Ma Rainey
Encyclopedia
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American
professional blues
singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
She began performing at the age of 12 or 14, and recorded under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels
and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them include, Bo-weevil Blues
(1923), Moonshine Blues (1923), See See Rider
(1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).
Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing similar to folk tradition. Though her powerful voice and disposition are not captured on her recordings, the other characteristics are present, and most evident on her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.
. (This can be questioned, however, as the 1900 Census listing for Pridgett shows her as being born in September, 1882.) She was the second of five children of Thomas and Ella (née Allen) Pridgett, from Alabama
. She had at least two brothers and a sister named Malissa, with whom Gertrude was later confused in some sources. She came onto the performance scene at a talent show in Columbus, Georgia
when she was 12–14 years old. A member of the First African Baptist Church
, she began performing in show tents. Around 1902 she was first exposed to blues music, hearing a girl sing in a tent in Missouri
, and incorporated it into her performances.
Pridgett met a singer, dancer and comedian named William "Pa" Rainey and they married February 2, 1904, when she was 18. From then, she performed as "Madame Gertrude Rainey", and later, "Ma Rainey". They sang and danced together in Black minstrel show
s, and for several years toured with F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot Minstrels
. From 1914, the Raineys were billed as Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Wintering in New Orleans, she met musicians including Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong
, Sidney Bechet
and Pops Foster
. Blues music increased in popularity and Ma Rainey became well known.
Around this time, Rainey met Bessie Smith
, a young blues singer who was also making a name for herself. A story later developed that Rainey kidnapped Smith, making her join the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and teaching her to sing the blues. This was disputed by Smith's sister-in-law Maud Smith. From the late 1910s, there was an increasing demand for recordings by black musicians. In 1920, Mamie Smith
was the first black woman to record a record. In 1923, Rainey was discovered by Paramount Records
producer J. Mayo Williams
. She signed a recording contract with Paramount, and in December she made her first eight recordings in Chicago
. These included the songs "Bad Luck Blues", "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". She made more than 100 more over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South. Paramount marketed her extensively, calling her "the Mother of the Blues", "the Songbird of the South", "the Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues" and "the Paramount Wildcat". In 1924 she made some recordings with Louis Armstrong
, including "Jelly Bean Blues", "Countin' the Blues" and "See, See Rider".
In 1924 she embarked on a tour of the Theater Owners Bookers Association
(TOBA) throughout the South and Midwestern United States
, singing both for black and white audiences. She was accompanied by bandleader and pianist Thomas Dorsey
, and the band he assembled called the Wildcats Jazz Band which included Eddie Pollack
, Gabriel Washington, Albert Wynn and David Nelson. They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926 due to ill health and was replaced as pianist by Lillian Hardaway Henderson, the wife of Rainey's cornet
ist Fletcher Henderson, who became the band's leader.
Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville
went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected. She continued recording with Paramount and earned enough money touring to buy a bus with her name on. In 1928, she worked with Dorsey again and recording 20 songs, before Paramount finished her contract. Her style of blues was no longer considered fashionable by the label.
In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome", until her death from a heart attack
in 1939. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame
in 1983, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1990.
Ma Rainey died in Rome, Georgia
in 1939.
recorded a tribute. French singer/song writer Francis Cabrel
refers to Rainey in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on the 1998 album Hors-Saison. Cabrel cites the artist as one of a number of blues influences, including Charley Patton, Son House
, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf
, Blind Blake
, Willie Dixon
, and Blues Boy Willie
, whose father toured with Rainey.
American singer/songwriter Bob Dylan
refers to Rainey in the song "Tombstone Blues
" on his 1965 album, Highway 61 Revisited
.
In 1981 Sandra Lieb wrote the first full-length book about Rainey Mother of the Blues: a Study of Ma Rainey URL: http://www.umass.edu/umpress/author/l.html.
The 1982 August Wilson
play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
took its title from her song of the same name recorded before 1928, which ostensibly refers to the Black Bottom dance
of the time.
In 1994, the U.S. Post Office issued a Rainey 29-cent commemorative postage stamp.
