Three Tune Tuesday: Where Jazz and Blues Meet in Mid-Winter

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, January 23, 2024

This week's post was inspired by talking with @nickydee ... we're building a bridge here and getting over the differences between jazz and blues ... jazz is one of the offspring of the blues, and often pays homage to its parent!

Charlie Mingus on the opening of this always sends me from the very beginning ... that bass hits and I'm absolutely gone into the roots of what makes both blues and jazz unique ... a simple idea that contains a whole story, a whole world that the rest of this piece explores ...

Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley building that bridge on probably the most classic crossover piece ... all the blues of the sky and sea, and some forget-me-nots, a true blue rose, and Virginia's Blue Ridge, and the bluest star in the Milky Way, all rolled up right here into the only thing that could harmonize all that: a piece of jazz!

Now, GRANTED, this is Thelonius Monk, so, the nexus of blues and jazz is a complex place right here ... but the beautiful thing about Monk is that he is so grounded in the entire African American musical tradition, so even though his idea of the blues is of course unique to him, it's still like the blue suit he has on: true blue!