Origins of the blues
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Little is known about the exact origin of the music now known as the blues. No specific year can be cited as its origin, largely because the style evolved over a long period but blues is inarguably a
Master Kora maker Alieu Suso in the Gambia
A watercolor painting of a camp meeting circa 1839 (New Bedford Whaling Museum).
Emancipation from Freedmen's viewpoint; illustration from Harper's Weekly 1865
Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843
Blues
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Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, s
Origins of the blues
…Little is known about the exact origin of the music now known as the blues. No specific year can be cited as its origin, largely because the style evolved over a long period but blues is inarguably a Black American art form…
American blues singer Ma Rainey (1886–1939), the "Mother of the Blues"
Musicologist John Lomax (left) shaking hands with musician "Uncle" Rich Brown in Sumterville, Alabama
Sheet music from "Saint Louis Blues" (1914)
Bessie Smith, an early blues singer, known for her powerful voice