In 2004, her song "See See Rider Blues" (1925) was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was included by the National Recording Preservation Board
in the Library of Congress
' National Recording Registry in 2004. The board selects voices in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
She began performing at the age of 12 or 14, and recorded under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels
The Rabbit's Foot Company
The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and 1950...
and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them include, Bo-weevil Blues
Boll Weevil (song)
"Boll Weevil" is a traditional blues song, also known by similar titles such as "Boweavil" or "Boll Weevil Blues." Although many songs about the boll weevil were recorded by blues musicians during the 1920s, '30s and '40s, this one has become well known, thanks perhaps to Lead Belly's rendition of...
(1923), Moonshine Blues (1923), See See Rider
See See Rider
The song is generally regarded as being traditional in origin. Ma Rainey's version became popular during 1925, as "See See Rider Blues." It became one of the most famous of all blues songs, with well over 100 versions. It was recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt, Lead Belly,...
(1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).
Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing similar to folk tradition. Though her powerful voice and disposition are not captured on her recordings, the other characteristics are present, and most evident on her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.
Biography
Gertrude Pridgett was born April 26, 1886 in Columbus, GeorgiaColumbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
. (This can be questioned, however, as the 1900 Census listing for Pridgett shows her as being born in September, 1882.) She was the second of five children of Thomas and Ella (née Allen) Pridgett, from Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. She had at least two brothers and a sister named Malissa, with whom Gertrude was later confused in some sources. She came onto the performance scene at a talent show in Columbus, Georgia
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
when she was 12–14 years old. A member of the First African Baptist Church
First African Baptist Church (Columbus, Georgia)
First African Baptist Church is a historic church at 901 5th Avenue in Columbus, Georgia.It was built in 1915 and added to the National Register in 1980.It is featured on the Black Heritage Trail....
, she began performing in show tents. Around 1902 she was first exposed to blues music, hearing a girl sing in a tent in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and incorporated it into her performances.
Pridgett met a singer, dancer and comedian named William "Pa" Rainey and they married February 2, 1904, when she was 18. From then, she performed as "Madame Gertrude Rainey", and later, "Ma Rainey". They sang and danced together in Black minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s, and for several years toured with F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot Minstrels
The Rabbit's Foot Company
The Rabbit's Foot Company, also known as the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and colloquially as "The Foots", was a long running minstrel and variety troupe that toured as a tent show in the American South between 1900 and 1950...
. From 1914, the Raineys were billed as Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Wintering in New Orleans, she met musicians including Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
and Pops Foster
Pops Foster
George Murphy "Pops" Foster was a jazz musician best known for his vigorous playing of the string bass. He also played the tuba and trumpet professionally....
. Blues music increased in popularity and Ma Rainey became well known.
Around this time, Rainey met Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
, a young blues singer who was also making a name for herself. A story later developed that Rainey kidnapped Smith, making her join the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and teaching her to sing the blues. This was disputed by Smith's sister-in-law Maud Smith. From the late 1910s, there was an increasing demand for recordings by black musicians. In 1920, Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith
-External links:* African American Registry* with photos* with .ram files of her early recordings* NPR special on the selection on "Crazy Blues" to the 2005...
was the first black woman to record a record. In 1923, Rainey was discovered by Paramount Records
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson.-Early years:...
producer J. Mayo Williams
J. Mayo Williams
Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music. Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of talented African-American musicians on recording contracts...
. She signed a recording contract with Paramount, and in December she made her first eight recordings in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. These included the songs "Bad Luck Blues", "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". She made more than 100 more over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South. Paramount marketed her extensively, calling her "the Mother of the Blues", "the Songbird of the South", "the Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues" and "the Paramount Wildcat". In 1924 she made some recordings with Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, including "Jelly Bean Blues", "Countin' the Blues" and "See, See Rider".
In 1924 she embarked on a tour of the Theater Owners Bookers Association
Theater Owners Bookers Association
Theater Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s and 1930s. The theaters all had white owners and collaborated in booking jazz, blues, comedians, and other performers for black audiences...
(TOBA) throughout the South and Midwestern United States
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
, singing both for black and white audiences. She was accompanied by bandleader and pianist Thomas Dorsey
Thomas A. Dorsey
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was known as "the father of black gospel music" and was at one time so closely associated with the field that songs written in the new style were sometimes known as "dorseys." Earlier in his life he was a leading blues pianist known as Georgia Tom.As formulated by Dorsey,...
