll in 1953 by Alan Freed became a new societal American phenomenon and barometer of American culture. Rock & Roll would become all Americana after this particular period of growth and prosperity after America won the war.

1) Doo-Wop – (1948-1967) – Starting around 1948 I study this vocal form of R&B that was later referred to as doo-wop. There is a lot of beauty here with the Ravens, the Orioles, the Dominos, the Crows, the Coasters, the Penguins, the Wrens, the Drifters, the Dell-Vikings, Danny & the Juniors, Frankie Lymon, the Platters, The Shirelles, the Crystals and so much more.

 2) The Golden Age – (1955-1959) – Scholars do not agree as to when rock & roll began, was it 1953 or was 1955, there are many arguments. I chose 1955 for many reasons that i explain. There many articles about R&B, rock & roll and rockabilly. See Ray Charles, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy, Dion, Bud Holly, Sam Cooke, Everly Brothers, the Drifters, and many more. 

C) Late R&B

(1960-1964) – This was a transitional phase for R&B (rock & roll) in the early 1960s. At the end of the 50s, there seemed a lull in rock & roll.  There was the day the music died early in 1959, and things seemed to change but then things bounced back in the early 60s. 

Check out Chubby Checker, “The Twist”, Little Eva, the Ronettes, the Everly Brothers, Ben E. King,  Etta James, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys surf rock, great songs like the Kingsmen “Louie Louie”.

A newer form of R&B called “Soul” had started up and began to dominate, artists like  Sam Cooke, Mary Wells, Martha & the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Motown was in its ascendancy.

The purely acoustical genre of folk music was making a resurgence with groups like Kingston Trio, Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan; as was old time rock & roll. Things would start to change fast as the 60s progressed. 

D) Early 60s Rock & Roll

There were many competing forms of music in the early 60s. There was vocal R&B (doo-wop) which dominated the charts and several  50s styled rock & roll phases like surf rock, surf pop, and garage rock.

1) Garage Rock – (1958-1967) – Starting simply as instrumental R&B the genre quickly became music to cruise to and about cars. Link Wray’s 1957 “Rumble, the Ventures, Del Shannon, the Regents, the Revels, the Centurians, the Rivingtons, the Tornados, the Kingsmen.

2) Surf Rock & Pop – (1962-1963) – This sub-genre emulated surfing on the beach specifically Dick Dale, a very fast paced guitarists with lots of ornamentation and foreign music influences. Dick Dale, the Chantays “Pipeline”, the Lively Ones, the Surfaris “Wipe Out”, “Surf City”, the Rivieras, and the Trashmen “Bird Is a Word”. Surf Pop –  A pop version of surf rock mostly produced by Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, “Surfin Safari”, “Surfin USA” “Surfer Girl”, Jan & Dean “Surf City” and Dick Dale’s “Miserlou”. 

The Beach Boys

3) The British Invasion – (1964-1965) – Then in 1964, the British invaded America, the Beatles, Dave Clarke 5, the Searchers, Jerry & the Pacemakers, Herman’s Hermits, the Zombies, the Rolling Stones, the Animals the Kinks and the Who.

The Beatles

 

3 - Music Theory for the Lay Person

The Back Beat Revolution

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The Back Beat Revolution

From a drummer’s perspective, “Rhythm & Blues” or “R&B” was a musical revolution. It was the revolution of technology and a trick of the rhythm, where the “back-beat” came about as the dominant rhythm in the last half of the 20th Century. Back when R&B was fresh and new, the “swing beat” derived from a lazy shuffle beat, had been the popular dance beat for more than 50 years, with its emphasis on the “down-beat”.

Recording equipment in the Jazz age was very delicate. It didn’t take much for the drums to get the needle skipping and jumping across the lathes. However, starting in the late 40s and the hi-fidelity of the early 1950s, the technology started to improve enough to be able to handle the high decibel snare rim shots from say Gene Krupa in the Benny Goodman band or Ralph Jones of Bill Haley & the Comets.

Previously, during the swing era of the 1930s and before, there was a great disparity between music that was “live” and therefore much louder than recorded music due to the limits of the technology involved. While the “live” bands it took a whole “rhythm section” of guitars, banjo, piano, bass/tuba, rhythm instruments and drums to keep up with the sheer high volume of the horns and reeds sections this made it necessary for equal stress to all four beats of the count in 4/4, “One, Two, Three, Four“.


