Jump blues was a style of music that developed in the 1940s and was an offshoot of the big bands of the day. It was essentially an uptempo swing combining jazz, boogie and blues that was a popular in dance halls. Predating rock and roll by a few years, jump blues bands were smaller than their big band counterparts and tended to consist of vocals, drums, upright bass, piano and a small horn section of saxophones and trumpets. Sometimes there would be an electric guitar too. The lead singer was often a horn player, and the horns usually played the instrumental melodies and solos. The style was pioneered by artists like Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five (Jordan was the vocalist and lead sax player) with songs like Choo Choo Ch’Boogie and Saturday Night Fish Fry. Roy Brown, another jump blues artist had a hit with
Good Rockin’ Tonight (recorded in 1947) which has been argued as perhaps the first rock and roll song, while Louis Prima’s Jump Jive An’ Wail is an absolute classic.
As the development of the electric guitar allowed the instrument to be heard and compete with louder instruments in dance halls, it’s no surprise that it too became a lead voice, and in the late 1940s and into the 50s. Artists like Tiny Grimes, T-Bone
