Blues female performers. The best blues artists of all time

The blues is when a good person feels bad.

Rejection and loneliness, crying and longing, the bitterness of life, seasoned with a burning passion, from which the heart is worried - this is the blues. It's not just music, it's real, true magic.

Filled with good sadness Bright Side collected two dozen legendary blues compositions that have stood the test of time. Naturally, we could not cover the entire vast layer of this divine music, so we traditionally suggest sharing in the comments those compositions that do not leave you indifferent.

Canned Heat - On The Road Again

Canned Heat blues enthusiasts and collectors have revived countless forgotten blues classics from the 1920s and 30s. The group had its greatest popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Well, their most famous song was On The Road Again.

Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man

The mysterious expression "hoochie coochie man" is known to everyone who loves the blues even a little, because this is the name of the song, which is considered a classic of the genre. "Hoochie coochie" was the name of a sexy female dance that captivated the public during the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. But the expression "hoochie coochie man" came into use only after 1954, when Muddy Waters recorded a song by Willie Dixon, which instantly became popular.

John Lee Hooker

Boom Boom was released as a single in 1961. By then, Lee Hooker had been playing Apex Bar in Detroit for quite some time and was consistently late for work. When he showed up, the bartender Willa would say, "Boom-boom, you're late again." And so every evening. One day, Lee Hooker thought that this "boom-boom" could make a good song. And so it happened.

Nina Simone

Screaming songwriter Jay Hawkins originally intended to record I Put A Spell On You in the style of a blues love ballad. However, according to Hawkins, “The producer got the whole band drunk, and we recorded this fantastic version. I don't even remember the recording process. Before that, I was a regular blues singer, Jay Hawkins. Then I realized that I could make more devastating songs and scream myself to death.”

In this compilation we have included the most sensual version of this song performed by the gorgeous Nina Simone.

Elmore James

Written by Robert Johnson, Dust My Broom became a blues standard after it was performed by Elmore James. Subsequently, it was covered more than once by other performers, but, in our opinion, the version of Elmore James can be called the best version.

Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightnin'

Another blues standard. Wolfe's howl is able to make you empathize with the author, even if you do not understand the language in which he sings. Incredible.

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton dedicated this song to Patti Boyd - wife George Harrison (The Beatles), with whom they secretly met. Layla is an incredibly romantic and touching song about a man who is hopelessly in love with a woman who also loves him but remains inaccessible.

B. B. King - Three O'Clock Blues

It was this song that made Riley B King famous from the cotton plantations. This is a common story in the spirit: “I woke up early. Where did my woman go? A true classic performed by the king of the blues.

Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Messin' With The Kid

A blues standard performed by Junior Wells and virtuoso guitarist Buddy Guy. Under this 12-bar blues, it is simply impossible to sit still.

Janis Joplin - Kozmic Blues

As Eric Clapton said, "The blues is the song of a man who doesn't have a woman or who has lost a woman." In the case of Janis Joplin, the blues turned into a real frantic soulful striptease of a hopelessly in love woman. The blues in her performance is not just a song with repetitive vocal parts. These are constantly changing emotional experiences, when plaintive pleas move from quiet sobs to a hoarse, desperate cry.

Big Mama Thornton

Thornton was considered one of the coolest performers of her time. Although Big Mama became famous for only one hit, Hound Dog, in 1953 he remained at the top of the Billboard rhythm and blues lists for 7 weeks and sold a total of almost two million copies.

Robert Johnson

For a long time, Johnson tried to master the blues guitar in order to perform with his comrades. However, this art was given to him extremely hard. For some time he parted with friends and disappeared, and when he appeared in 1931, the level of his skill increased many times over. On this occasion, Johnson told the bike that there was some kind of magical crossroads where he made a deal with the devil in exchange for the ability to play the blues. Maybe the damn cool song Crossroad Blues is about this intersection?

Gary Moore

The most famous song in Russia by Gary Moore. According to the musician himself, at the studio it was recorded from the first time from beginning to end. And we can safely say that even those who do not understand the blues at all know it.

Tom Waits

Waits has an idiosyncratic husky voice, described by critic Daniel Duchholz as: "It's like it's been soaked in a bourbon barrel, it's like it's been left in a smokehouse for a few months, and then when it's taken out, it's been driven over." His lyrical songs are stories, most often told in the first person, with grotesque images of seedy places and shabby characters. An example of such a song is Blue Valentine.

Steve Ray Vaughan

Another blues standard. The 12-bar blues performed by a virtuoso guitarist touches to the core and makes you goosebumps.

Ruth Brown

A song from the wonderful film "Tariff on Moonlight". She plays at the very moment when the main character, nervous before the meeting, lights candles and pours wine into glasses. The penetrating voice of Ruth Brown is simply mesmerizing.

Harpo Slim- I'm A King Bee

A song with uncomplicated lyrics, written in the best traditions of the blues, helped Slim become famous in an instant. The song was covered many times by different musicians, but no one did it better than Slim. After the Rolling Stones covered this song, Mick Jagger himself said: "What's the point of listening to I'm A King Bee performed by us when Harpo Slim sings it best?"

Willie Dixon

In the American South, "back door man" referred to a person who meets a married woman and leaves through the back door before the husband returns home. It is about such a guy that the song of the magnificent Willy Dixon Back Door Man, which has become a classic of the Chicago blues.

Little Walter

Thanks to his revolutionary harmonica playing technique, Little Walter is on a par with blues masters such as Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. He is considered the player who set the standard for blues harmonica playing. Written for Walter by Willie Dixon, My Baby is the best showcase of his great playing and style.

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 background is created by the cello, 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.

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, according to legend, who 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 greatest popularity to the musician compositions, 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.