A blues standard, much like a jazz standard or pop standard, refers to a song that is widely known, performed, and recorded among blues musicians. Jazz standard refers to a tune that is widely known, performed, and recorded among jazz musicians. ... The term pop standards refers to an American songwriting, arranging, and singing style that is widely considered as the high point of Western vocal popular music. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... Blues music redirects here. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ...

Live blues, especially Chicago-style blues, is often characterized by extended improvisation, often in the form of guitar jam sessions. Songs known to all musicians playing provide a common ground for such shows The Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago by adding electricity, drums, piano, bass guitar and sometimes saxophone to the basic string/harmonica Delta blues. ... Improvisation is the act of making something up as it is performed. ... Different kinds of guitars The guitar is a fretted and stringed musical instrument, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and is also widely known as a solo classical instrument. ... A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play out of the blue, trying to accomplish harmony without prewritten music. ...

Examples of blues standards

The following list has some of the most well known blues standards

• Leroy Carr
  • "How Long Blues"
• Bessie Smith
  • "Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do (written by Percy Grainger, Robert Prince, & Clarence Williams)
• Eddie Boyd
  • "Five Long Years"
• Big Bill Broonzy
  • "Key to the Highway"
  • "Worried Life Blues" (written by Big Maceo Merriweather)
• Cab Calloway
  • "Minnie the Moocher"
• Guitar Slim
  • "Things that I Used to Do"
• Howlin' Wolf
  • "Killing Floor"
  • "Spoonful" (written by Willie Dixon)
  • "Little Red Rooster"
  • "Sittin' on Top of the World" (written by Sam Collins, 1927)
  • "Back Door Man" (written by Willie Dixon)
• W.C. Handy
  • "St. Louis Blues"
  • "Careless Love"
• John Lee Hooker
  • "Boom Boom"
  • "Boogie Chillen"
  • "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer"
• Son House
  • "Death Letter"
• Robert Johnson
  • "Traveling Riverside Blues"
  • "I Believe I'll Dust my Broom", also "Dust My Broom"
  • "Sweet Home Chicago"
  • "Cross Road Blues" (Also known as "Crossroads")
  • "Walkin' Blues"
• Louis Jordan
  • "Let the Good Times Roll"
• Sonny Boy Williamson I
  • "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"
• Elmore James
  • "The Sky Is Cryin'"
• Dinah Washington
  • "Evil Gal Blues" (written by Lionel Hampton & Leonard Feather)
• Muddy Waters
  • "Got My Mojo Workin'" also "We've Got Our Mojo Workin'"
  • "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" (written by Willie Dixon)
  • "Mannish Boy" aka "I'm A Man" (written by Bo Diddley)
  • "Rollin' Stone" also "Catfish Blues"(traditional)
  • "I Just Wanna Make Love to You"
  • "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (probably traditional)
• Lowell Fulson
  • "Reconsider Baby"
• Albert King
  • "Born Under a Bad Sign" (written by Booker T. Jones & William Bell)
• B.B. King
  • "Sweet Sixteen" (written by Joe Josea & B.B. King)
• Freddie King
  • "Hideaway" (written by F. King & S. Thompson)
• T-Bone Walker
  • "They Call It Stormy Monday"
  • "T-Bone Shuffle"
  • "Evenin'"
• Jimmy Rogers
  • "Walking By Myself"
• Little Walter
  • "Juke"
  • "My Babe"
  • "Boom Boom Out Goes the Light"
• Sonny Boy Williamson II
  • "Don't Start Me to Talkin'"
• Jimmy Reed
  • "Hush Hush"

