West Coast Blues

The West Coast Blues is a style of blues that is influenced by jazz and jump blues . The piano plays a central role, and there are often jazz-oriented guitar solos. The origins go back to the 1940s when Texas blues musicians settled in California.

One of the main pioneers of West Coast blues was Texan T-Bone Walker , author of the blues classic Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad) . He moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s . Walker was one of the first to play the blues on the electric guitar. He was followed by other Texas blues musicians to California, including Amos Milburn , Percy Mayfield , Charles Brown , Pee Wee Crayton and Lowell Fulson .

Thanks to the achievements of Tom Mazzolini, organizer of the legendary San Francisco Blues Festival founded in 1974, and the presence of such important record companies as Arhoolie and HighTone Records , the west coast is one of the most important blues regions in the USA.

Representative of the West Coast Blues

Big Mama Thornton Dave Alexander Charlie Baty Charles Brown Roy Brown Buddy Collette Pee Wee Crayton Sugar Pie DeSanto Floyd Dixon Lowell Fulson Cecil Gant Peppermint Harris Roy Hawkins Ivory Joe Hunter Etta James Robert Lowery Little Willie Littlefield Michael Leonard Mann

Percy Mayfield Jimmy McCracklin Amos Milburn Roy Milton Jimmy Nelson Johnny Otis Rod Piazza Jimmy Reed Sonny Rhodes LC Robinson Haskell Robert Sadler George "Harmonica" Smith Lafayette Thomas Luther Tucker Big Joe Turner Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson Joe Louis Walker T-bone walker

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vladimir Bogdanov: All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues. Backbeat Books, 2002, ISBN 0879307366 , p. Xii
2. ↑ Jas Obrecht (Ed.): Rollin 'and Tumblin': The Postwar Blues Guitarists- Backbeat Books, 2000, ISBN 0879306130 , p. 7
3. ^ Gérard Herzhaft: Encyclopedia of the Blues. University of Arkansas Press, 1997, ISBN 1557284520 , p. 32

Web links

• The Bay Area Blues Society website (English)