Second-Line Blues
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Second-Line Blues puts blues harmony and feeling over the syncopated parade rhythm associated with New Orleans social-aid-and-pleasure-club processions. Drums emphasize rolling snare, bass-drum accents, clave-like cross-rhythm, and a loose backbeat, while piano, horns, guitar, or vocals ride the pocket with a festive-but-bluesy strut.
History
The style traces to brass-band parades, funeral processions, street dancing, Mardi Gras culture, and early jazz rhythm, then entered postwar blues and R&B through New Orleans studio musicians who carried parade feel into records. Professor Longhair’s rumba-second-line piano, Earl King’s "Big Chief," The Meters’ funk transformations, Dr. John’s Mardi Gras repertory, and brass bands such as Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Rebirth Brass Band show the bluesy side of second-line language. Second-Line Blues influenced funk, jam-band New Orleans grooves, brass-band revival, and the worldwide idea of New Orleans rhythm as danceable syncopated joy with sorrow in the undertow.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Matt Sakakeeny, Roll With It
- Jeff Hannusch, I Hear You Knockin'
- Ned Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans
- AllMusic