Who Stole the Soul from the Blues?
Blues Foundation policies not helping most black musicians
This essay also blogged at:
www.bluescritic.com/morecommentary.htm
The world is going to end soon, declared the crusty old author Kurt Vonnegut, in the Aug. 24 2006 Rolling Stone. America’s addiction to oil will bring world war and environmental collapse, Vonnegut said; it’s hopeless.
Except for one thing: the Blues.
“You must realize that the priceless gift that African-Americans gave us musically is almost the only reason many foreigners still tolerate us,” Vonnegut said. “That the specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is the blues."
Growing out of some of the toughest human conditions in the world, blues has struck a universal note. “Blues is the classical music of Black people,” wrote Ralph Metcalfe Jr., music promoter and historian. More broadly, blues is the root of American popular music: jazz, rock, r&b, hiphop, even influencing country and folk music
Yet, like other forms of American roots music, blues gets lost in the scramble for the latest marketable new thing. A few giant record companies and media chains control hundreds of stores, venues and radio stations. Their advertisers want pop music that is safe, bland, even trashy.
As the great old generation of blues men and women pass from the scene, the blues sinks further in the marketplace. Bob Putignano’s column from New York in the December 2006 issue of Big City Rhythm & Blues magazine notes, “Each day does not pass without some disturbing news about an artist not being able to go out on tour, a label running into financial stress, and about how clubs are not as willing to book blues based music.” Blues record companies constantly lament their tiny 1-2% share of the market. Schools keep cutting arts subjects out of the curriculum; in many cities, students are starved for musical instruments and teachers. If young people don’t hear blues, how can they get into it?
Standing against this tide is a diehard network of blues societies, largely-volunteer radio DJs, festivals, and small local venues. For national leadership, many blues fans look to the Blues Foundation in Memphis. The Foundation states that its mission is “to preserve blues history, celebrate blues excellence, support blues education and ensure the future of this uniquely American art form.”
http://www.blues.org/about/index.php4
But what is the Blues Foundation doing to fulfill its mission? Its two major events are not education, nor outreach to find new fans. Rather, they are competitions among existing musicians! The Blues Music (W.C.Handy) Awards and the International Blues Challenge (IBC) aim at generating even more new bands, not new fans. The blues music business is already crowded and sometimes vicious. In Chicago, which advertises itself as the world blues capital, tourist clubs are paying musicians a pittance. With the infighting over smaller and smaller crumbs in a tiny pie, the blues could soon die of backstabbing.
The main Blues Foundation competition is the “Blues Music Awards” in May, formerly named after W.C. Handy, a highly educated African-American composer in the early 20th century when vaudeville was evolving into jazz. Handy, a trumpet player, discovered black people in the south playing a primitive music, which they called the blues. One wonders why the dignified, historic name “Handy Awards” was dropped, just last year.
The awards themselves show that today’s African-American blues men and women are not being encouraged to emerge in their 40s and 50s. Of 25 Handy Award categories in 2006, 10 went to white musicians, 15 to black. Of the 15 black artists receiving awards, six were deceased and all but one of the rest were over 65. The opposite was true for the white awardees; all were under 65. The message to up and coming black blues artists, intended or not: You are worth nothing until you are old or dead.
How does the Blues Foundation determine the winners? Record companies and current recordings dominate the process. Record companies and some artists submit recordings, limited to releases in that year, to 100-125 blues business people whose identity is screened from the public. The Foundation website does not say who chooses the “committee of 100.” The committee goes through two rounds of nomination; fortunately, those with vested interest in a song or artist are excluded from Round 2. Foundation members (memberships cost $25; you can join at
www.blues.org ) then vote among five nominees in each category.
Early Handy award winners were solid blues men and women.
http://www.blues.org/bluesmusicawards/pastyears.php4
In 1982 they included Albert King, Bobby Blue Bland, Sippie Wallace, Buddy Guy, Jr. Wells. Are there good musicians following in their legacy out there today? Yes…and though their names are not household words, their faces can be found on the covers of Big City Rhythm & Blues, Living Blues, and several fine European magazines. But they don’t have a record deal every year, so you won’t find them at the Handy (sorry, I’m still calling it Handy) Awards. Instead, you’ll find some big names of pop and rock stars who happen to do a blues album.
Blues is not the music of successful pop and rock stars. It is the cry of a people who suffered 500 years of slavery, poverty, brutality, and discrimination. And, some say, even that cry is being stolen from them.
