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John Wheatcroft adds the musical equivalent of furry dice and go-faster stripes in this feature showing you how to jazz-up your blues, rock or any other style...

- John Wheatcroft

If you look at the history of popular contemporary music there was a point, a little less than a century ago, when the distinction between what constituted blues and what defined jazz was a little arbitrary to say the least, with many artists widely regarded as masters of both (Bessie Smith and Lonnie Johnson spring to mind). Countless blues artists were happy to expand their sound with the addition of jazzy overtones (the mighty Robert Johnson for one, and later on the equally talented T-Bone Walker), while the concept of a jazz musician without a deep understanding and assimilation of the blues was considered an impossibility, as to quote the great Count Basie, jazz was created as a highly successful attempt at ‘swinging the blues.’