Common_time_signatures

Counting Rhythms

In rhythm music theory, “common time” notated as 4/4, “four/four time” or “four/quarter time” or as a large “C” for common, is depicted to the right of the G-Clef above, also depicted are 2/2, “two/halves” or “cut time” (a “C” with a line through it), as well as “two/quarter”, “three/quarter” and “six/eighths” note time signatures.

Time Signatures

The bottom number tells you the type of note to play, in this case it is a “quarter note”; and the top note tells you “how many notes or pulses are in a measure” or bar of music (a measure or bar is a unit of music, in this case of 4 beats).

Top Number:                     3 – (Number-of beats in a measure or bar)

Bottom Number:             4 – (Use quarter notes to count out “one, two, three”)

                                                                     OR

Top Number:                     6 – (Number-of beats in a measure or bar)

Bottom Number:             8 – (Use quarter notes to count out “one, two, three, four, five, six”)

 

This time signature can be counted in several ways such as “One, Two, Three, Four; One, Two, Three, Four” stressing the One count of each measure. Another way to count in the time signature of 4/4, which helps with marching and dancing, is on the down-beats, “One, Two, Three, Four; One, Two, Three, Four” which has its accents on the down-beats  or the odd-beats of one and three. You can also keep time by saying or thinking “Left, Right, Left, Right” in marching or “Right, Left, Right, Left” in dancing.

 

Counting the Back Beat

The “Back-Beat” is counted as “One, Two, Three, Four” which has its accents on the up-beats or the even beats two and four, which at faster meters such as 116 to 120 beats per minute (bpm) or allegro moderato, is a very easy pulse for dancing. This “Back-Beat” pulse has been used in all of the modern R&B derived dance music of the late twentieth century including “classic R&B”, “Doo-Wop”, “Rock & Roll”, “Soul”, “Disco”, “House & Techno”, “Modern Dance Music”, “Electronica” and many other forms of dance music.

With a drum-set you can further subdivide the “back-beat” count as shown below, counted as “One-And, Two-And, Three-And, Four-And” or “Bass-And, Snare-And, Bass-And, Snare-And” where the bass drum gets the down-beats, on the one and the three, and where the snare drum hits the accents, defining the “back-beat” on the Two and the Four beats. The hi-hat cymbals keep a steady count of (8), eighth notes, counted as ” One, And, Two, And, Three, And, Four, And” as seen below.

350px-Characteristic_rock_drum_pattern (1)

Tempos

The tempo of a song is very important, it is not merely a question of fast or slow but all the variables between fast or slow and its extremes. Songs at 120 beats per minute is standard for a good dance beat, close to the human heart rate at exercise. At this rate, dancing is very healthy for you, many people use music in concert with their jogging and other exercise routines.

Slower tempos of andante (76 to 108 bpm) or andantino (80 to 108 bpm) were used for ballads and love songs in popular music and also in slow metered country & western songs, for dancing it was just a good excuse to get close to your partner. Then there were the mid-tempo songs of moderato 108-120 bpm, where the great radio friendly, storytelling, hook that would stick in your mind for hours, songs off the radio in the 1950s came of age.

 

Pulse and Meter

Some of the slower tempos had a triple meter “One, two, three; One , two, three” rather than the duple pulse of “One, two; One, two”. Another popular rhythm in R&B, derived from the Boogie Woogie beat in Jazz which is a triple meter counted either as “One-Trip-Let, Two- Trip-Let” or as “One, Two, Three; Four, Five, Six”, which basically takes a duple meter like the one below-left and subdivides it into a triple meter like the figure below-right.

250px-Simple_duple_drum_pattern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, remember, top note tells you how many beats, and the bottom note tells you which note to use. In the figures above-left, quarter notes are counted, in the figure on the right, eighth notes are used to count. Notice how these examples of a duple meter and a triple meter can be mixed and intertwined.

So, simply by putting an accent on the Two and the Four of a rhythm in common time, popular music was transformed. The philosophy of the heart, the Thub-Dub, Left-Right, binary in nature and syncopation, “If there is a boom, then there is a snap”.

 

 

2 - Classic Early R&B, A - Early Classic R&B

R&B 1: America and music at the end of World War II

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America and music at the end of World War II

America had just won World War II in 1945 after the dropping of two atom bombs on Japan and thereby starting the American world military supremacy. America, before entering the war was just recovering from a deep, long and protracted depression that lasted for a little more than a decade. Americans had learned to survive an economic depression, prohibition and won a very decisive war.