Besides having a tough time winning Handy Awards at the top end, the middle aged African-American professional musicians also face obstacles trying to break into the bottom of the national blues scene. For 20 of the 22 year history of the International Blues Challenge each February, the rules favored amateurs over professionals. Only after an outcry when Joey Gilmore was disqualified as first place winner of the 2005 competition due to an obscure 10 year old record deal, were the rules changed to fully admit professionals. The rules had excluded many African American full time musicians in favor of mostly-white amateurs with money to promote themselves.
It doesn’t stop there. National and local Blues Challenge winners are awarded agents and festival slots. Hearing these amateur bands, fans will not necessarily learn what real blues sounds like. And amateur acts that take blues festival or club stages tend to put veteran professional musicians out of a job.
The contest rules on judging also fall short. The Blues Foundation’s website under “IBC Scoring Criteria” says only: “Everyone has his or her own interpretation of what is and is not Blues. Any given three-judge panel will include members with varying opinions of blues, covering the spectrum of blues whenever possible, from the most traditional to soul/blues and rock/blues.”
In reality, with very few African-Americans in the local or national judging panels, the evaluating is not always balanced. Even though the IBC scale is supposed to be “4 points blues content, 3 points talent, 2 points originality and 2 points stage presence,” bands emphasizing original rock or folk-rock tunes have won first place in local competitions this year.
Go back to the definition of blues. The key is not making up something original and clever, although that can be entertaining. Rather, the blues is based on feeling. “Ever since the blues first developed from African-American field hollers, feeling has been the most essential ingredient,” writes critic Bill Dahl under “What is the Blues: Essays” on the Blues Foundation web site,
www.blues.org.
One problem might be that it’s hard to judge “feeling.” Many of us hesitate to use our right brains when we are designated a “judge.” Again, the African-American culture puts greater weight on feelings and relationships than the mainstream European American culture which values facts and theories. Perhaps having more black judges would bring back the feeling.
Willie Dixon, musician, producer and songwriter, was fond of saying that blues are the roots, other music is the fruits. And today, white critics like David Whiteis have pointed out that the roots of blues are in the feelings and community of African American culture. Separate the roots from the fruits too far, and you won’t have any more blues.
Could it be that an unconscious form of discrimination—the separation of the music from the people who make the music-- has eroded the heart and soul of the blues, and that is why it’s not winning more fans? Don’t we need a conscious effort to reconnect today’s aging masters of the art with African American young people, who are recently showing signs of interest? Don’t we need also to put these musical masters to work educating and entertaining people of all ages and backgrounds, instead of so much emphasis on contests pitting them against each other?
With better fed, happy professional blues men and women leading the way for other fans and musicians, blues will again be able to do its magical work: helping save the world by changing sorrow into fun!
Your comments are welcome; send them to me at : bonni@barrelhousebonni.com
Appendix: WC HANDY “BLUES MUSIC AWARD” winners, May 2006
African Americans (15 awards) and year of birth:
--Little Milton Campbell, 1934-2005: Album of Year, Soul Blues Album, Soul Blues Male Artist, Song of Year
--Clarence Gatemouth Brown, fiddle instrumentalist, 1924-2005
--Buddy Guy: Entertainer of Year, 1936
--Zac Harmon, Best New Artist, 1957
--Etta James, Traditional Female Artist, 1938
--BB King, Traditional Male Artist, 1925
--Eddie Shaw, horn instrumentalist, 1937
--Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, drum instrumentalist, 1936
--Mavis Staples, Soul Blues Female Artist, 1940
--Hubert Sumlin, guitar instrumentalist and Traditional album, 1931
--Historical Album of Year, Chess Recordings Vol. 2:, 1952-58: Muddy Waters , others
Non African Americans (10 awards and year of birth)
--Marcia Ball, piano instrumentalist, 1949
--Tab Benoit, Contemporary album, 1967
--Mookie Brill, bass instrumentalist, 1960
--Al Kooper, Comeback Album, 1945
--Janiva Magness, contemporary Blues Female Artist, 1957
--Charlie Musselwhite, harmonica instrumentalist, 1944
--Paul Oscher, acoustic album and acoustic artist of year, age not given, under 65
--Rod Piazza & Mighty Flyers, band of year, 1947
--Kim Wilson, contemporary blues male artist, 1951
Bonni McKeown, the white middle class author of this article, is a freelance writer and blues piano player in Charleston WV. She spent three years on the West Side of Chicago and co-produced Chicago bluesman Larry Taylor’s debut album They Were in This House. Her website is
www.barrelhousebonni.com.