"Since I Fell for You" by Buddy Johnson, featuring Clover Hill High School Jazz Band Students from Midlothian, VA. Performed and recorded during online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic in celebration of Black History Month.

Program notes written by Clover Hill Jazz Band Students...

THE BLUES:
The blues was created in part by the desire to shift away from African American spirituals, which were heavily associated with their time in slavery. The decrease in price, and inadvertently the rise of its purchase by African Americans, of the upright piano could be seen as the match that started the fire called jazz. African Americans who performed the blues during the Jim Crow Era performed in front of segregated crowds. They would prepare “special performances” in front of white audiences, but would perform in gospel and spiritual settings in front of black audiences. The “blue notes” could best be played on instruments that allowed the creation of “blue” notes such as the guitar (especially slide guitar), wind, and brass instruments.

William Christopher Handy published Memphis Blues in 1912, which is now considered the first blues song. Handy heard someone playing guitar at a train station in 1903 in Mississippi, inspiring him to write some of the first published blues music. The song was very popular, but Handy got very little money for it. However, over 20,000 people attended his funeral in 1958. After the blues was invented, and began to spread across the country, many different regional styles and shades of the genre began to develop. These styles include Chicago, traditional county, cool, and west coast blues.

BUDDY JOHNSON:
Buddy Johnson was born on January 10th, 1915. His real birth name was “Woodrow Wilson Johnson.” By age 4, Buddy Johnson was already learning the piano, and by highschool, he was writing music for church groups and his school. He moved to New York in his twenties and found work as a pianist in a traveling show called The Cotton Club Revue. In 1938, Buddy toured Europe with the Revue but was expelled by Nazi-controlled Germany. By 1941, he had assembled a nine-piece orchestra, and soon began a series of R&B and pop chart hits. By 1944 he was leading a Big Band, consisting of heavy brass and rhythm. During this time his sister, one of the bigger factors of his success, would sing along with these songs in the form of ballads and blues.

The Buddy Johnson Band was one of the greatest American bands for their time, but their musical brilliance and mastery is largely unrecognized today. In their time, they were just as respected as the Savoy Ballroom in New York and they drew in crowds from across state lines. The band was not mainstream, and at the time they were primarily known for night shows on the road. However, following WWII, Johnson had the most popular R&B bands in America. He was prolific, even writing a blues concerto in 1946 which he performed at Carnegie Hall in 1948. His orchestra remained a major touring attraction through the late 40’s and early 50’s. However in the late 50’s, Johnson gave up the big band scene and started playing with smaller groups to satisfy the public demand for Elvis-type rock. As far as his music goes, Johnson liked to keep a “southern tinge” in his blues saying “ They understand it down there.” His music was always simple and accessible, which was key to his commercial longevity among jazz and blues artists of the time. In 2001, Buddy Johnson was inducted into the South Carolina Music Hall of Fame.