With James "Nick" Nixon"
February 23, 2010
Grades 5-12
The journey of the Blues winds past the plantation houses of the Mississippi Delta to the south side clubs and tenements of postwar Chicago . While the journey of the blues is a somber, humbling, and distressing journey, it is also a joyful journey. The history of the blues is more than a musical chronology. The blues was born and raised amid the slavery of the Deep South and flourished in the dark heart of America 's largest cities. The slaves sang songs filled with words telling of their extreme suffering and privation. One of the many responses to their oppressive environment resulted in the field holler. The field holler gave rise to the spiritual, and the spiritual gave rise to the blues.
The blues is an African American-derived music form that recognized the pain of lost love and injustice and gave expression to the victory of facing down adversity and outlasting a broken heart. The blues truly evolved from hymns, work songs, and field hollers . . . . . from the music African Americans used to accompany their spiritual, work and social functions. The blues form was first popularized in 1911 by the African American composer W.C. Handy through the publication of Handy's "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues".
During the twenties and thirties, the blues became a national craze. Records by leading blues singers, in the twenties like Bessie Smith and in the thirties, Billie Holiday, sold in the millions. The twenties saw the blues become a musical form more widely used by jazz instrumentalists as well as blues singers. During the forties and fifties, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, and Elmore James played Mississippi Delta blues, backed by bass, drums, piano and harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis pioneered a style of guitar playing that combined jazz technique with blues tones and repertoire.
Blues is the foundation of jazz and strongly influences all popular music including country, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll. Blues continue to shape music worldwide, is still evolving and is still widely played today. Join blues singer, James Nixon, for a musical journey through the fascinating black history of the blues.
James "Nick" Nixon is one of the foremost vocalists in the blues world today, as well as an outstanding guitarist and bandleader. As he enters his sixth decade of performing in the music business, Nixon has been recognized worldwide for his talents and as a velvet-voiced blues/R&B entertainer.
You can buy his music at: http://www.nicknixon.com/.
Register online for all videoconferences at http://vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm. All videoconferences are 9:00 and 10:00 CENTRAL (10:00 and 11:00 ET). The cost is $75 per site. Contact Chandra Allison at chandra.allison@vanderbilt.edu or 615.322.6511 with any questions.
