West Coast / California Blues
West Coast / California Blues is the smoother, jazzier, postwar blues family centered on Los Angeles, Oakland, and other California scenes. It favors clean electric guitar, horn riffs, relaxed shuffles, jump-band polish, cool vocals, piano sophistication, and arrangements that bridge blues, swing, R&B, and nightclub jazz.
History
The family grew as wartime migration and defense-industry jobs brought Southern and Southwestern Black musicians to California, where independent labels, clubs, and radio supported a polished blues-R&B market. T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson, Roy Milton, Pee Wee Crayton, Amos Milburn, Johnny Otis, Jimmy McCracklin, and later Hollywood Fats, Rod Piazza, and Robert Cray defined different eras of the sound. West Coast / California Blues shaped electric guitar phrasing, jump blues, smooth R&B, soul-blues, blues revival bands, and modern club blues.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Charles Keil, Urban Blues
- Arnold Shaw, Honkers and Shouters
- AllMusic
- Living Blues