By Marilyn Lester***In 1926 Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown wrote “The Birth of the Blues” for the Broadway revue, George White’s Scandals of 1926; the popular tune reappeared in the 1941 musical film, Birth of the Blues, with Bing Crosby and Mary Martin, celebrating the 
roots of jazz in New Orleans via The Original Dixieland Jass Band. But before those birth announcements, Duke Ellington, arguably America’s greatest composer, had the blues covered. In the early 1920s he was already writing the blues into his music and arrangements, such as saxophone blues licks for his Kentucky Club Orchestra. A glance at Duke’s discography reveals a myriad of tunes and album titles about the blues from “Mood Indigo,” originally called “Dreamy Blues,” to “Jeep’s Blues,” “Blues in Orbit,” “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues”—and a whole lot more—to “The Blues” from 1971’s The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse.
But what exactly are the blues, and that is the 
question answered in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s superb program, Birth of the Blues, spearheaded by the program’s musical director, reeds master, Sherman Irby. In fact, the opening number, “From Segou to the Mississippi Delta,” written by Irby, explained the blues in music. And we owe it all to the source, Mother Africa, and its roots in the West African empire of Segou in modern-day Mali. Like the rhythms of the drum, the music traveled via the enslaved through the Caribbean to New Orleans and along the Mississippi, branching out West to Kansas City, up to Chicago and Detroit and East to New York. As a result, in every style of music in America, the blues is there: country music, rock n’ roll, R&B and of course jazz. “From Segou to the Mississippi Delta” featured vocals by Ekep Nkwelle and banj
o artistry by James Zito, demonstrating an art form derived from the African ngoni.
Time travel ensued: the discovery of the blues is attributed to W.C. Handy, but scholars might tell you it was James Reese Europe who hipped Handy to the blues, suggesting he travel to the deep South. There he’d find musical treasure in the field hollers, spirituals and “raggedy rhythms” that developed post-emancipation. Here lay the real birth of the blues. Commemorating both men, the JLCO played Europe’s arrangement of Handy’s 1912 “Memphis Blues,” which became a signature tune of Europe’s World War I 369th Hell Fighters regiment. For authenticity, the versatile trombonist Chris Crenshaw produced a tuba for low-note time-keeping. Also demonstrating further “hidden” talent, Crenshaw provided vocals for Joe “King” Oliver and Clarence Williams’ “West End Blues,” which also featured a powerful spotligh
t solo for trumpeter Marcus Printup. Nkwelle also applied a gutsy blues feel to her vocal on Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” with backup from the band.
Far from being a collection of “torch songs,” the scope of the blues carried into all types of music. As Irby explained, the blues is a combination of a sound, a feeling and forms, such as classic 12-bar blues and 16-bar blues, influenced by rhythms. Count Basie put swing into the blues, illustrated by “One O’Clock Jump.” With Ellington’s “Sepia Panorama,” Irby quoted Duke, who said, “I dressed the blues in Sunday finest.” Bassist Carlos Henriquez was in the spotlight, playing the features Ellington created for legendary bass player, Jimmie Blanton. Moving into the bebop era, Kenny Washington demonstrated his well-honed vocal skills on Charlie Parker’s “Parker’s Mood.” Here, Irby emphasized “the blues may not be what you think it is,” moving into Dizzy Gillespie’s arrangement of John Lewis’ “Two Bass H
it,” Wes Montgomery’s “West Coast Blues” and Miles Davis’ hard bop “Freddie Freeloader.”
Birth of the Blues ended on a powerful note. Jazz has long been an example of the meaning of freedom, and the blues no less so, being a perfect platform for protest. Langston Hughes and Nina Simone created “Backlash Blues,” fiercely sung by Nkwelle. The tune was recorded on 1967’s Nina Simone Sings the Blues, a song protesting racial tension and the political “backlash” against the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. “Rosewood” ended the concert theatrically. The tune was written by Wynton Marsalis for the 1997 film of the same name, a historical drama about the 1923 Rosewood, Florida massacre, a horrific portrayal of racial violence centering on the destruction of a predominantly Black town by a white mob. Perhaps too much of a downer to cap off a glorious evening of song, but the vocals by Nkwelle and Washington with the full force of the band, arranged by Printup, was certainly intensely dramatic. But the take-away once again lies in Ellington who viewed the blues as a foundational element of American music, anchored in a core of simplicity and honesty that speaks truth to power.
