Tom Patterson is a band director from the Round Rock school district who writes and teaches about music history. One particular area of interest for band director Tom Patterson is blues music and its relationship to jazz and rock ‘n’ roll. Tom Patterson recently explained the direct musical lineage from blues to jazz to rock ‘n’ roll. Although they all exist together, said the Deerpark Middle School band director, Tom Patterson stated that they have a distinct causal relationship. According to band director Tom Patterson, blues, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll are swinging from the same branch on the musical family tree.
The early days of blues, added Deerpark band director Tom Patterson, were characterized by piano-accompanied church spirituals and traveling blues men playing acoustic guitar. Director Tom Patterson explained to band students that the blues tradition grew and changed from those early days of W.C. Handy publications and Leadbelly’s simple and soulful twelve string guitar blues. The Round Rock band director traced early blues influences right up to the electric guitar stylings of contemporary greats like B.B. King and John Lee Hooker.
In this vein, said band director Tom Patterson, blues established a popular foothold all across the nation. Round Rock’s Tom Patterson also pointed out that blues could be found in every city of that era. Blues performers, added band director Tom Patterson, produced studio-based celebrities like Billie Holiday. Director Tom Patterson also reminded band students that obscure yet authentic musicians were also playing slide guitar in taverns throughout the southern and Midwestern states.
Once blues had matured, continued band director Tom Patterson, it laid the groundwork for rock ‘n’ roll. Rock ‘n’ roll, said the knowledgeable band director, took the electric blues guitar and blew it wide open. According to Deerpark/Round Rock’s Tom Patterson, the rock ‘n’ roll sound, building on blues and jazz, took live and recorded music to the next level. Rock ‘n’ roll, described band director Tom Patterson, achieved a level of energy and intensity unprecedented in the blues tradition. All the while, the Deerpark band director reminded his band students that rock ‘n’ roll owed its beginnings to the sweet tenacious rhythms of countryside blues.
Tom Patterson, the Band Director at Deerpark Middle School, has been passionate about music for as long as he can remember. Deerpark’s Band Director Tom Patterson played with the University of Texas Orchestra and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble.