Library: Music by Credo Reference: Folk, Jazz, and Blues

Genres

Blues: Topic Page
African-American music that originated in the work songs and Negro spirituals of the rural American South in the late 19th century.
Folk: Topic Page
Traditional music, especially from rural areas, which is passed on by listening and repeating, and is usually performed by amateurs.
Jazz: Topic Page
An eclectic, expanding collection of 20th century styles, principally instrumental and of black American creation.
Spiritual: Topic Page
A religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States.
Gospel Music: Topic Page
American religious musical form that owes much of its origin to the Christian conversion of West Africans enslaved in the American South.

Folk Musicians

Carter Family: Topic Page
Perhaps the most influential group in the history of country music, they helped to bring folk and country into America's cultural mainstream.
Hutchinson Family: Topic Page
US singing group. In 1841 Jesse (1813-1853) became the musical director and manager of a quartet made up of four of his siblings: (Adoniram) Judson (1817-1859), John (1821-1908), Asa (1823-1884), and Abby (1829-1892).
Woody Guthrie
From The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music
The author of America's 'alternative' national anthem 'This Land Is Your Land' and many other classic songs of social comment and protest.

Big Band Musicians

Cab Calloway: Topic Page
US band leader, singer, and actor. He was a pioneer of scat singing with his catch phrase ‘Hi-de-ho’, used in his theme song ‘Minnie the Moocher’ (1931).
Tommy Dorsey: Topic Page
Musician, born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a Swing Era bandleader who began with local dance bands in Scranton, PA.

Jazz and Blues Musicians

Louis Armstrong (1901 - 1971): Topic Page
Jazz trumpeter and singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. His melodic inventiveness, expressed with uninhibited tone and range on the trumpet, established the central role of the improvising soloist in jazz.
Miles Davis (1926 - 1991): Topic Page
Jazz trumpeter, born in Alton, Illinois, USA. During 1949–69, he was at the forefront of jazz, developing or advancing several significant and contrasting styles and trends, all of which highlighted his intensely personal sensibilities.
"Dizzy" Gillespie (1917 - 1993): Topic Page
Jazz trumpeter and composer, born in Cheraw, South Carolina, USA. He worked in prominent swing bands (1937–44), including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet.
Billie Holiday (1915 - 1959): Topic Page
Billie Holiday is considered one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. Her inimitable phrasing – singing slightly behind the beat – gave her songs an air of wistfulness that was purely instinctive, for she had no training or technical knowledge.
Thelonius Monk (1917 - 1982): Topic Page
Jazz musician, born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA. One of the key innovators of modern jazz.
Charlie Parker (1920 - 1955): Topic Page
Jazz musician, born in Kansas City, Kansas, USA.
Oscar Peterson (1925 - ): Topic Page
Jazz pianist and composer, born in Montreal, Quebec, SE Canada.
Maxwell Roach (1924 - 2007): Topic Page
A protean figure of modern jazz, drummer Roach came to prominence in the forties, accompanying bebop founder Charlie Parker.
Muddy Waters (1915 - 1983): Topic Page
Musician, born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, USA. One of the last of the great country blues singers and a primary innovator of modern Chicago blues.