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The blues is:
. ...
The origins of the blues precede recorded music, and even after the arrival of the phonograph, the blues was regarded as such a low-class and/or simply un-commercial form that it existed for a full 20 years before it was recorded. ... Anglo-Saxon church music and folk-ballads were also transformed into forerunners of blues and gospel songs, again drastically influenced by the ex-slaves African musical heritage. ... Initially, the blues instruments of favor were the harmonica--cheap, easily portable, and, in the African manner, an instrument capable of imitating the human voice--and the banjo. ... Musicologists best guesstimates place the blues as chiefly arising in three regions: Texas, Georgia/the Carolinas, and, most notably, Mississippi (especially the Delta area), possibly as soon as the 1890s but definitely by the early 1900s. The blues piano, however, developed in a parallel but different course--the players could only go where the pianos were, namely whorehouses and barrelhouses. Blues piano fermented principally in the eastern Texas/western Louisiana area, but soon spread, especially to the cities in the Midwest. ...
The "elevation" of the blues by its integration into ragtime -- led by W. ... Handy ("Memphis Blues," "St. Louis Blues") beginning in 1912 -- played a major hand in the birthing of jazz; the freedom of improvised vocal and instrumental call-and-answer was probably an attraction for ragtime musicians. For another decade, the blues itself was still mostly played live for phonograph-less rural audiences, yet eventually the jazz connection did pay off. Performed as somewhat urbanized blues with large jazz-musician ensembles, Mamie Smiths 1920 breakout hit "Crazy Blues" and the ensuing (1923-on) recordings of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith first exposed the blues to a mass audience (this was despite the blues having been considered as primarily a mans medium! ... The earliest mens blues recordings, even including those of pre-blues-music artists like the Mississippi Sheiks, did not begin until 1924, and the floodgates only really opened in 1927. ... If anything can be said to be characteristic of Mississippi blues besides its vocal intensity and rhythmic drive (often accented by the use of a slide or bottleneck on the guitar), it is its exciting diversity.
Approximate Word count = 1733
Approximate Pages = 6.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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