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used as a blanket term for soul and funk in the late 1980s a newer style of r b developed becoming known as contemporary r b this contemporary form combines rhythm and blues with various elements of jazz soul funk disco blues and electronic etymology definitions and description edit although jerry wexler of billboard magazine is credited with coining the term rhythm and blues as a musical term in the united states in 1948 3 the term had been used in billboard as early as 1943 4 5 however the company s first list of songs popular among african americans was named harlem hit parade created in 1942 it listed the most popular records in harlem and is the predecessor to the billboard rnb chart 6 rhythm and blues replaced the common term race music a term coined by okeh producer ralph peer based on the common self description by the african american press as people of race 7 8 the term rhythm and blues was then used by billboard in its chart listings from june 1949 until august 1969 when its hot rhythm blues singles chart was renamed as best selling soul singles 9 before the term rhythm and blues was popularized various record companies had already begun replacing the term race music with the term sepia series 10 rhythm and blues is often abbreviated as r b or r n b 11 in subsequent decades the abbreviation r b evolved to encompass a broad range of popular music styles including soul funk disco and later contemporary r b reflecting shifts in production audience and industry marketing 12 in the early 1950s the term rhythm blues was frequently applied to blues records 13 american writer and producer robert palmer defined rhythm blues as a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black americans 14 he has also used the term r b as a synonym for jump blues 15 however allmusic separates it from jump blues because of r b s stronger gospel influences 16 lawrence cohn author of nothing but the blues writes that rhythm and blues was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience according to him the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts 7 well into the 21st century the term r b continues in use in some contexts to categorize music made by black musicians as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians in the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s the bands usually consisted of piano one or two guitars bass drums and saxophone arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists simple repetitive parts mesh creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow lilting and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound while singers are emotionally engaged with the lyrics often intensely so they remain cool relaxed and in control the bands dressed in suits and even uniforms a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate lyrics often seemed fatalistic and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure 17 r b lyrical themes often encapsulate the african american experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy 18 as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships economics and aspirations citation needed one publication of the smithsonian institution provided this summary of the origins of the genre in 2016 a distinctly african american music drawing from the deep tributaries of african american expressive culture it is an amalgam of jump blues big band swing gospel boogie and blues that was initially developed during a thirty year period that bridges the era of legally sanctioned racial segregation international conflicts and the struggle for civil rights 2 the rock roll hall of fame defines some of the originators of r b including joe turner s big band louis jordan s tympany five james brown and lavern baker in fact this source states that louis jordan joined turner in laying the foundation for r b in the 1940s cutting one swinging rhythm blues masterpiece after another other artists who were cornerstones of r b and its transformation into rock roll include etta james fats domino roy brown little richard and ruth brown the doo wop groups were also noteworthy including the orioles the ravens and the dominoes 19 the term rock and roll had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and r b but when dj alan freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid 1950s the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing 20 history edit precursors edit louis jordan in new york city c july 1946 the great migration of black americans to the urban industrial centers of chicago detroit new york city los angeles washington d c and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz blues and related genres of music the migration of african americans to urban centers in the 1920s and 1930s helped shape rhythm and blues by blending jazz blues and urban influences 21 these genres of music were often performed by full time musicians either working alone or in small groups the precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues which overlapped in the late 1920s and 30s through the work of musicians such as the harlem hamfats with their 1936 hit oh red as well as lonnie johnson leroy carr cab calloway count basie and t bone walker there was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument as well as the piano and saxophone 22 late 1940s edit big joe turner was a key figure in early r b blending blues and rock r b originated in african american communities in the 1940s 23 in 1948 rca victor was marketing black music under the name blues and rhythm in that year louis jordan dominated the top five listings of the r b charts with three songs and two of the top five songs were based on the boogie woogie rhythms that had come to prominence during the 1940s 24 jordan s band the tympany five formed in 1938 consisted of him on saxophone and vocals along with musicians on trumpet tenor saxophone piano bass and drums 25 26 lawrence cohn described the music as grittier than his boogie era jazz tinged blues 7 173 author robert palmer described it as urbane rocking jazz based music with a heavy insistent beat 27 jordan s music along with that of big joe turner roy brown billy wright and wynonie harris before 1949 was referred to as jump blues then paul gayten roy brown and others had had hits in the style now referred to as rhythm and blues in 1948 wynonie harris s remake of brown s 1947 recording good rockin tonight reached number two on the charts following band leader sonny thompson s long gone at number one 28 29 in 1949 the term rhythm and blues r b replaced the billboard category harlem hit parade 7 also in that year the huckle buck recorded by band leader and saxophonist paul williams was the number one r b tune remaining on top of the charts for nearly the entire year written by musician and arranger andy gibson the song was described as a dirty boogie because it was risque and raunchy 30 paul williams and his hucklebuckers concerts were sweaty riotous affairs that got shut down on more than one occasion their lyrics by roy alfred who later co wrote the 1955 hit the rock and roll waltz were mildly sexually suggestive and one teenager from philadelphia said that hucklebuck was a very nasty dance 31 32 also in 1949 a new version of a 1920s blues song ain t nobody s business