Precursors in New York City, July 1946 The
great migration of Black Americans to the urban industrial centers of Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz, blues, and related genres of music. The migration of African Americans to urban centers in the 1920s and 1930s helped shape rhythm and blues by blending jazz, blues, and urban influences. These genres of music were often performed by full-time musicians, either working alone or in small groups. The precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues, which overlapped in the late-1920s and 30s through the work of musicians such as the
Harlem Hamfats, with their 1936 hit "Oh Red", as well as
Lonnie Johnson,
Leroy Carr,
Cab Calloway,
Count Basie, and
T-Bone Walker. There was also increasing emphasis on the
electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the
piano and
saxophone.
Late 1940s was a key figure in early R&B, blending blues and rock. R&B originated in
African-American communities in the 1940s. In 1948,
RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name "Blues and Rhythm". In that year,
Louis Jordan dominated the top five listings of the
R&B charts with three songs, and two of the top five songs were based on the
boogie-woogie rhythms that had come to prominence during the 1940s. Jordan's band, the
Tympany Five (formed in 1938), consisted of him on saxophone and vocals, along with musicians on trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Lawrence Cohn described the music as "grittier than his boogie-era jazz-tinged blues". Jordan's music, along with that of
Big Joe Turner,
Roy Brown,
Billy Wright, and
Wynonie Harris, before 1949, was referred to as
jump blues. Then,
Paul Gayten, Roy Brown, and others had had hits in the style now referred to as rhythm and blues. In 1948, Wynonie Harris's remake of Brown's 1947 recording "
Good Rockin' Tonight" reached number two on the charts, following
band leader Sonny Thompson's "Long Gone" at number one. In 1949, the term "Rhythm and Blues" (R&B) replaced the Billboard category
Harlem Hit Parade. Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers' concerts were sweaty riotous affairs that got shut down on more than one occasion. Their lyrics, by
Roy Alfred (who later co-wrote the 1955 hit "
(The) Rock and Roll Waltz"), were mildly sexually suggestive, and one teenager from Philadelphia said "That Hucklebuck was a very nasty dance". Also in 1949, a new version of a 1920s blues song, "
Ain't Nobody's Business" was a number four hit for
Jimmy Witherspoon, and Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five once again made the top five with "
Saturday Night Fish Fry". Many of these hit records were issued on new independent record labels, such as
Savoy (founded 1942),
King (founded 1943),
Imperial (founded 1945),
Specialty (founded 1946),
Chess (founded 1947), and
Atlantic (founded 1948). The
habanera rhythm can be thought of as a combination of
tresillo and the
backbeat. For the more than a quarter-century in which the
cakewalk,
ragtime and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the Cuban genre
habanera exerted a constant presence in African American popular music. Jazz pioneer
Jelly Roll Morton considered the tresillo/habanera rhythm (which he called the
Spanish tinge) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. There are examples of tresillo-like rhythms in some African American folk music such as the hand-clapping and foot-stomping patterns in
ring shout, post-Civil War drum and fife music, and
New Orleans second line music.
Wynton Marsalis considers tresillo to be the New Orleans "clave" (although technically, the pattern is only half a
clave). Tresillo is the most basic duple-pulse rhythmic
cell in
Sub-Saharan African music traditions, and its use in African American music is one of the clearest examples of African rhythmic retention in the United States. The use of tresillo was continuously reinforced by the consecutive waves of Cuban music, which were adopted into North American popular culture. In 1940 Bob Zurke released "Rhumboogie", a boogie-woogie with a tresillo bass line, and lyrics proudly declaring the adoption of Cuban rhythm: was instrumental in blending Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz. Although originating in the metropolis at the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans blues, with its Afro-Caribbean rhythmic traits, is distinct from the sound of the Mississippi Delta blues. In the late 1940s, New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Cuban influences precisely at the time when R&B was first forming. The first use of tresillo in R&B occurred in New Orleans.
