Record labels including Atlantic, Imperial, Specialty and Chess could easily have worked at less expense in the major cities where they were based, but they opted for New Orleans, where Matassa and his cadre of session players were thought to possess that certain intangible feel which guaranteed commercial success. The success of these artists and others prompted record companies based around the nation to send their A-list artists to New Orleans to work with the cityвЂ™s stellar studio musicians and its best audio engineer, Cosimo Matassa. Its national success was followed by such hits as Fats DominoвЂ™s вЂњThe Fat ManвЂќ in 1950, Lloyd PriceвЂ™s вЂњLawdy Miss ClawdyвЂќ in 1952, and Guitar SlimвЂ™s вЂњThe Things I Used To DoвЂќ in 1954. Roy BrownвЂ™s вЂњGood RockinвЂ™ Tonight,вЂќ which climbed the R&B charts in 1948, was the first hit in this genre to be recorded in New Orleans. The common thread in all three south Louisiana styles was an infectious, rowdy exuberance on up-tempo numbers, and soul-baring poignancy on the slow songs.

While rhythm & blues was a national trend, many of its most important developments occurred in south Louisiana вЂ“ most notably in New Orleans, but also typified by the вЂњswamp bluesвЂќ sound of Baton Rouge, exemplified by Slim Harpo, and the Cajun-zydeco infused вЂњswamp popвЂќ of Lafayette/Opelousas/Lake Charles, exemplified by Bobby Charles, Phil Phillips and Carol Fran. In south Louisiana, R&B additionally absorbed the Afro-Cuban three-count tresillo rhythms that reflect the regionвЂ™s strong connections with Caribbean culture, as well as the second-line street beats of the traditional-jazz brass bands. One of the most popular exponents of this latter sound was Louis Jordan and the Tympani Five вЂ“ a band that is sometimes regarded as a proto-R&B group, thus underscoring the arbitrary and at times confusing nature of precise musical categorization. Early R&B also reflected the influence of various jazz styles вЂ“ the classic New Orleans sound of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Morton, and Sidney Bechet the humorous, virtuosic records of the great pianist, singer and composer Fats Waller big-band swing a la Count Basie the boogie-woogie craze of the вЂ30s and вЂ40s, and a style known as jump-blues that combined elements of all of the above. Similarly drawing on tradition, while straddling the secular/sacred boundary, R&B utilized gospel musicвЂ™s sophisticated tradition of quartet singing, which maximized the dramatic contrast between the four alternating vocal leads. R&B diverged from traditional blues songs by expanding beyond the typical blues song-structure вЂ“ twelve bars, an A-A-B verse pattern, and a one-four-five chord progression вЂ“ to use widely varying chord progressions and often, distinct and unique melodies. Traditional blues contributed such bedrock African-American musical traits as call and response, melisma, syncopation, improvisation, and the prominent use of blue notes вЂ“ the flatted third, fifth, and seventh in any given scale. R&B evolved in the 1940s as a convergent hybrid of several genres. Ernie K-DoeвЂ™s R&B hit, вЂњMother-In-LawвЂќ offers a prime example of a song that combined a strong hook вЂ“ its title phrase вЂ“ with a pithy narrative to reach number-one on the national pop and R&B charts. The aggressive market-driven orientation of R&B manifests in its penchant for lyrics that tell succinct stories and the prominent inclusion of brief, catchy and instantly identifiable passages вЂ“ vocal, instrumental or both вЂ“ that are known in the record business as вЂњhooks.вЂќ The presence of memorable hooks вЂ“ in songs of any commercial genre вЂ“ dramatically increases the chances for that songвЂ™s commercial success.

While significantly influenced by such sources, R&B also differs in that those songs are written with the deliberate goal of crafting a hit.Д«lues and gospel artists also seek success, but many traditional blues and gospel songs draw on a vast body of folk-rooted lyrics, known as collectively floating verses, which appear in many songs вЂ“ different combinations that are sometimes random and thus can be thematically vague. Rhythm & blues вЂ“ also known as R&B вЂ“ is an African-American commercial music genre with distinct roots in traditional blues and gospel music.

Rhythms and blues