The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159868   Message #3789490
Posted By: GUEST,Joseph Scott
10-May-16 - 02:58 AM
Thread Name: 12-bar blues on record before 1921
Subject: RE: 12-bar blues on record before 1921
"It's important to note that just because a song has 'blues' in the title doesn't mean it's a 12-bar blues or in a standard form." Yes, IIRC there's no 12-bar -- or idiomatic 16-bar a la Lemon Jefferson's "One Dime Blues," either* -- in these tunes listed as that redhotjazz page:

Blame It On The Blues
Chinese Blues
Ghost of The Terrible Blues
Honolulu Blues
I've Got The Blues For Home Sweet Home
Money Blues
Paradise Blues

You might think that coming up with a tune title like "Chinese Blues" was a white innovation, but the black singer Baby Brown was already singing her own "Chinese Blues" for black listeners in 1913, and the black singer Estelle Harris was singing her "The Blues In The Indian Style" for black listeners in 1911.

Tennessee Blues by Warner and Holt, listed on the redhotjazz page, does include 12-bar.

*An early recording of 16-bar blues is the Victor Military Band doing Euday Bowman's "Kansas City Blues" in 1916.