Jump blues

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Jump blues
Stylistic origins
Cultural origins
Typical instruments
Mainstream popularity United States, 1940s to early 1950s
Fusion genres
Rock music, Rock and roll

Jump blues is a type of up-tempo blues music influenced by big band sound. It is characterized by a jazzy, saxophone (or brass instruments) sound, driving rhythms and shouted, highly syncopated vocals and earthy, comedic lyrics on contemporary urban themes. Unlike most other types of blues, the jump blues relegates the guitar to the rhythm section.

Before known as "Jump Blues", this form of music was known as "Blues and Rhythm", then "Rhythm and Blues". The jump blues first appeared in the late 1930s, and was enormously popular in the Forties and early Fifties through artists such as Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris, who were among the first black artists to achieve significant commercial and chart success outside the confines of the segregated "race" (R&B) market.

It usually features a vocalist in front of a large, horn-driven orchestra or medium-sized combo with multiple horns, the style is earmarked by a driving rhythm, intensely shouted vocals, and honking tenor saxophone solos — all of those very elements a precursor to rock & roll. The lyrics are almost always celebratory in nature, full of braggadocio and swagger. Jump blues was the bridge between the older styles of blues — primarily those in a small band context — and the big band jazz sound of the 1940s.

Jump blues was an early manifestation of what became the classic rock and roll style of the mid-Fifties. It was revived in the 1980s by artists such as Joe Jackson and Brian Setzer and continues today with bands like "MoPac and The Blue Suburbans" and "Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s". Contemporary swing bands such as Lavay Smith, Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums Featuring Miss Carmen Getit and Stompy Jones also include many classic Jump Blues numbers in their repertoire, and write original songs in this style as well. (See also Swing Revival.)

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