Rhythm and blues is a form of Black dance music that has its origins in the post-World War II era (1939–1945); the term itself is attributed to Jerry Wexler, a writer for Billboard, who coined it in 1949 for the magazine’s Black music chart to replace the term “Race Music” (a term in use since 1920). Rhythm and blues performers encompass hybrid jazz/blues combos, trios, and vocal harmony groups to blues shouters and gospel-inflected solo singers.

Rhythm and Blues is a by-product of the World War II migration of southern Blacks to major urban centers in the North and on the East and West Coasts. An estimated five million African Americans abandoned their jobs as sharecroppers, tenant farmers, domestics, and general laborers, anticipating better economic and educational opportunities and an escape from racial oppression. They found high-paying jobs in wartime industries, but discriminatory housing practices led to the growth of segregated urban communities. African Americans established a dynamic entertainment district in every major city where they settled, transforming rural traditions into urban forms of expression. These vibrant styles captured the spirit, pulse, and tempo of the city, and often incorporated new technologies such as electric instruments and amplification.

Combos

Working together in cities, blues singers and jazz musicians created a new musical genre–rhythm and blues. Former swing band members reduced the 12–16-member ensemble to a seven- or eight-piece group consisting of rhythm section, alto and tenor sax, and trumpet. Jazz musician Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five (that featured Jordan on vocals) provided the model for this rhythm and blues combo style heard in “Caldonia” (1945). These combos, popular from the1940s through the early-1950s, retained the boogie-woogie foundation, the shuffle beat, and the riffing horn patterns from swing. Notable instrumental combos include those led by saxophonists Paul Williams, Big Jay McNeely, Harold Singer, and Wild Bill Moore. The rockin’ style of instrumental combos, heard in “The Deacon’s Hop” (1948) by Big Jay McNeely and “We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll” (1948) by Wild Bill Moore established the foundation for “rock ‘n’ roll.” Rhythm and blues combos often featured blues singers such as Wynonie Harris, Mabel Scott, Amos Milburn, and Big Joe Turner, who moaned and shouted the blues in ways that reflected a range of feelings and emotions. The vocals of Etta James, Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown (“Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean,” 1953) and LaVern Baker often conveyed a gospel flavor.

Trios

Jazz pianist Nat “King” Cole pioneered the trio style, consisting of piano/organ, bass, and guitar. Performed in small clubs and hotel lounges, this music provided a background for conversations, although patrons in African American clubs danced as well. Trios later added drums and other percussion. In addition to Cole, the trio style was popularized by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, pianists Charles Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter McDuff, Shirley Scott, Jimmy McGriff, and Richard “Groove” Holmes. Individual trios had signature styles that mirrored their training in jazz, pop and/or blues, as heard in “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (1943) by Nat “King” Cole and “Drifting Blues” (1946) by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers featuring Charles Brown.

Vocal Harmony Groups

By the mid-1950s, songwriters in their late-teens and early twenties were writing hit songs that mirrored their youthful experiences and fantasies. All female groups (“girl groups”) joined their male counterparts recording these songs. The Chantels’ “Maybe” (1957), The Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (1960), The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel ” (1962), and The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” (1963) were among the popular girl groups that inspired the formation of teenage girl groups who later signed with Motown Records. The Miracles’ “Shop Around” (1960), The Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman” (1961), Martha and the Vandellas’ “Heatwave” (1963), The Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964), and their male counterparts, The Temptations’ “The Way You Do the Things You Do” (1964) became the next generation of teenaged groups. They represented Motown’s “Sound of Young America.”

The rhythm and blues combo style is rooted in the blues and jazz traditions. The up-tempo style known as “jump blues” is characterized by a 12-bar blues structure, boogie-woogie bass line, shuffle rhythms (triplet quarter note followed by a triplet eighth note), syncopated horn riffs, solo alto saxophone, and group singing on refrain lines. The lead singers of the first rhythm and blues vocal harmony groups, known as “romantic” groups, sang in a lyrical and smooth style that employed phrasing, shading, and timing techniques closely aligned with those of jubilee quartets. Doo-wop groups added rhythmic movements when the bass voice began imitating the “walking” string bass associated with jazz. The addition of orchestral arrangements, sing-along choruses, and Latin rhythms to rhythm and blues made this sound more compatible with the musical tastes of mainstream American adults. The producers for Motown added these pop production elements over a rhythm and blues foundation and incorporated the lyrics of young professional songwriters to produce the crossover Motown’s “Sound of Young America.”