What was the first twelve bar blues ever?
What album (if any) can I find it on? Who recorded it? What was the year? What instruments were used?
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M$2 Answers
You can buy a CD with this recording here:
http://www.archeophone.com/product_info.php?products_id=57
Dallas Blues became a traditional Jazz standard and you can find countless additional recordings. A great traditional jazz band with this tune on CD is the New Black Eagles. Or, hear it from a New Orleans band on the World Records sampler. The quality of utube versions of Dallas Blues is not guaranteed but there are several.
The blues itself separated from jazz, although many blues are still played by jazz bands, and was popularized by singers and guitarists in several separate genres. But you asked for the first 12 bar blues, and that was early Jazz.
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M$
The reason I can't be sure is that all of his recordings are not around anymore.
He first recorded with Paramount in 1929, and made a total of 60 recordings, but when the record company went belly up, they sold off the masters for scrap.
~quote~
"When the company went out of business, the metal masters were sold off as scrap, some of it used to line chicken coops. All that's left are the original 78s — rumored to have been made out of inferior pressing material commonly used to make bowling balls — and all of them are scratched and heavily played, making all attempts at sound retrieval by current noise-reduction processing a tall order indeed."
~end/quote~
Charley was a trend setter in blues and is one of the founding fathers of delta country blues of the Mississippi region.
He helped create many music styles through his unique voice and interesting and new creations with the guitar. He was also the first musician to start popping strings, as in the funk style today.
He's no Robert Johnson, and I don't think he made a deal with the devil to get such good blues, but he did have a special air about him and could carry his voice without amplification quite far.
Without the technology we have today, it is hard to track down the exact moment in this continual creation called the blues, but I hear that you can always make a deal with the man downstairs.
After looking through the recordings that I could dig up on Youtube, I found the "Pony Blues" which is a rough twelve bar.
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M$
Thanks @albanian -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBYyvf_xBYkI didn't realize the Dallas Blues was published that early!
I remember listening to Fats Waller and Ted Lewis play that song, but that was in the 30's.