Welcome to the Routine Rewind series on the Diamond Dolls blog!

Welcome to the Routine Rewind series on the Diamond Dolls blog! We will be taking a look back at some of our past routines and giving them a historical and cultural context covering things from song inspirations, artist highlights, discussing the origins of the dance styles, and more. Join us on the first of every month right here to follow this new series.

This month we are taking a look back at our Blues routines, “Blues Muses” from 2016 choreographed by Reese Dewey, and “Death Room Blues” from 2014 choreographed by Lindsay Ragsdale.

Image of Bessie Smith from https://www.npr.org/2019/08/06/748312631/from-the-tent-show-to-the-parlor-bessie-smiths-travels-in-her-time

Where did Blues music originate from?

Blues music stemmed from the work songs and spirituals of enslaved African Americans in the South during the 19th century, specifically in the Mississippi Delta. Those songs often featured call and response, which is still a prominent feature in blues music today. Enslaved people were stripped of their culture when they were kidnapped and brought to America. Singing was a way for them to communicate with each other, and to pass things down from generation to generation. Song also played a role in speaking in code for people who were trying to escape to freedom, and was believed to be used during The Underground Railroad.

“With the Great Migration of black workers that began around that time the Blues spread around the south and the rest of the United States.” Blues was spread to a broader audience through “tent shows”. Blues musicians would play alongside other acts, such as comedians or circuses. When they would arrive into a city they would play in a more formal setting, like a theater, however it was always to a segregated audience because of “Jim Crow” laws.

What’s the difference between blues and jazz?

“Blues is a predecessor to and foundation of jazz. While there are some elements that overlap, jazz and blues use similar features in different ways. Both styles of music use improvisation but in blues this is reserved for a soloist in a set number of bars and over a strict chord progression, whereas jazz ensembles often improvise together and for an unlimited amount of time. Generally, jazz is less strict and more polyphonic than blues, using a wide variety of chord progressions. It is also more likely to be purely instrumental, while blues most often centres a vocalist who leads call-and-response and articulates the music’s subject matter. There is also significant overlap in the instruments typically used in both genres, though again jazz tends to create more diverse ensembles.”

Excerpt from https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/blues-music/

**Image from:** https://syncopatedtimes.com/blues-dancing-a-mississippi-misappropriation/

What is Blues dance?

Blues is within the African American Vernacular jazz family, and shares characteristics, such as rhythm, improvisation, control, angularity asymmetry, and dynamism (Stompin’ On The Blues). “Blues dance is a family of Black American vernacular dances danced to blues music; dances within this family are linked by shared aesthetics and techniques rooted in Black American traditions and historical context.”

Excerpt from http://www.rdublues.com/what-is-blues-dance/

Image from https://www.statesboroherald.com/life/statesboros-wandering-minstrel-blind-willie-mctell/

Blind Willie McTell: Death Room Blues

Blind Willie McTell lived from 1898 to 1959. He was a singer, and guitarist. He specialized in Piedmont and ragtime blues. By the end of his career he exclusively used twelve-string guitars, and enjoyed using slide guitar techniques. “His vocal style, a smooth and often laid-back tenor, differed greatly from many of the harsher voice types employed by Delta bluesmen, such as Charlie Patton.” Excerpt from https://www.lyrics.com/artist/Blind-Willie-McTell/454

While reading about the interesting life that McTell led, I found it difficult to sum it up in short. If you are interested in checking out an in depth record of his life, check out this piece. Below are two excerpts that struck me.

“McTell also was a snazzy dresser for much of his career (check out the picture on the dust jacket). Most surprisingly to his contemporaries, and to his biographer, Blind Willie displayed an uncanny ability to navigate the streets of any city he lived in, from Statesboro, to Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and back again. In short, “everyone is agreed upon Willie’s lifelong transcendence of his handicap.”...Much of McTell’s early musical training was probably informal: several family members evidently played the guitar, and, in Statesboro, his mother Minnie and a man named Stapleton both helped mentor the boy’s training. The wife of a white physician even gave young Willie a guitar. McTell must have been talented, because while still a teenager he briefly ran away and joined a traveling circus as a musical performer.”

Sadly, McTell found most of his success posthumously. Death Room Blues is a Traditional and Shape-Note Gospel. Below are the lyrics of Death Room Blues:

Tombstones is my pillow, cold grounds is my bed

The blue skies is my blanket, and the moonlight is my spread

Early one morning, death walked into my room

Oh well it took my dear mother, early one morning soon

She left me moanin' and cryin' like a turtledove

She left me moanin' and cryin' moanin' like a turtledove

Death walked in and got my dear mother, and the only friend I loved

Eeeeh, eeeh

Cryin', Lord have mercy, she came back and got the friend I loved

Ever since my mother died and left me all alone

All my friends have forsake me, people I haven't even got no home.

Mmmm... feel like moanin' and cryin'

Death walked in and got my mother, that was the only friend of mine.

Death Room Blues choreographer note:

“I usually decide to choreograph a routine when a song strikes me in an emotional way. Death Room Blues was a drastic departure from our typical mood and tone of the Doll’s repertoire and I thought it would be interesting to experiment with. I leaned more heavily on a modern-style movement and almost total synchronization. I really enjoyed expressing my more serious side and interacting with my fellow dancers and audiences in a different way.”

Hozier: Work Song

Hozier’s father was a blues musician, so as he grew up he constantly heard that music flowing through his home. He is largely influenced by the music he heard growing up as well as “motown, gospel, Delta blues, and Jazz”. Hozier credits African American music as the majority of his influence when it comes to his personal work.

"Work Song" is a gospel-blues song listed as the ninth track on the album, written solely by Hozier.[4] Hozier cites the song as one of his favorites from the record.[5] "Work Song" has "nuances of soul" with a "strong melodic bass", composed of percussion, tambourines, guitar, and "murmurous" vocals, while the lyrics describe a love of "undying sweetness" and devotion.[5][6][7] The song possesses gospel backing vocals and church-like hand-claps, with literary themes of love, sin, and religion returning to the record.[8] “

Excerpt from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_Song_(Hozier_song)

Choreographer, Reese Dewey’s, notes about Blues Muses:

“The song was modern but had a retro 1920s early blues feel and so the choreography was also a mix of modern and retro blues. Costumes were inspired by the idea of women in their tattered housework dresses like the sirens from the movie "Oh, Brother. Where art thou?".”

The Mother of Blues: Ma Rainey

Want to know about The Mother of Blues, Ma Rainey? You can check out this NY Times piece, or if you are not much of the reading type check out Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.