Memories of the ‘Roaring Twenties” kept “Swing Jazz” alive throughout the depression and WWII but after the war was won, the music began to change because of shifts in marketing and technology. There were many other reasons for these “shifts”.

First, the music “industry” began to track and classify popular songs. Next, the bands started to break down and began to play and record in smaller combos, rather than having a “Big Band”.  Thirdly, the role of the drummer became more active and central in the new music. Also, the electric guitar, as well, became a lead as well as rhythm instrument due to new technological amplification.

Songs started being marketed on a national level due to mass distribution through radio and jukeboxes. There were new portable record players that came out, as the technology advanced thereby increasing the demand for records. The fidelity of the new equipment gave a more detailed and richer sound.

 

 

2 - Classic Early R&B, 3 - Music Theory for the Lay Person

The Change in the Rhythm – Back Beat Defined

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The Change in the Rhythm: Back Beat Defined

R&B #4

The “back-beat” is a rhythm that has an emphasis on the two and four counts of a four-beat measure (one, two, three, four). Four-four, 4/4 time or “common time” is a time signature that is easily danceable. Most of modern day dance music is in the “four-four” time with some exceptions as with six-eight or three-four (6/8 or 3/4) popular in waltz and some blues.

The notation in the figure below for drums shows a 4/4 “common time” beat with the lower line of notes as the bass drum part, hitting the “downbeats” one and three; the middle line, a snare drum part, hitting the “upbeats”, all of this can be easily transcribed into dance steps of left, right, left, right; and all the while, the hi hat on the top line keeps the time using eighth notes counted as “one, and, two, and, three, and, four, and” sometimes written as “1+2+3+4+”, or “1&2&3&4&”.  

350px-Characteristic_rock_drum_pattern (1)

 

 

 

Basically, the ‘back-beat” in rock & roll is the snare drum accented on the two and four counts instead of the older jazz “swing” beat that would have the dance pulse equally on all four beats in a 4/4 measure of time.

In contrast to rock & roll’s back-beat is jazz music’s “swing” beat. The “swing beat” would often incorporate a rapid downbeat pulse (one, two, three, four accents on each number) with a “swinging” time keeping rhythm played on the ride cymbal, a sort of skipping or bouncing of the sticks bead/head against the cymbal, as in “ah-one, ah-two, ah-three, ah-four, ah-one, etc.” (see swing beat below).

Shuffle_feel_simple

 

 

 

With the “swing beat”, the hi-hat keeps the time as a “quiet” back- beat using the foot trigger of the hi-hat, that gentle clicks on the “twos” and “fours” of the measure very much different to R&B’s accented beats and even loud rim shots of the snare drum driving the music on the “twos” and “fours”. The bass drum, snare drum, and other tom-toms, in jazz, for the most part, were used very sparingly.

The reason for this is that before the 1940s, the technology used for recording music was so sensitive that the bass and snare drums would be too loud that would make the recording equipment malfunction and/or skip when played. That is why many swing beats rely on the ride cymbal and Hi-Hat to keep the time while the piano and upright bass would provide the downbeats to all four beats of the measure in 4/4 time. You can hear it on many 1920s & 1930s original recordings, where the drummer has to use cymbals, woodblocks, cowbells and/or brushes on the snare drum.

The drums acquired a stronger and more central role in rhythm sections in a post-WWII era and due to the technology could be used more progressively in a recording. Whereas in the 1920s and 1930s, you would need a piano, bass, guitar and/or banjo, all to be the “rhythm section”, now, in the 1940s, you could have just a bass and a drum set player to be the rhythm section.

 

 

B - Rock & Roll

Rock & Roll Defined

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Rock & Roll Defined

Rock & Roll music vs. Rock music

First, I’d like to define rock & roll as I use the term. Rock & roll to me, is different from “rock music”. To me rock & roll is specific to a time period starting roughly in the late 1940s, growing throughout the early fifties and peaking in the years 1955 to 1959, a “Golden Age of Rock & Roll” if you will, and then peaking again 1962-64 and then slowly giving way to the newer sounds of the mid-sixties.

There is a specific sound that the rock & roll period has exclusive to the 50s and early 60s. This period has a certain sound because of a combination of the vintage recording technology of the period, the way the band was recorded (using few and simple mike arrangements and baffles), the easy quick song structure (usually under three minutes)  and the upbeat tempos.

