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Jazz is not Blues and Blues is not Jazz.......

I have been a music fan all my life and listen to classic Jazz and female vocals mostly.  I did not see this throughout most of my life, but now some internet sites and more seem to lump Jazz and Blues into the same thought. 
B.B. King is great, but he is not Jazz.  Paul Desmond is great, but he is not Blues.   

Perhaps next Buck Owens will be considered Blues, or Lawrence Welk or let's have Buddy Holly as a Jazz artist? 

Trite, trivial and ill informed, it is all the rage in politics, why not music?




whatjd
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
They are definitely different genres but jazz musicians have played the blues since the 40's. Most of what they played was "bop and blues" for decades.  Countless album titles like "Coltrane Plays the Blues" have been made over the years.

Interestingly blues musicians seem much less interested in playing jazz however.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
three easy payments -- It’s because jazz is a hell of a lot more difficult to play.
middlemass
924 posts
 
Exactly.
frogman
7,476 posts
 
“Difficult” is not an easy thing to define; it’s all more complicated and subtle than that. The best Jazz players are not always the best Blues players. In fact, they seldom are. What that does that tell you about “difficulty”?
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
Speaking as a guitar player myself I will say it's much easier to learn to play the blues with no formal music theory training.  Jazz is difficult to play well w/o having some fundamental understanding of music theory.  This is all the mechanical part of music.  Now how to play the blues and convey soul stirring feeling?  You're simply born with that ability.
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