Blues Jazz

So much jazz has roots in the blues, but this style is a closer hybrid of two. Blues Jazz starts with the steady beat and classic chord structure of the blues and laces it with instrumental improvisation. It developed in the 1940s and '50s in the jazz-friendly blues of artists like drummer/vocalist Roy Milton and his Solid Senders, and in the swinging vocals of blues shouter Jimmy Rushing. Artists like genre-hopping drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie continue to revisit Blues Jazz, keeping the style alive and well into the '90s.