Playing a blues to totalitarian (8)
I believe the answer is:
absolute
'totalitarian' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'playing a blues to' is the wordplay.
'playing' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'blues'+'to'='abluesto'
'abluesto' is an anagram of 'ABSOLUTE'.
(Other definitions for absolute that I've seen before include "Sheer, utter or not limited" , "Total; not relative" , "Unqualified; Sheridan's Sir Anthony" , "Complete, total, without limits" , "-273.15degC" .)