Ma Rainey
From Harlem Renaissance
"If Bessie Smith is the acknowledged "Queen of the Blues", then Gertrude "Ma" Rainey is the undisputed "Mother of the Blues"."
Yes, she is all of that and more. As music historian Chris Albertson wrote, "If there was any woman who sang the blues before Rainey, nobody remembered hearing her." Ma Rainey's deep, strong voice rang while she added the flare of her southern origins. Although rather a large woman, she was beautiful, and as she walked out onto the stage, she wasn't only singing. She was performing as if i a play. She wore extremely colorful dresses and was adorned with jewelry, and fequently came out with a prop to further up her preformance. Ma Rainey truly deserves the title of "Mother of the Blues".
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Biography
Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. She was the second of five children to Thomas and Ella Pridgett. Her family consisted of showbiz people that preformed in minstrel shows. In 1900 she began to preform, dancing and singing in minstrel and vaudeville venues, and at the young age of fourteen! There is small dispute to as exactly when she was married, but the majority thinks that it was bewteen 1902 and 1904. In that year she met and married Wiliam "Pa" Rainey, an actor/comedian. Because of her husband's nickname, she became "Ma" Rainey, a name that would soon be all over America and beyond. As she continued on to her late teens, she preformed with her husband and joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a show featuring artists and skits and the like.
While on tour, Ma Rainey heard a woman singing about her "man" who had left her. The song had a sad but deeply intelligent feel to it, and Rainey adored it. She quickly learned the song from the woman, and eventually was getting encores. When asked what kind of new music the song was, she came up with the name: "It's the Blues." But then one source says, "..."the blues" (short for "blue devils") as a description of depression or despondency first appeared in Anglo-American speech in the late eighteenth century. In addition, the blues were developing into a distinct song form in various areas of the deep South around the turn of the century, and thus any induvidual's claim to naming them must be highly suspect." There in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels was where some believe that she tutored a young Bessie Smith. Ma Rainey continued to work in different groups, along with her husband's own. She preformed with different sets of bands, using the more raw, country side of the blues. She became steadily more popular, and still was usuing her own style. In some songs that she wrote, the entire lyrics were just a rising and falling moan, while the instruments played on a tune in the backround. Her earlier bands weren't extremely skilled; they mainly consisted of jugs, kazoo, banjo, a tinny piano and a musical saw. These are called Washboard or Jug Bands.
After about a quarter-century of preforming, Rainey and her husband had broken up, but good news had still come. Ma Rainey got singed with the record label Paramount. Between 1923 and 1928 she recorded over 100 songs with them, mostly hits. When preforming, she added that flare of her acting and singing days. Once she described the way she likes to keep the audience on the edge of their seats: "Baby, I come out on that stage dressed down! I had on a hat and a coat and I was carrying a suicase. I put the suitcase down, real easy like, then stand there like I was thinking--just let 'em see what I was about. Then I sing: Train's at the station, I heard the whistle blow. Train's at the station, I heard the whistle blow. I done bought my ticket, but I don't know where I'll go. You could just see 'em wantin' to go someplace else!" Within her time with Paramount, she was able to work with those great musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Tommy Ladiner, and Coleman Hawkins. But sadly, it was not to last. When the Great Depression hit and jazz faded in popularity in the thirties, Ma Rainey was signed off of Paramount. Afterwards, in 1935, after a last tiny stint at touring in her earlier caravans, she retired to her home town in Columbus, Georgia. Meanwhile, she ran two theaters in Rome, Georgia: "The Lyric", and "The Airdome".
Then, in 1939, in Columbus, Georgia, Gertrude Pridgett "Ma" Rainey died of a hear attack at age 53. This wasn't greatly acknowledged for a while, but in 1992 the city of Columbus fixed up her home and nominated it for the National Register.
Achievements
-Got a record deal with Paramount in about 1923.
-In 1990 Ma Rainey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
-Her home was nominated for the National Register.
-On March 11th, 1993, she became a Geogia Woman of Achievement.
-Was able to work with some of the biggest masters of her time. (Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Tommy Ladiner, Coleman Hawkins...)
-The famous poet Sterling Brown made her a poem:
O Ma Rainey, li'l and low, sing us 'bout the hard luck 'round our do'. Sing us 'bout the lonesome road we must go. I talked to a fellow, and the fellow say, "She jes' catch hold of us some kinda way."
-In 1982, a musical was made in her honor. It is called Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Songs
She made over 100 songs, all beautiful and special, something no one's ever heard of. She spoke out about her beliefs, such as abusement from husband to wife. Here, in the song "Mistreatin' Daddy," she sings: "Daddy, mama's got the blues, the kind of blues that's hard to lose. 'Cause you mistreated me and drove me from your door."
She also sang of her feminist beliefs, sometimes comically. Here is an example from the song "Down Hearted Blues": "I got the world in a jug, the stopper's in my hand I got the world in a jug, the stopper's in my hand I'm gonna hold it until you men come under my command."
Here is a list of some of her biggest hits:
To listen to some of these amazing recordings, see this website that lets you listen to every song on this list.
-"Oh Papa Blues"
-"Black Eye Blues"
-"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
-"Booze and Blues"
-"Blues Oh Blues"
-"Sleep Talkin' Blues"
-"Lucky Rock Blues"
-"Georgia Cake Walk"
-"Don't Fish in my Sea"
-"Stack O' Lee Blues"
-"Shave 'em Dry Blues"
-"Yonder Come the Blues"
-"Screech Owl Blues"
-"Farewell Daddy Blues"
Conclusion
Hearing about this amazing lady was many things; a singer, a performer, an actress, a giver, a wife, and a friend and wonder to many. Her music is still greatly popular, and one of her beautiful theaters, The Lyric, is still widely known of and celebrated. She is in the biggest museums and books, and many blues singers take after her gritty country sound to enhance their own melodies. Her songs weren't just things written down of paper (in the literal sense as well--a lot of her songs were purely improvisation) but words from her heart, from everything inside of her and all the poeple she knew and cared for. She added a little bit of everyone into her music, probably a reason why it was so popular. Learning about her made me a better musician, I would say. Looking at her style of music gave me a wider perspective on music in general, and even just seeing how you don't have to be some big corporate genius to become successful, if you work hard enough, you can do something that you love.
References
-Davis, Angela Y.. Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.
-Lieb, Sandra. Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. The University of Massachusets Press, 1981.
-Rich, Frank. "Singing to Understand Life: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." American Theatre October 2007. 3 March, 2008.
-"Gertrude "Ma" Rainey". Red Hot Jazz, Document Records. February 28th & 28th, 2008.<http://www.redhotjazz.com/rainey.html>
-"Black Bottom, MP3 Album Music Download." eMusic. March 2nd, 3rd, 2008. <http://www.emusic.com/album/Ma-Rainey-Black-Bottom-MP3-Download/10598301.html>
-"Gertrude "Ma" Rainey". January 1st, 2001. Find A Grave. February 28th, 29th, 2008. <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2477>
-"Gertrude Pridgett ("Ma") Rainey". March 11th, 1993. Geogia Women of Achievement. February 28th, 29th, 2008. <http://www.gawomen.org/honorees/long/raineyg_long.htm>
-""Ma" Rainey". Think Quest. March 3rd, 2008. <http://library.thinkquest.org/2667/Rainey.htm?tqskip=1>
