NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to jazz musician Sherman Irby about his latest work, "Birth of the Blues," exploring the origin of the Blues and its continued influence across genres.

Rooted in the Mississippi Delta, the blues sprang from spiritual music and field hollers, spinning a cultural thread that followed the Great Black Migration from South to North. Sheer joy of ...

Ma Rainey is best known, but Ida Cox, Cora Mae Bryant, Beverly ‘Guitar’ Watkins and Precious Bryant left essential music. From left to right: Ma Rainey, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins, Ida Cox, Precious ...

With his acclaimed interpretations of Delta Blues standards, he was a fixture on the Greenwich Village music scene for decades. By Clay Risen John P. Hammond, a singer and guitarist whose virtuosic ...