Blues Lecture

Congo Square Circa 1820

• “Approaching the common I heard the most extraordinary noise….

• … a crowd of 5 or 600 persons assembled in an open space or public square.”

• “Formed in circular groups… women dancing... hardly moving their feet or bodies.

• Benjamin Latrobe in Impressions Respecting New Orleans 1818-1820

• “The music consisted of two drums and a stringed instrument. An old man sat astride of a cylindrical drum about a foot in diameter, & beat it with incredible quickness with the edge of his hand & fingers. The other drum was an open staved thing held between the knees & beaten in the same manner. The most curious instrument, however, was a stringed instrument which no doubt was imported from Africa. On the top of the finger board was the rude figure of a man in a sitting posture, & two pegs behind him to which the strings were fastened. The body was a calabash. It was played upon by a very little old man, apparently 80 or 90 years old”

Historic recordings

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL0FpB26VSg

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRy5MoWPyS0

Louisiana Purchase -1803

Slavery

Charley Patton

• Born approx 1891 – died 1934

Ma Rainey – The Mother of the Blues1886 - 1939

Bessie Smith

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Who6fTHJ34

Robert Johnson