ABSTRACT
The creative embellishments which the players introduce into their collective heterophony may sometimes be disturbing and are often comic. The wildness of the blues, the tension of the heterophony, has vanished, leaving only a eupeptic jauntiness. King Oliver makes something positive, even gay, out of a painful reality; the Dixieland Band, purging away both the passion and the irony, leaves with the inane grin of the black-faced minstrel. In the instrumental band-blues the tunes are again traditional, but since there are no, or at least only implicit, words, the possibilities for improvisation are more complex. The French, Spanish, and Caribbean infiltrations brought to New Orleans music a sensuality that was relatively easy and passive: without the frenzy of African rhythm, the tension of the blues, or the harshness of barrelhouse piano. The classic sung form of the town blues, as exemplified by Bessie Smith, combines the intimacy of the country blues with the relative complexity of the band-blues.
