[Dixielandjazz] Bluegrass origins

Sun Mar 4 08:57:54 PST 2007

Thanks Ken for the thumbnail sketch of Bluegrass history.  I like Bluegrass 
to a point.  I am good for about a half hour then I want to turn the dial if 
there is one.  There are a bunch of styles that I am the same way with.  For 
example, I like Beethoven but only for about a half hour and the same with 
Bach.  That exceeds Be Bop by 29 minutes.  I can do C&W for about 10 
minutes. which is 10 more than I can do Rap.  My wife on the other hand can 
put up with my singing for about four minutes whereas I can put up with it 
for about nine minutes.

I should come up with the Larry Scale of musical tolerance and post it on 
the wall somewhere.  That's why I like my Ipod so much.  I put it on shuffle 
and it changes tracks every time a new tune plays.  The little thing has 
really increased my enjoyment of music.
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Gates" <kwg28 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Dixieland Jazz" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2007 11:28 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Bluegrass origins

> 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
>
>
>
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