Introduction
Jazz Blues, as the name implies, is a combination of Jazz and Blues. From the Blues it takes the use of primarily dominant chords, the Blues scales, and the 12 Bar Blues chord progression. And from Jazz it takes more sophisticated rhythms, harmonies, chord voicings, and techniques. In this way we create a mix of the raw and emotive power of the Blues with the intellectual and sophisticated elements of Jazz.
Quartal Jazz Blues
There are numerous ways to play in a Jazz Blues style, and one such way is using quartal voicings. This is widely used, relatively simple, and sounds awesome.
In this particular instance, we are going to take a standard 12 Bar Blues progression, but apply a number of Jazzy techniques and concepts to it. Specifically we are going to use:
- Available tensions – add 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths (rather than playing pure 7th chords);
- Quartal voicings – building chords up in 4ths (rather than 3rds);
- Comping – varying the rhythm of the chords (rather than playing a repeating ostinato);
- Side slipping & chromatic passing chords – to add more interest and complexity to the harmonic progression (rather than just playing the exact written out progression); and
- Improvise over the top using the Blues scale but adding in some passing notes
12 Bar Blues Progression in C
Jazz Blues Quartal Voicings
And there you have it – a simple but cool little progression and style. Check out the below video for a demonstration of the above techniques. I apply them one by one – starting simple and gradually adding complexity – so that you can see how to slowly build, develop and perfect these techniques.
Rootless Blues
Another good way to play in a Jazz Blues style is by combining:
- A walking bassline (left hand); with
- Rootless voicings (right hand); and
- Soloing over the top, again using the Blues scale (right hand).
The sheet music linked below is an example of this. It uses a simple walking bassline, with the right hand comping using rootless chords (notice all the chords are actually rootless). There is no improvisation in this example, but you simply add this on top. Notice also that we have made the chord progression a bit more complex by using a few chord substitutions. This is a very commonly used Jazz Blues progression (but there are countless variations on this).
For a PDF of the sheet music for both rootless and quartal Blues comping Click Here.