was a number four hit for jimmy witherspoon and louis jordan and the tympany five once again made the top five with saturday night fish fry 33 many of these hit records were issued on new independent record labels such as savoy founded 1942 king founded 1943 imperial founded 1945 specialty founded 1946 chess founded 1947 and atlantic founded 1948 22 afro cuban rhythmic influence edit african american music began incorporating afro cuban rhythmic motifs in the 1800s with the popularity of the cuban contradanza known outside of cuba as the habanera 34 the habanera rhythm can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat the habanera rhythm shown as tresillo lower notes with the backbeat upper note for the more than a quarter century in which the cakewalk ragtime and proto jazz were forming and developing the cuban genre habanera exerted a constant presence in african american popular music 35 jazz pioneer jelly roll morton considered the tresillo habanera rhythm which he called the spanish tinge to be an essential ingredient of jazz 36 there are examples of tresillo like rhythms in some african american folk music such as the hand clapping and foot stomping patterns in ring shout post civil war drum and fife music and new orleans second line music 37 wynton marsalis considers tresillo to be the new orleans clave although technically the pattern is only half a clave 38 tresillo is the most basic duple pulse rhythmic cell in sub saharan african music traditions and its use in african american music is one of the clearest examples of african rhythmic retention in the united states 39 the use of tresillo was continuously reinforced by the consecutive waves of cuban music which were adopted into north american popular culture in 1940 bob zurke released rhumboogie a boogie woogie with a tresillo bass line and lyrics proudly declaring the adoption of cuban rhythm dizzy gillespie was instrumental in blending afro cuban rhythms with jazz harlem s got a new rhythm man it s burning up the dance floors because it s so hot they took a little rhumba rhythm and added boogie woogie and now look what they got rhumboogie it s harlem s new creation with the cuban syncopation it s the killer just plant your both feet on each side let both your hips and shoulder glide then throw your body back and ride there s nothing like rhumbaoogie rhumboogie boogie woogie in harlem or havana you can kiss the old savannah it s a killer 40 although originating in the metropolis at the mouth of the mississippi river new orleans blues with its afro caribbean rhythmic traits is distinct from the sound of the mississippi delta blues 41 in the late 1940s new orleans musicians were especially receptive to cuban influences precisely at the time when r b was first forming 42 the first use of tresillo in r b occurred in new orleans british singer robert palmer who sampled r b on his album don t explain recalls fats domino in 1956 new orleans producer bandleader dave bartholomew first employed this figure as a saxophone section riff on his own 1949 disc country boy and subsequently helped make it the most over used rhythmic pattern in 1950s rock n roll on numerous recordings by fats domino little richard and others bartholomew assigned this repeating three note pattern not just to the string bass but also to electric guitars and even baritone sax making for a very heavy bottom he recalls first hearing the figure as a bass pattern on a cuban disc 43 in a 1988 interview bartholomew who had the first r b studio band 44 revealed how he initially superimposed tresillo over swing rhythm i heard the bass playing that part on a rumba record on country boy i had my bass and drums playing a straight swing rhythm and wrote out that rumba bass part for the saxes to play on top of the swing rhythm later especially after rock n roll came along i made the rumba bass part heavier and heavier i d have the string bass an electric guitar and a baritone all in unison 45 bartholomew referred to the cuban son by the misnomer rumba a common practice of that time fats domino s blue monday produced by bartholomew is another example of this now classic use of tresillo in r b bartholomew s 1949 tresillo based oh cubanas is an attempt to blend african american and afro cuban music the word mambo larger than any of the other text is placed prominently on the record label in his composition misery new orleans pianist professor longhair plays a habanera like figure in his left hand 46 the deft use of triplets is a characteristic of longhair s style audio playback is not supported in your browser you can download the audio file gerhard kubik notes that with the exception of new orleans early blues lacked complex polyrhythms and there was a very specific absence of asymmetric time line patterns key patterns in virtually all early twentieth century african american music only in some new orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so called stomp patterns or stop time chorus these do not function in the same way as african timelines 47 in the late 1940s this changed somewhat when the two celled timeline structure was brought into the blues new orleans musicians such as bartholomew and longhair incorporated cuban instruments as well as the clave pattern and related two celled figures in songs such as carnival day bartholomew 1949 and mardi gras in new orleans longhair 1949 while some of these early experiments were awkward fusions the afro cuban elements were eventually integrated fully into the new orleans sound in the 1940s professor longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and fell under the spell of perez prado s mambo records 48 he was especially enamored with afro cuban music michael campbell states professor longhair s influence was far reaching in several of his early recordings professor longhair blended afro cuban rhythms with rhythm and blues the most explicit is longhair s blues rhumba where he overlays a straightforward blues with a clave rhythm 49 longhair s particular style was known locally as rumba boogie 50 in his mardi gras in new orleans the pianist employs the 2 3 clave onbeat offbeat motif in a rumba boogie guajeo 51 piano excerpt from the rumba boogie mardi gras in new orleans 1949 by professor longhair 2 3 claves are written above for rhythmic reference the syncopated but straight subdivision feel of cuban music as opposed to swung subdivisions took root in new orleans r b during this time alexander stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from new orleans through james brown s music to the popular music of the 1970s adding the singular style of rhythm blues that emerged from new orleans in the years after world war ii played an important role in the development of funk in a related development the underlying rhythms of american popular music underwent a basic yet generally unacknowledged transition from a triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes 52 concerning the various funk motifs stewart states that this model is different from a time line such as clave and tresillo in that it is not an exact pattern but more of a loose organizing principle 53 johnny otis released the r b mambo mambo boogie in january 1951 featuring congas maracas claves and mambo saxophone guajeos in a blues progressi...
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