Was the blues piano, a very simplistic music, worth such an enormous amount of work concerning the collection Genius of Blues Piano?
R. When we listen to blues piano,sometimes we can be struck by its monotony, which may be explained technically by its harmonic poverty: three chords and a pentatonic scale, the blues scale. But it is pecisely this basic poverty which inspired blues musicians to experiment with expression and rhythm. Moreover you will discover that the blues piano is not limited to one blues sequence and one blues scale, but presents a certain variety of harmonic, melodic and rhythmic techniques; generally, the appeal of a good blues is in a close association between a theme, even if simple and repetitive, the harmony, and the rhythm; so, the theme frequently leads to variations compared with the standard “blues sequence”. Thus, in spite of the danger of monotony inherent in the blues, we can identify a few masterpieces in diverse styles.