Rock & Roll lasted, starting roughly in 1949, lasting a good 15 to 20 years if you count the “doo-wop” (Vocal R&B) wing of rock & roll, which later peaked in 1961 to 1963 before morphing into “soul”. The resurgence of rock & roll brought out by the British Invasion in 1964 both helped and hurt the existence of good “old time” rock & roll. Then in 1965 true “old time” rock & roll gave way to the many new forms of “rock music” (like folk rock, garage rock and blues rock, etc.)

Rock music, as I know it, is a new genre coming out of rock & roll starting around 1965. A further distinction between rock music starting in the mid-sixties and rock & roll music of the late fifties is that the music is much happier and peppier, you can’t help but be happy or at least distracted by the catchiness of the sound. In most cases, it is hard to maintain sadness with a 50’s style rock & roll song,

 

The Term: Rock & Roll

The term, rock & roll, or rocking and rolling originally was a euphemism which meant engaging in sex. Or it could have also meant the movement of the members of a gospel church when it is in full swing, rocking and rolling from side to side or a dance movement during an upbeat R&B tune, whatever makes you comfortable, right?

The term turns up in a lot of other musical genres like R&B, gospel, blues and swing jazz going back to the 20’s. The term rock & roll turns up as a song title for the Boswell Sisters in 1937, and a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song called “Rock Me”,  and also “The Rock & Roll Inn”. Rock & roll was also the name of a music venue in New Jersey,  in Cleveland radio disc jockey Alan Freed coined the phrase “Rock & Roll” to describe a backbeat type music popular in the black community called rhythm & blues (R&B) music.

It is generally accepted that rock & roll had its “roots” in rhythm and blues or what was called “race music” (before Billboard Magazine started a category called “R&B” in 1948). However, rock and roll is really a big mix of music encompassing rhythm & blues (R&B) which contains “Rural blues” (Delta & Mississippi blues); “Urban blues” (Chicago & Electric blues); “Jump blues” (a la Louis Jordan);  Doo Wop or Vocal R&B;  “Gospel music” (specially Urban Contemporary Gospel and Southern Gospel) all mixed up and garnished with Rockabilly or elements of “hillbilly” folk music;  “Country & Western” (C&W) music; “Boogie Woogie” jazz and “Swing” Jazz, all rolled up in to one.

 

 

The Rock & Roll Band

Rock & roll was primarily made up of a band consisting of, but not limited to: a well coordinated vocal group or sometimes just an outrageous solo lead vocalist; a tinkling boogie-woogie and blues styled piano, sometimes as a lead instrument sometimes a rhythm instrument; a swinging  upright bass; an electric guitar, blues styled as a lead guitar or sometimes as a rhythm guitar;  a drummer,  using a definite backbeat rhythm accentuated by the snare drum; and the spicing on the cake one blaring tenor or alto saxophone usually as the lead instrument or with other horn instruments (trumpet, cornet, trombone, saxes) and rhythm instruments (conga, tambourine, maracas).

 

 The First Rock & Roll song

It is very hard to discern what was the first rock & roll record, this issue is subject to fierce debate and arguments with no real generally accepted specific one song (except maybe Rocket 88). There are many candidates such as but not limited to:

  • Arthur Crudup “That’s Alright Mama” – 1946
  • Roy Brown “Good Rocking Tonight” – 1947
  • Wild Bill Moore “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” -December 1947
  • Muddy Waters “I Can’t Be Satisfied” 1948
  • Amos Milburn “Chicken Shack Boogie” – 1948
  • Stick McGhee and His Buddies “Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee” – 1949
  • Wild Bill Moore “Rock and Roll” – 1949
  • Goree Carter’s “Rock Awhile” -April 1949
  • Jimmy Preston’s “Rock the Joint” – July 1949
  • Fats Domino’s – “The Fat Man” – January 1950
  • The Dominoes “Sixty Minute Man” – December 1950
  • Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (which were really Ike Turner and The Kings of Rhythm) “Rocket 88” (which has a bit of consensus) -April 1951
  • Fats Domino “Goin Home” – 1952
  • Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thorton “Hound Dog” – 1952
  • The Crows “Gee” – 1953
  • Bill Haley and His Comets “Crazy Man Crazy” – 1953
  • Ray Charles “Mess Around” – 1953
  • Big Joe Turner – “Shake, Rattle & Roll” – 1954
  • The Chords “Sh-Boom” – 1954
  • Bill Haley & the Comets “Rock Around the Clock” -1954