Robert Palmer, who sampled R&B on his album
''Don't Explain'', recalls: in 1956 In a 1988 interview, Bartholomew (who had the first R&B studio band), revealed how he initially superimposed tresillo over swing rhythm: Bartholomew referred to the Cuban
son by the misnomer
rumba, a common practice of that time. Fats Domino's "
Blue Monday", produced by Bartholomew, is another example of this now classic use of tresillo in R&B. Bartholomew's 1949 tresillo-based "Oh Cubanas" is an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music. The word
mambo, larger than any of the other text, is placed prominently on the record label. In his composition "Misery", New Orleans pianist
Professor Longhair plays a habanera-like figure in his left hand. The deft use of triplets is a characteristic of Longhair's style. {{block indent| { \new PianoStaff 4 \acciaccatura { c16 d } 8 \tuplet 3/2 { r8 f' f } \tuplet 3/2 { f f f } \tuplet 3/2 { f d bes } \tuplet 3/2 { f g gis } a } >> \new Staff > >> } }}
Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans, early blues lacked complex polyrhythms, and there was a "very specific absence of asymmetric time-line patterns (
key patterns) in virtually all early-twentieth-century
African-American music... only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so-called 'stomp' patterns or stop-time chorus. These do not function in the same way as African timelines." In the late 1940s, this changed somewhat when the two-celled timeline structure was brought into the blues. New Orleans musicians such as Bartholomew and Longhair incorporated Cuban instruments, as well as the clave pattern and related two-celled figures in songs such as "Carnival Day", (Bartholomew 1949) and "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" (Longhair 1949). While some of these early experiments were awkward fusions, the Afro-Cuban elements were eventually integrated fully into the New Orleans sound. In the 1940s, Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and "fell under the spell of Perez Prado's
mambo records." He was especially enamored with Afro-Cuban music. Michael Campbell states: "Professor Longhair's influence was... far-reaching. In several of his early recordings, Professor Longhair blended Afro-Cuban rhythms with rhythm and blues. The most explicit is 'Longhair's Blues Rhumba,' where he overlays a straightforward blues with a clave rhythm." Longhair's particular style was known locally as
rumba-boogie. In his "Mardi Gras in New Orleans", the pianist employs the 2–3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif in a rumba boogie "
guajeo". The syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions) took root in New Orleans R&B during this time. Alexander Stewart states that the popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s," adding: "The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from a triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes. Concerning the various funk motifs, Stewart states that this model "is different from a
time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle."
Johnny Otis released the R&B mambo "Mambo Boogie" in January 1951, featuring congas, maracas, claves, and mambo saxophone
guajeos in a blues progression.
Ike Turner recorded "Cubano Jump" (1954) an electric guitar instrumental, which is built around several 2–3 clave figures, adopted from the mambo.
The Hawketts, in "
Mardi Gras Mambo" (1955) (featuring the vocals of a young Art Neville), make a clear reference to Perez Prado in their use of his trademark "Unhh!" in the break after the introduction.
Ned Sublette states: "The electric blues cats were very well aware of Latin music, and there was definitely such a thing as
rhumba blues; you can hear Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf playing it." He also cites
Otis Rush,
Ike Turner and
Ray Charles, as R&B artists who employed this feel. The "
Bo Diddley beat" (1955) is perhaps the first true fusion of
3–2 clave and R&B/rock 'n' roll.
Bo Diddley has given different accounts of the riff's origins. Sublette asserts: "In the context of the time, and especially those maracas [heard on the record], 'Bo Diddley' has to be understood as a Latin-tinged record. A rejected cut recorded at the same session was titled only 'Rhumba' on the track sheets."
Ahmet Ertegun, producer for
Atlantic Records, is reported to have said that "Afro-Cuban rhythms added color and excitement to the basic drive of R&B." As
Ned Sublette points out though: "By the 1960s, with Cuba the object of a United States embargo that still remains in effect today, the island nation had been forgotten as a source of music. By the time people began to talk about rock and roll as having a history, Cuban music had vanished from North American consciousness."
Early to mid-1950s in 1967 At first, only African Americans were buying R&B discs. According to
Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, sales were localized in African-American markets; there were no white sales or white radio play. During the early 1950s, more white teenagers started to become aware of R&B and began purchasing the music. For example, 40% of 1952 sales at
Dolphin's of Hollywood record shop, located in an African-American area of Los Angeles, were to whites. Eventually, white teens across the country turned their musical taste toward rhythm and blues.
