Jazz is not Blues and Blues is not Jazz.......


I have been a music fan all my life and listen to classic Jazz and female vocals mostly.  I did not see this throughout most of my life, but now some internet sites and more seem to lump Jazz and Blues into the same thought. 
B.B. King is great, but he is not Jazz.  Paul Desmond is great, but he is not Blues.   

Perhaps next Buck Owens will be considered Blues, or Lawrence Welk or let's have Buddy Holly as a Jazz artist? 

Trite, trivial and ill informed, it is all the rage in politics, why not music?




whatjd
Each to his/her own, and freedom to like whatever one likes.  But like country-rock, "lite-classical,  and other hybrids...some may like and some may not.  As much as I like B.B. King, I do not consider him Jazz and I do not consider Paul Desmond Blues. and I do believe that singers blur that line more often...like Ella and Dinah Washington.  

Have fun, enjoy what you listen to ...even if that is Ernest Tubb. 


I’m actually confused about what exactly the issue is. First it seemed that your objection was to the way some blur the lines when naming the various genres. Not sure how that has anything to do with liking or not liking certain artists or certain genres. Why get hung up with strict definitions? I don’t understand comments like “I don’t consider Paul Desmond blues”. Desmond was a lot of things. He played, at various times, West Coast, Cool, Swing, Ballads and, yes, even Blues sometimes.
According to David Lindley, every song can be made into a reggae song.
I largely disregard genre, other than the short pitch- most music (unless you dig deeply into early ethnic stuff that pre-dates recording technology) has a variety of influences. Genres are for marketing, for ranking (ala Billboard) and radio and its modern equivalents.
To the more specific point, listen to Alice Coltrane’s "Turiya and Ramakrishna" from the Ptah album and tell me that isn’t blues. (Of course, not all blues is jazz or vice versa). But lumping stuff together, making lists and categorizing things is something that humans seem to do, however misleading. It does miss the finer grain details of influences, though. I’ve loved the blues since I was a kid, whether it’s early Delta stuff or later electric blues ala Chicago or elsewhere. Jazz- got tired of the warhorses but a few years ago, my interest was rekindled by so-called "spiritual jazz," "soul jazz" and the output of lots of session players who turned inward after mainstream jazz lost its commercial attraction by the early ’70s. So much music, so little time....
They are definitely different genres but jazz musicians have played the blues since the 40's. Most of what they played was "bop and blues" for decades.  Countless album titles like "Coltrane Plays the Blues" have been made over the years.

Interestingly blues musicians seem much less interested in playing jazz however.
three easy payments -- It’s because jazz is a hell of a lot more difficult to play.