Blues and Jazz

People from Europe and America brought Africans to America as slaves before and during the nineteenth century. These Africans brought their music with them. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), the African-American people in the United States were not slaves. Their African-American music became famous. It started in the South, in Louisiana and Mississippi. Then it traveled to the North. This music became blues and then jazz.

Blues and jazz became very popular in the twentieth century. A person who "sings the blues" feels sad. Usually, he or she lost something - a person or maybe money or a job. Blues express sad feelings, sometimes in a funny way. People played blues first with only one or two instruments, for example, a guitar, a harmonica, or sometimes a piano. Sometimes they sang without any instruments.

Some famous blues musicians are Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker, and B. B. King. B. B. King named his guitar "Lucille." Jazz came soon after blues. Composers added more musical instruments. Jazz can be happier and it often faster. Some famous jazz musicians are Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Wynton Marsalis.

Musicians who play blues and jazz change the music to show their emotions. They play the music differently each time. Today people all over the world still like to listen to blues and jazz because all people have strong emotional feelings sometimes.