The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157325 Message #3713246
Posted By: Lighter
30-May-15 - 07:19 PM
Thread Name: Who started the Delta blues myth?
Subject: RE: Who started the Delta blues myth?
High point of Odum's 1911 description:
"The 'musicianer' places his knife by the side of his instrument while he picks the strings and sings. He can easily pick it up and use it at the proper time without interrupting the harmony. In this way the instrument can be made to 'sing,''talk,'[or] 'cuss'.... It defies musical notation to give it full expression."
"Defies musical notation" is significant, but Odum never says anything specific about what was later called the blues scale.
On the other hand, every other feature of the blues that I can think of appears somewhere in the articles, which never mentions musical "blues" by name.