, and the band he assembled called the Wildcats Jazz Band which included Eddie Pollack
Eddie Pollack
Eddie Pollack or Pollock was an American jazz saxophonist.Pollack learned saxophone under Erskine Tate, with whom he also played in the mid-1920s. Pollack was a fixture in many Chicago bands in the 1920s and early 1930s, playing with Detroit Shannon, Jimmie Noone, and Carl White...
, Gabriel Washington, Albert Wynn and David Nelson. They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926 due to ill health and was replaced as pianist by Lillian Hardaway Henderson, the wife of Rainey's cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
ist Fletcher Henderson, who became the band's leader.
Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected. She continued recording with Paramount and earned enough money touring to buy a bus with her name on. In 1928, she worked with Dorsey again and recording 20 songs, before Paramount finished her contract. Her style of blues was no longer considered fashionable by the label.
In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome", until her death from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1939. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1980 by the Blues Foundation, it honors those who have performed, recorded, or documented blues.-1980:*Big Bill Broonzy*Willie Dixon*John Lee Hooker...
in 1983, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1990.
Ma Rainey died in Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
in 1939.
Legacy
One year after Rainey's death, blues singer and guitarist Memphis MinnieMemphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie was an American blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.-Career:...
recorded a tribute. French singer/song writer Francis Cabrel
Francis Cabrel
Francis Cabrel is a well-known French singer-songwriter and guitarist. Inspired heavily by Bob Dylan, he has released a number of albums falling mostly within the realm of folk, with occasional forays into blues or country. Several of his songs, such as "L'encre de tes yeux" and "Petite Marie"...
refers to Rainey in the song "Cent Ans de Plus" on the 1998 album Hors-Saison. Cabrel cites the artist as one of a number of blues influences, including Charley Patton, Son House
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...
, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf
Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
, Blind Blake
Blind Blake
"Blind" Blake was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist.-Biography:...
, Willie Dixon
Willie Dixon
William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the Upright bass and the guitar, as well as his own singing voice, Dixon is arguably best known as one of the most prolific songwriters...
, and Blues Boy Willie
Blues Boy Willie
William Daniel McFalls, better known as Blues Boy Willie , is an African American electric blues singer and harmonica player from Memphis, Texas...
, whose father toured with Rainey.
American singer/songwriter Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
refers to Rainey in the song "Tombstone Blues
Tombstone Blues
"Tombstone Blues" is the second track off Bob Dylan's album Highway 61 Revisited. Musically it is a straightforward blues song, however the lyrics are typical of Dylan's free-associate surreal style of the period, with such lines as "the sun's not yellow, it's chicken".It was performed by Marcus...
" on his 1965 album, Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released in August 1965 by Columbia Records. On his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan devoted Side One of the album to songs accompanied by an electric rock band, and Side Two to solo acoustic numbers...
.
In 1981 Sandra Lieb wrote the first full-length book about Rainey Mother of the Blues: a Study of Ma Rainey URL: http://www.umass.edu/umpress/author/l.html.
The 1982 August Wilson
August Wilson
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...
play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play - one of the ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle by August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright - that chronicles the twentieth century African American experience...
took its title from her song of the same name recorded before 1928, which ostensibly refers to the Black Bottom dance
Black Bottom (dance)
Black Bottom refers to a dance. which became popular in the 1920s, during the period known as the Flapper era.The dance originated in New Orleans in the 1900s. The theatrical show Dinah brought the Black Bottom dance to New York in 1924, and the George White's Scandals featured it at the Apollo...
of the time.
In 1994, the U.S. Post Office issued a Rainey 29-cent commemorative postage stamp.
In 2004, her song "See See Rider Blues" (1925) was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and was included by the National Recording Preservation Board
National Recording Preservation Board
The United States National Recording Preservation Board selects recorded sounds for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The National Recording Registry was initiated to maintain and preserve "sound recordings that are culturally, historically or aesthetically...
in the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
' National Recording Registry in 2004. The board selects voices in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
External links
- Gertrude “Ma” Rainey entry at the African American Registry
- Gertrude “Ma” Rainey at the New Georgia EncyclopediaNew Georgia EncyclopediaThe New Georgia Encyclopedia is a web-based encyclopedia containing over 2,000 articles about the state of Georgia.The Georgia Humanities Council, the Office of the Governor of Georgia, the University of Georgia Press, and the University System of Georgia/GALILEO have collaborated in the funding...
- Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey