Jazz-Inflected West Coast Blues
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Jazz-Inflected West Coast Blues uses blues forms with jazz harmony, horn charts, walking bass, clean chordal guitar, piano sophistication, and relaxed swing phrasing. It is harmonically richer than straight jump blues and smoother than hard electric blues, often built around ninth chords, ii–V movement, brushed drums, and vocals shaped by jazz timing.
History
The style emerged from the overlap of Central Avenue jazz, Texas guitar blues, Nat Cole-influenced piano trios, and California R&B labels. T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, Johnny Otis, Lowell Fulson, Pee Wee Crayton, and later Robben Ford and Duke Robillard carried jazz-blues sophistication into blues audiences. It influenced jazz guitarists, swing revivalists, smooth blues, blues-club musicianship standards, and modern players who treat the blues as a harmonic playground rather than only a three-chord form.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Charles Keil, Urban Blues
- Arnold Shaw, Honkers and Shouters
- AllMusic
- Living Blues