Roots of Blues -- Ma Rainey „Booze And Blues"

„Booze And Blues"
(M. Rainey)

Recorded: New York , October 15 1924
'Ma' Rainey And Her Georgia Band
Ma Rainey (vcl), Howard Scott (cn), Charlie Green (tb), Don Redman (c), Fletcher Henderson (p), Kaiser Marshall (d)

Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 -- December 22, 1939), 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 did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers.
Rainey was born in Columbus, Georgia. She first appeared on stage in Columbus in "A Bunch of Blackberries" at fourteen. She then joined a traveling vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After hearing a blues song at a theater in St. Louis, Missouri, sung by a local girl in 1902, she started performing in a blues style. She claimed at that time that she was the one who coined the name "blues" for the style that she specialized in.

In the one known interview she did, Rainey told the following story, In 1902 "a girl from town... came to the tent one morning and began to sing about the "man" who left her. The song was so strange and poignant that it attracted much attention,and Rainey learned the song fron the visitor, and used it soon afterwards in her "act"." Audiences reacted strongly to the song.

She married fellow vaudeville singer William "Pa" Rainey in 1904, billing herself from that point as "Ma" Rainey. The pair toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels as "Rainey & Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues", singing a mix of blues and popular songs. In 1912, she took the young Bessie Smith into the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, trained her, and worked with her until Smith left in 1915.

Also known, though less discussed, is the fact that she was bisexual. She was arrested in Chicago in 1925 for hosting an 'indecent party' with a room full of semi-naked women. Rainey celebrated the lesbian lifestyle in "Prove It On Me Blues", but hid behind a cross-dressing man-hating persona that was quite distinct from her regular public image:

In most of her songs, Ma projected herself as a passionate and often mistreated lover of men. In private, her preference was for young men. The poet Sterling Brown tells of approaching her as a fan with the musicologist John Work. She immediately propositioned them as she was having trouble with her young musicians. Brown wrote a moving poem about Ma Rainey and her huge popularity with Southern audiences.

Ma Rainey was already a veteran performer with decades of touring in African-American shows in the U.S. Southern States when she made her first recordings in 1923. Rainey signed with Paramount Records and, between 1923 and 1928, she recorded 100 songs, including the classics "C.C. Rider" (aka "See See Rider") and "Jelly Bean Blues", the humorous "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", and the deep blues "Bo Weavil Blues". In her career, Rainey was backed by such noted jazz musicians as cornet players Louis Armstrong and Tommy Ladnier, pianists Fletcher Henderson and Lovie Austin, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and clarinetist Buster Bailey. Rainey recorded two vocal duets with Papa Charlie Jackson in 1928, which proved to be her last recordings; Paramount terminated her contract soon afterwards, claiming that her material had gone out of fashion.

Rainey's career dried up in the 1930s--as did the career of just about every other classic female blues singers of the previous decade. But her earnings were enough that she was able to retire from performing in 1933.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Blues
• Roots_of_Blues
• History_of_music

[kathleenirish]

Someone want to tell me why there are only 19 views of this video????

[Slowtubbi]

Because it is only 36 Hours online . . . wait and see, it's just great music that kept ist power for so long, i am sure it will go on . .

[pauletaloca]

I love her. Janis Joplin was carrying on the tradition of Bessie Smith who was carrying on the tradition of Ma Rainey. I love all of them, they were amazing women, they were strong women with strong message.

[hairnsap]

She's puttin' a hurt on me that feels so good !

[CodxMasterxJoey]

@kathleenirish 81k now :D

[drawlbag]

@kathleenirish See?, it''s 78,115 now. If it were a video, it'd be more.

[raywest53]

Everything was always in the mix. African musicians used European instruments and notation to recreate African music and rhythms. Their musical forms were imitated by white musicians, and mixed with their own forms, then again imitated by black musicians. The railroad tracks were not a sound barrier. The result is one of our greatest cultural inheritances--vastly different from either European or African precedecessors

And Janis, BTW, built a monument to Big Mama Thornton.

[oshawaxpress]

@westendatl - for the sake of argument, country music has roots in English and Celtic folk music. Classical European musical structures and techniques are evident in many American music genres like metal and shred guitar. Everything can be in the mix these days. A lot of early rock came straight from 12 bar blues but it's extremely simplistic and inaccurate to say that the blues has led to everything else. That said, I love listening to Ma Rainey. It's honest and beautiful music.

[dmhoude]

So Janis has no credibility based on the fact she was white? Racism is always ugly. No matter who it comes from.

[rhondabenin56]

Janis Joplin was not carrying any tradition she was copying. Let's keep it real! She had no regard for black people or their musical history.

[astroblak82]

Makes me want a double shot of whiskey on the rocks in a dimly lit, little hole in the wall bar somewhere in the south.

[codb0y11]

@kathleenirish Unfortunately, most people are YouTubing Katy Perry, Black-Eyed Peas, eminem etc.

[gina8594inga]

shes from my home town columbus ga one classy lady