Johnny Otis, who had signed with the Newark, New Jersey–based Savoy Records, produced many R&B hits in 1951, including "
Double Crossing Blues", "Mistrustin' Blues" and "
Cupid's Boogie", all of which hit number one that year. Otis scored ten top ten hits that year. Other hits include "
Gee Baby", "Mambo Boogie" and "All Nite Long".
The Clovers, a quintet consisting of a vocal quartet with accompanying guitarist, sang a distinctive-sounding combination of blues and gospel. They had the number five hit of the year with "
Don't You Know I Love You" on Atlantic. Also in July 1951, Cleveland, Ohio DJ
Alan Freed started a late-night radio show called "The Moondog Rock Roll House Party" on
WJW (850 AM). Freed's show was sponsored by Fred Mintz, whose R&B record store had a primarily African-American clientele. Freed began referring to the rhythm and blues music he played as "rock and roll". In 1951
Little Richard Penniman began recording for
RCA Records in the jump blues style of late 1940s stars
Roy Brown and
Billy Wright. However, it was not until he recorded a demo in 1954 that caught the attention of Specialty Records that the world would start to hear his new uptempo funky rhythm and blues that would catapult him to fame in 1955 and help define the sound of rock 'n' roll. A rapid succession of rhythm and blues hits followed, beginning with "
Tutti Frutti" and "
Long Tall Sally", which would influence performers such as
James Brown,
Elvis Presley, and
Otis Redding. Also in 1951, the song
Rocket 88 was recorded by
Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm at a studio owned by
Sam Phillips with the vocal by
Jackie Brenston. This song is often cited as a precursor to
rock and roll or as one of the first records in that genre. In a later interview, however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88' is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the
cause of rock and roll existing".
Ruth Brown, performing on the Atlantic label, placed hits in the top five every year from 1951 through 1954: "
Teardrops from My Eyes", "Five, Ten, Fifteen Hours", "
(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and "
What a Dream".
Faye Adams's "
Shake a Hand" made it to number two in 1952. In 1953, the R&B record-buying public made
Big Mama Thornton's original recording of
Leiber and Stoller's "
Hound Dog" the year's number three hit. Ruth Brown was very prominent among female R&B stars; her popularity most likely came from "her deeply rooted vocal delivery in African American tradition". That same year
The Orioles, a
doo-wop group, had the number four hit of the year with "
Crying in the Chapel".
Fats Domino made the top 30 of the pop charts in 1952 and 1953, then the top 10 with "
Ain't That a Shame".
Ray Charles came to national prominence in 1955 with "
I Got a Woman".
Big Bill Broonzy said of Charles's music: "He's mixing the blues with the spirituals... I know that's wrong." At
Chess Records in the spring of 1955,
Bo Diddley's debut record "
Bo Diddley"/"
I'm a Man" climbed to number two on the R&B charts and popularized Bo Diddley's own original rhythm and blues clave-based vamp that would become a mainstay in rock and roll. blended blues, R&B, and gospel influences. At the urging of
Leonard Chess at Chess Records,
Chuck Berry reworked a
country fiddle tune with a long history, entitled "
Ida Red". The resulting "
Maybellene" was not only a number three hit on the R&B charts in 1955, but also reached into the top 30 on the pop charts.
Alan Freed, who had moved to the much larger market of New York City in 1954, helped the record become popular with white teenagers. Freed had been given part of the writing credit by Chess in return for his promotional activities, a common practice at the time. R&B was also a strong influence on
rock and roll. A 1985 article in
The Wall Street Journal, titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues" reported that the "two terms were used interchangeably" until about 1957. The other sources quoted in the article said that rock and roll combined R&B with pop and country music. Fats Domino was not convinced that there was any new genre. In 1957, he said, "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to
Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".
