It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues
About the Show
Florida Studio Theatre’s 2005 Winter Mainstage Season opens with It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, a high energy show that traces the evolution of the blues. From its roots in the African-American experience to the juke joints of the Mississippi delta, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues shows that the blues are anything but ‘blue.’
Born out of the African-American experience, the blues blends European and
African musical traditions. Combining vaudeville’s show-stopping style with
jazz rhythms, blues music was at the height of its popularity in the 1920s
and 1930s when singers such Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Duke Ellington and Count Basie took to the stage and the recording studio. The influence of
the blues is so strong in American culture that it can be considered the
“grandfather” of today’s American pop, rhythm & blues, and rock-and-roll
styles.
