St. Louis Blues Technique

It's loungy, jazzy, and only a little bit sad. Louis Armstrong's trumpet sings plaintively, as if it's a voice in a duet with Bessie Smith's raspy beauty. A goofy harmonium gently taps out chords...

Before the 1910s, blues songs were rarely if ever written down. But when W.C. Handy hit the popular music market with the intention of making the blues into a popular and accessible form, writing...