West Coast Blues
The West Coast Blues is a style of blues that is influenced by jazz and jump blues. The piano plays a central role, and often there are jazz- oriented guitar solos. The origins lie in the 1940s, when Texas blues musicians settled in California.
One of the main pioneers of the West Coast blues was the Texan T -Bone Walker, author of the classic Blue Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad ). He retired in the 1940s to Los Angeles. Walker was one of the first who played the blues on electric guitar. He was followed by other Texas bluesmen to California, including Amos Milburn, Percy Mayfield, Charles Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, and Lowell Fulson.
Due to the benefits of Tom Mazzolini, organizer of the legendary, founded in 1974, San Francisco Blues Festival, and the presence of such important record labels like Arhoolie Records Hightone and the west coast is one of the most notable blue regions of the U.S..
Representatives of the West Coast Blues
- Big Mama Thornton
- Dave Alexander
- Charlie Baty
- Charles Brown
- Roy Brown
- Buddy Collette
- Pee Wee Crayton
- Sugar Pie DeSanto
- Floyd Dixon
- Lowell Fulson
- Cecil Gant
- Peppermint Harris
- Roy Hawkins
- Ivory Joe Hunter
- Etta James
- Robert Lowery
- Little Willie Littlefield
- Michael Leonard Mann
- Percy Mayfield
- Jimmy McCracklin
- Amos Milburn
- Roy Milton
- Jimmy Nelson
- Johnny Otis
- Rod Piazza
- Jimmy Reed
- Sonny Rhodes
- L. C. Robinson
- Haskell Robert Sadler
- George " Harmonica " Smith
- Lafayette Thomas
- Luther Tucker
- Big Joe Turner
- Eddie " Cleanhead " Vinson
- Joe Louis Walker
- T -Bone Walker