Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey
Background information
Birth name	Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett
Born	26 April 1886 Alabama, USA
Died	December 22, 1939 (age 53) Rome, Georgia, USA
Genre(s)	Blues, jazz
Occupation(s)	Vocalist
Label(s)	Paramount
Associated acts	Rainey & Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues Rabbit Foot Minstrels

Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939), was one of the earliest known professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record their music. She was known as the "Mother of the Blues." Rainey did much to develop and popularize the blues genre and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers.

Biography

Born in Georgia or possibly Alabama as Gertrude Pridget, Ma Rainey may have later changed her birthday to make herself appear three and a half years younger than she actually was. The 1900 census states her birth as being September, 1882. However, her biographies usually give her birth as April, 1886, in Columbus, Georgia where she was raised. She first appeared on stage in Columbus, Georgia at the Springer Opera House in 1900, performing as a singer and dancer in the "A Bunch of Blackberries," local talent show, probably at the age of 14. She then joined a traveling vaudeville troupe, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.

After hearing a blues song sung by a local girl in 1902 at a theater in St. Louis, Missouri, she started performing in a blues style. She claimed that she was the one who coined the name "blues" for the style in which she specialized. However, other musicians and singers performed in the style deny this, affirming that the genre had always been know as the blues. Nevertheless, by blues historians confirm that she was the first woman known to incorporate blues into vaudeville, minstrel, and tent shows.

Rainey married fellow vaudeville singer William "Pa" Rainey in 1904, billing herself from that point as "Ma" Rainey. Reportedly while performing with a troupe led by Moses Stokes in 1912, the Raineys met the young Bessie Smith, who was eight years young than Rainey. The degree to which Rainey was responsible for training and coaching Smith is a matter of debate, but Rainey clearly must have been an important influence on her. Smith had originally been recruited for the group as a dancer. Ma Rainey]. www.biography.com Retrieved May 31, 2008.]

In 1915, the Raineys were traveling with Fat Chappelle's Rabbitt Foot Minstrels. Later, they billed themselves as the "Assassinators of the Blues" and toured with Tolliver's Circus and Musical Extravaganza.

Ma Rainey separated from her husband in 1916, and soon began touring with her own band. She was billed as "Madam Gertrude Ma Rainey and Her Georgia Smart Sets." Besides her own act, the performances included a chorus line and a carnival show.

Rainey traveled extensively as a performer and her singing style shows more than passing familiarity with authentic country blues, soon became an important part of her repertoire. Author Daphane Harrison, in Black Pearls: Blues Queens says of Rainey: "Her ability to capture the mood and essence of black rural southern life of the 1920s, quickly endeared her to throngs of followers throughout the South."

Ma Rainey was already a popular veteran performer with decades of touring in African-American shows in the U.S. Southern States when she made her first recordings in 1923, at the age of 38. Mamie Smith had recorded the first known blues side three years previously. Rainey signed with Paramount Records and, between 1923 and 1928, she recorded 100 songs.

Rainey's first recording session featured the traditional "Bo-Weevil Blues". "Moonshine Blues" and "Yonder Comes the Blues" soon followed, the latter featuring Louis Armstrong on horn. She also recorded the blues standard, "See See Rider." She thus came to hold the copyright to a song which later went on to be covered by at 100 other artist. Her version is universally recognized as one of the best.

Rainey was often accompanied such jazz notables as Armstrong, Kid Ory, Fletcher Henderson, and others, billed as her "Georgia Jazz Band." Most of her recordings thus display a Dixieland flavor, with trumpets and clarinets providing a counterpoint to her more countrified blues singing. On these recordings, Rainey showed herself to have a huge voice, but also a sensitive quality to bring home the poignant passion of the blues genre. However, many find her at her best when on those few recordings where she is accompanied by a simple jug band ("Deep Moaning Blues") or slide guitarist ("Sleep Talking Blues").

Many of her recordings dealt frankly with love and sexuality. Her songs told stories of betrayal, leaving one's lover, hard work and other themes typical of the black experience in the rural south. At times they expressed an uninhibited, infectious joy in dance tunes and songs of love.