Leroy Carr (March 27, 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced artists like Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. ... Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) is largely regarded as the most popular and successful blues singer of 1920s and 1930s, and by some as the most influential performer in blues history. ... Percy Aldridge Grainger (8 July 1882 – 20 February 1961) was an Australian-born pianist, composer, and champion of the saxophone. ... Clarence Williams ( November 8, 1893 - November 6, 1965) was a Jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, and publisher. ... Edward Riley Boyd known as Eddie Boyd (November 25, 1914–July 13, 1994) was a blues piano player born on Stovalls Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Muddy Waters also lived. ... Big Bill Broonzy (1893 or 1898-1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. ... Big Maceo Merriweather (b. ... Cab Calloway, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1933 Cab Calloway (December 25, 1907–November 18, 1994) was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader. ... Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, from the opening credits of Max Fleischers Minnie the Moocher, which included a recording of the titular Calloway song. ... Eddie Guitar Slim Jones (December 10, 1926 – February 7, 1959) is a New Orleans blues guitar player from the 1940s and 1950s best known for the million-selling song The Things That I Used to Do (a song that shaped rock and roll), and his flamboyant stage presence. ... Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin Wolf or sometimes, The Howlin Wolf, was an influential blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player. ... Spoonful is a song by Willie Dixon from his 1960 album I Am the Blues. ... Willie Dixons style of blues was one of the inspirations for a new generation of music, rock and roll. ... Sam Collins (born June 05, 1977 in Pontefract) is a professional footballer currently playing for Hull City in Englands Football League Championship. ... Back Door Man is a song written by Willie Dixon and originally performed by Howlin Wolf (released on Chess Records 1777, 1961). ... W.C. Handy photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an African American blues composer, often known as The Father of the Blues. ... St. ... John Lee Hooker. ... John Lee Hooker on Hastings Street. ... Son House, circa 1965 Eddie James House, Jr. ... For other persons named Robert Johnson, see Robert Johnson (disambiguation). ... Traveling Riverside Blues is a blues song written and performed originally by legendary old-time bluesman Robert Johnson. ... Sweet Home Chicago is a popular blues standard in the twelve bar form. ... Cross Road Blues is one of Robert Johnsons most famous songs. ... A crossroads (the word rarely appears in singular) is another word for road junction, where two or more roads meet (there are three or more arms). ... Louis Jordan swinging on sax, Paramount Theatre, NYC, 1946 (Photo: William P. Gottlieb) Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering African-American blues, jazz and rhythm & blues musician and songwriter who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. ... John Lee Williamson (March 30, 1914- June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player and the first to use the name Sonny Boy Williamson. ... Elmore James album cover Elmore James (January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues singer and guitarist. ... Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) an American blues, jazz, and gospel singer. ... Lionel Hampton with George W. Bush Lionel Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002), was a bandleader, jazz percussionist and vibraphone virtuoso. ... Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914– 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. ... McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1915 or 1913 – April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered the father of Chicago blues. ... Bo Diddleys emphasis on rhythm largely influenced popular music, especially that of rock and roll in the 1960s. ... Rollin and Tumblin is blues song written by Muddy Waters. ... Big-voiced guitar player in the West Coast tradition, Oklahoma-born Lowell Fulson (1921—2005) joined Texas Alexander at the age of eighteen, but later moved to California, forming a band which soon included a young Ray Charles. ... Albert King performing at the Wattstax Concert, 1972. ... For other people known as Booker T, see Booker T. Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and arranger, most well known for fronting the band Booker T. and the MGs. ... William Bell (born William Yarborough on July 16, 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American soul singer and songwriter. ... Riley B. King aka B. B. King (b. ... The Bihari Brothers, Jules, Joe, Lester and Saul, were American music entreprneurs and the founders of Modern Records and its subsidiaries. ... Freddie King (September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976) was a blues guitarist and singer. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad), also known as Call It Stormy Monday, or just Stormy Monday, is a blues song written by T-Bone Walker and first recorded in 1947. ... Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924 - December 19, 1997) is a blues guitarist best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters band of the 1950s. ... Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs) (May 1, 1930 - February 15, 1968) was a blues singer and harmonica player. ... Sonny Boy Williamson, circa 1964 Aleck Rice Miller (December 5, 1899 - May 25, 1965), a. ... Jimmy Reed James Jimmy Mathis Reed (September 6, 1925 - August 29, 1976) was an important United States blues singer notable for bringing his distinctive style of blues to mainstream audiences. ...

External links

• Blues lyrics