The Difference between Blues and Jazz
David Grazian
Assistant Professor of Sociology
It is a sociological truism that music genres are never naturally defined, but always socially constructed and dependent upon their cultural context. In my own research on Chicago blues, I first discovered the true difference between blues and jazz when I was invited to the stage of a blues bar at 2:30 in the morning to play a blues solo in F major. As it had been years since I had actually played an instrument, I froze because I couldn’t remember the notes of that key, which go like this.
(plays sax well)
Now, very often when my students don’t know the answer to a question, they’ll wildly toss out a bunch of guesses, praying that one of them will miraculously be correct. And so, because I didn’t remember the notes, that’s what I did, and it sounded like this.
(plays sax poorly)
Now, ironically, after this solo, this prompted the bandleader to tell me afterward, without sarcasm or guile, “Dave, you play really good, man. You’ve obviously been playing for a while, and you’ve got some jazz influences that I heard in there. Am I right?” And so from that point on I knew that the difference between jazz and blues truly lies in the eye, or perhaps in this case the ear, of the beholder. And so it goes. Thank you.