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

Whatjd, don't let all this talk confuse you, it is as you say it is, not as they desire.

Blues people and jazz people are as different as night and day, even when they look alike. First, lets not beat around the bush, blues is defined as "Delta Blues" or some derivative thereof, not as one of those "jazz tunes" with Blues in the title.

The jazz center of the world is New York city, not Jackson or Clarksdale Mississippi.


        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarksdale,_Mississippi



Most Blues musicians have picked cotton, most jazz musicians have not; that is also a classic cultural difference. I could go on indefinitely, but I wont, I believe you get the picture.
**** not as one of those "jazz tunes" with Blues in the title.****

Honest question.  What, then, would YOU call that tune in your Grant Green clip?  It uses the standard 12 bar Blues form, sounds like a Blues (in part) and has “Blues” in the title; but was played by musicians known primarily as Jazz players.  What was the point you were making by posting it?  Thanks.

Good question Frogman, beside the fact that I'm in pursuit of that vinyl LP and I think it's a most significant jazz tune, I had no real point, but I realize that is the central cause of confusion.

It seems that even "jazz musicians" are confused by what is, and what is not blues, and that includes Miles Davis. He said he liked Blues but gave no example. I bet nobody from "Clarksdale" would be confused; they can tell the difference between blues and jazz. I go along with the people from Clarksdale.

Anytime jazz musicians have spoken of the Blues, I always went away with a question mark on my mind because they are never definitive; it's always jazz with a "blue feeling" but not real blues.

Frogman, the best I can do is is two different categories of music; Delta Blues, and jazz Blues.
Strange.  I always thought Blues got lumped together with Rhythm, not Jazz.

Anyway, this debate is about as productive as trying to arrive at universally accepted definitions of what is yellow and what is orange.

Sure, the 12 bar blues is a classic blues form.  A form that has been used ("appropriated"????) zillions of times by jazz players, who don't have the "credentials" to be considered blues players.  So when the 12 bar blues are played by a jazz player, what is the music: blues, or jazz?  And more importantly, does it matter?