Wailing and Squalling

[Miguel]

"I took the growl out of the blues and replaced it with some kind of mellow moan."

Rolling Stone

Bland describes the evolution of his style that began as a young boy attending the New Salem Baptist Church in Memphis whose preacher, C.L. Franklin, was Aretha's dad:

"Couldn't have been older than 11 or 12 when Mama and them took me to hear this new preacher man everyone was talking about. This was the early Forties.

..."When he started into the preaching part, I stayed with him. Wasn't his words that got me – I couldn't tell you what he talked on that day, couldn't tell you what any of it meant, but it was the way he talked. He talked like he was singing. He talked music. The thing that really got me, though, was this squall-like sound he made to emphasize a certain word. He'd catch the word in his mouth, let it roll around and squeeze it with his tongue. When it popped on out, it exploded and the ladies started waving and shouting.

(the Fifties) "Nat Cole had gone from playing the piano with his trio to singing those pop ballads with lush strings behind him. I'm talkin' 'bout 'Mona Lisa' and 'Answer Me, Oh My Love' and 'Love Is the Thing.' Well, Nat was the thing. Nat had class. He was smooth but smooth with feeling. Also had his own TV show...Nat had crossed over until white people were buying his music, even though, at least to my ears, his music hadn't been compromised one single bit. Well, that was my dream – not to compromise my music but to create something new. Something modern. What Nat did to those pop ballads, I wanted to do to the blues. I wanted to keep that blues feeling that I loved so well, but I wanted to smooth it out. Make it real dreamy and romantic.

I kept wondering what would happen if I took the growl out of the blues and replaced it with some kind of mellow moan. Would people still like it or would they call me a traitor to the blues? It didn't take long to learn that the women sure-enough liked it and, brother, that was all I needed to know.

"So that's how I got my style – reworking them old blues by sneaking in a preacher's squall and covering it over with that pretty ballad style I borrowed from Nat King Cole."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/b...z2s9CtPkBH