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

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?
twoleftears,

Of course it doesn’t matter. That is the point. Isn’t it? It doesn’t matter. That is precisely the rebuttal to the premise of the original post. As Duke said, “there are only two kinds of music....good and bad”.

However, if opening that can of worms one must, then other issues become relevant and inescapable if trying to define it. History and influences are just two; not to mention things like musical form and other theory. That Grant Green clip had a lot more in common with the Blues than just the “form”.

Now, about “credentials”. Did guitarist Peter Green pick cotton? I kinda doubt it. I guess that means he is not a Blues player. Tell that to all his fans.

Bottom line (and re that Grant Green clip):

Classic twelve bar Blues form. Uses a Blues tonality and scales. Is inflected like the Blues......it’s a Blues.