After her initial success Rainey joined a promotional tour arranged by Paramount. Thomas A. Dorsey, later famous as a gospel songwriter, served as her arranger and manager, and also recruited members for her Wild Cats Jazz Band. Rainey's debut appearance at the Grand Theater on Chicago's State Street was time a country blues artist appeared at this well known venue.

For these performances, Rainey appeared in long gowns and ostentatious jewelry. Rainey not only had a powerfully expressive voice but projected a charismatic stage presence and often brought her audience to a frenzy of cheering. Said Dorsey: "She possessed listeners; they swayed, they rocked, they moaned and groaned, as they felt the blues with her."

Rainey was known as a reliable professional on stage, as well as a shrewd business woman.

As one of the earliest blues recording artists, Rainey was highly influential on later performers such as Charley Patton, Son House, Blind Lemon, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Blind Blake and Willie Dixon, and of course, Bessie Smith. A number of the songs she recorded have become blues standards, such as "See See Rider Blues," "Walking Blues," "Gone Daddy Blues," and the popular dance tune, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

Rainey was extremely popular among southern blacks in the 1920s, but the Great Depression and changing tastes ended her recording career by 1933, as the blues faded from popularity. Rainey still performed, however, although the rise of radio had badly hurt the vaudeville circuits on which she had been so popular. She often played tent shows and fairs.

After her mother and sister died, however, Rainey retired completely from the music business in 1935 and returned to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia. There, she reportedly owned two theatres, the Lyric and the Airdome. She was also devoted to a local Baptist church.

Ma Rainey died of a heart attack in 1939.

Legacy

As the first female blues singer to become a popular recording artist, Ma Rainey's legacy is a large one. She influence countless blues singers that came after her, male and female alike. Nor is her influence a mere function of her good function in getting in on the ground floor of the blues recording business. Her recordings demonstrate her greatness. Ironically, her expressiveness as a country-style blueswoman is sometimes marred by the greatness and creativity of the jazz musicians who usually backed her. However, the recordings of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday bear eloquent testimony to Rainey's importance.

Bob Dylan refers to Ma Rainey in the song "Tombstone Blues" on his 1965 album, Highway 61 Revisited:

"Where Ma Rainy and Beethoven once unwrapped their bed roll

Tuba players now rehearse around the flagpole

And the National Bank at a profit sells road maps for the soul

To the old folks home and the college

The 1982 August Wilson play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was based on her career and took its title from her song of the same name recorded before 1928 which ostensibly refers to the Black Bottom dance of the time.

Rainey can also be seen as a social pioneer, and even a revolutionary. In her singing, she can be seen as outspoken on women's issues and a role model for future women entertainers who took control of their own careers. Marxist intellectual Angela Y. Davis, in her 1998 book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, saw Rainey as a model of how African American women from poor and working-class backgrounds could become overcome the barriers of a racist, capitalist societ, without compromising their values. Davis also portrayed Rainey as an example of female sexual power which embraces both heterosexuality and lesbianism. She cites Rainey's song "Prove It on Me," which describes a lesbian cross-dressing female who unashamedly dates other women.

In 1990, Ma Rainey is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She had been inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983.

Notes

• Lieb, Sandra (1981). Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. Univ. of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0870233343. 
• Davis, Angela Y. (1998). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Pantheon. ISBN 067945005X. 

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998. ISBN 9780679450054
• Harris, Michael W. The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 9780195063769
• Harrison, Daphne Duval. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick, [N.J.]: Rutgers University Press, 1988. ISBN 9780813512792
• Jackson, Buzzy. A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.
• Lieb, Sandra R. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. [Amherst]: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981. ISBN 9780870233340

External links

• Gertrude “Ma” Rainey African American Registry
• Gertrude “Ma” Rainey at All Music Guide
• Gertrude Pridgett “Ma” Rainey at Paramount Records
• Gertrude “Ma” Rainey at the New Georgia Encyclopedia
• http://www.bluesimages.com/images/museum_images/poster_ma_rainey_FULL.jpg

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