[Dixielandjazz] Bluegrass origins

[Ken Gates]

There are many musical influences that have mixed together to form the musical style of 
Bluegrass
music.  To mention a few major sources---Folk music of the British isles as transplanted in 
southern
areas of the US, both the singing style and instrumental effects (drone sound for 
example)----Minstrel
shows----Shape note singing----Barn dance instrumentals---Black rural blues----ragtime sounds--
----popular music of the 20s & 30s via radio and records -- field music including black 
spirituals
---a slight amount of jazz.

These influences came together in 1945 due to the efforts of the father of bluegrass, Bill 
Monroe.
The birth of bluegrass and the life of Bill Monroe are well documented.  And unlike the mystery 
of
Buddy Bolden and very early jazz, it is recorded for listening.  Bill Monroe was raised on a 
farm in
Kentucky.  His first musical experiences were with a black blues guitar player with the unlikely 
name,
Arnold Shultz.  Monroe's family members were musically inclined and played for barn dances and
social gatherings.  When the three Monroe brothers left for Chicago (Bill was 18), they were 
fairly
accomplished in the instrumental and vocal style that they had learned.  And they earned money
playing music while working at unskilled factory jobs.  We don't know how much jazz from
the active Chicago scene of 1929 to 1932 Bill Monroe heard.  But some for sure.  In a rare
Southern California appearance in 1977, I heard him announce his next tune as "something
I remember hearing when I lived in Chicago".  I may have been the only one in the
audience who recognized "Milenberg Joys".  :I doubt that Bill knew that the tune had a title
or a famous jazz composer..

>From 1932 to 1938, Bill and Charlie Monroe were very popular in the south as a brother duet.
Bill on mandolin, Charlie on guitar.  They both sang and played.  Bill had developed a mandolin
style that was much more sophisticated than the simpler styles of country musicians.  They were
NOT yet playing bluegrass.

>From 1938 until 1945, Bill Monroe led a country style dance band that incorporated some of the
motifs of popular music.  To most of us, it was pretty corny stuff, even to incorporating some 
of
the minstrel oriented comedy for popular appeal.  It brought in enough money to live on, but it
wasn't satisfying to Monroe's creative urges.  He had a sound in his head that was finally 
realized
when he heard a banjo played in the three finger roll style that had been developed by a very 
few
in the Caroline region.  He was able for the first time, to bring together the instrumentation 
and
the skilled players to play the first identifiable bluegrass sound.  A solid rhythm guitar 
(Lester Flatt),
the "new" banjo sound (Earl Scruggs), a bluesy fiddle (Chubby Wise), a dance rhythm string bass
(Howard Watts), and a virtuoso mandolin with some blues and jazz influence (Bill Monroe).

Since that time, bluegrass music has branched out in various ways.  Some of the current 
bluegrass
is very much jazz oriented--toward the more modern areas of extended chords and complex
rhythms.  Traditional jazz and bluegrass only overlap in a few areas.  They both are played best
in small groups of 5 or 6 or 7.  They both are best played without reading music and require
ability to improvise individually and collectively.  Both have popular appeal because of the 
"happy"
rhythm feel that is generated.

I felt the need to come out of lurking stage.  For those who have only a slight acquaintance 
with the
form, there tends to be confusion as to "mountain string band style" and other fore runners to 
what
is known as bluegrass music.  I happen to enjoy both jazz (OKOM, that is) and bluegrass.

Thanks for listening--to those who made it to the end.

Ken Gates