Late 1950s In 1956, an R&B "Top Stars of '56" tour took place, with headliners
Al Hibbler,
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and
Carl Perkins, whose "
Blue Suede Shoes" was very popular with R&B music buyers. Some of the performers completing the bill were Chuck Berry,
Cathy Carr,
Shirley & Lee,
Della Reese, Sam "T-Bird" Jensen,
the Cleftones, and
the Spaniels with
Illinois Jacquet's Big Rockin' Rhythm Band. Cities visited by the tour included Columbia, South Carolina; Annapolis, Maryland; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, New York; and other cities. In Columbia, the concert ended with a near riot as Perkins began his first song as the closing act. Perkins is quoted as saying, "It was dangerous. Lot of kids got hurt". In Annapolis, 50,000 to 70,000 people tried to attend a sold-out performance with 8,000 seats. Roads were clogged for seven hours. Filmmakers took advantage of the popularity of "rhythm and blues" musicians as "rock n roll" musicians beginning in 1956. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner,
the Treniers,
the Platters, and
the Flamingos all made it onto the big screen. Two Elvis Presley records made the R&B top five in 1957: "
Jailhouse Rock"/"
Treat Me Nice" at number one, and "
All Shook Up" at number five, an unprecedented acceptance of a non-African American artist into a music category known for being created by blacks.
Nat King Cole, also a
jazz pianist who had two hits on the pop charts in the early 1950s ("
Mona Lisa" at number two in 1950 and "
Too Young" at number one in 1951), had a record in the top five in the R&B charts in 1958, "
Looking Back"/"Do I Like It". In 1959, two black-owned record labels, one of which would become hugely successful, made their debut:
Sam Cooke's Sar and
Berry Gordy's
Motown Records.
Brook Benton was at the top of the R&B charts in 1959 and 1960 with one number one and two number two hits. Benton had a certain warmth in his voice that attracted a wide variety of listeners, and his ballads led to comparisons with performers such as
Nat King Cole,
Frank Sinatra and
Tony Bennett.
Lloyd Price, who in 1952 had a number one hit with "
Lawdy Miss Clawdy", regained predominance with a version of "
Stagger Lee" at number one and "
Personality" at number five in 1959.
Hi Records did not feature pictures of the Combo on early records.
1960s–1970s is a R&B artist known for his smooth voice.
Sam Cooke's number five hit "
Chain Gang" is indicative of R&B in 1960, as is pop rocker
Chubby Checker's number five hit "
The Twist". By the early 1960s, the music industry category previously known as rhythm and blues was being called
soul music, and similar music by white artists was labeled
blue-eyed soul. Motown Records had its first million-selling single in 1960 with
the Miracles' "
Shop Around", and in 1961,
Stax Records had its first hit with
Carla Thomas's "
Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)". Stax's next major hit,
the Mar-Keys' instrumental "
Last Night" (also released in 1961), introduced the rawer
Memphis soul sound for which Stax became known. In Jamaica, R&B influenced the development of
ska. In 1969, black culture and rhythm and blues reached another great achievement when
the Grammys added the Rhythm and Blues category, giving academic recognition to the category. By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" was being used as a blanket term for
soul,
funk, and
disco.
Since the 1980s blended R&B with hip-hop influences, helping to shape the sound of the '90s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s,
hip-hop started to capture the imagination of America's youth. R&B started to become homogenized, with a group of high-profile producers responsible for most R&B hits. It was hard for R&B artists of the era to sell their music or even have their music heard because of the rise of hip-hop, but some adopted a "hip-hop" image, were marketed as such, and often featured rappers on their songs.
Teddy Riley, Guy,
Keith Sweat and Today gained
new jack swing hits. In 1990,
Billboard reintroduced R&B to categorize all of Black popular music other than hip-hop. Newer artists such as
Usher,
R. Kelly,
Janet Jackson,
TLC,
Aaliyah,
Brandy,
Destiny's Child,
Tevin Campbell and
Mary J. Blige enjoyed success.
L.A. Reid, the CEO of
LaFace Records, was responsible for some of R&B's greatest successes in the 1990s in the form of
Usher,
TLC and
Toni Braxton. Later, Reid successfully marketed
Boyz II Men. In 2004, 80% of the songs that topped the R&B charts were also at the top of the Hot 100. That period was the all-time peak for R&B and hip hop on the
Billboard Hot 100 and on Top 40 Radio. From about 2005 to 2013, R&B sales declined. However, since 2010, hip-hop has started to take cues from the R&B sound, choosing to adopt a softer, smoother sound that incorporates traditional R&B with rappers such as
Drake, who has opened an entire new door for the genre. This sound has gained in popularity and created great controversy for both hip-hop and R&B as to how to identify it. In 2010, the
National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame was founded by
LaMont "ShowBoat" Robinson. ==Jewish influence in the business end of rhythm and blues==