BHS Day 16: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey

Hi! For our 3rd Music and Entertainment Spotlight this year we're taking it back to the music category and talking about another late great in the music industry. She hit her prime and passed on before most of our grandparents were born, so hers is a name I definitely don't hear too often. I'm going to venture to say she may be one of the oldest I've featured on a Black History Spotlight. That makes things a little more difficult because oftentimes with older entrants, the same information is circulated between all the websites talking about them, so there's not too much digging to do today. No matter, because she deserves her moment so even if I can't give you anything particularly new, we still get to learn about her and listen to her music. Let's get to today's entrant!

Source

Name: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, 1882-1939

Profession: Musician

Why is the Spotlight on her today? For her contributions to the music industry and bringing blues music into the mainstream 

Notables:
--Is widely regarded today as the "Mother of the Blues"
--Is considered to be the first great blues singer, and is also responsible for adapting blues to minstrel, vaudeville and tent shows
--Was posthumously inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 1990
--Recorded over 100 songs during her five years with Paramount Records
--Debuted her tour with her own band (she'd spent the first part of her career as part of a group with her husband) as the first 'down home' blues act to perform at Chicago's Grand Theater
--Likely identified as queer following her divorce and threw a highly controversial (for the times) females-only party
--Was noted as a source of inspiration for Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown
--Ran two theatres at the same time after leaving the music industry
--Was posthumously honored by the US Postal Service with a commemorative stamp in 1994
--Was posthumously honored by the Grammy Hall of Fame when her song "See, See Rider" was selected for entry in 2004
--Is said to have been a mentor to Bessie Smith, who spent the early part of her career touring with Ma and Pa Rainey
--Spent time touring with Louis Armstrong and recorded three songs, including one of her signatures, with him
--Was posthumously honored by her hometown of Columbus, Georgia by having the local museum renamed after her
--Was the first to record "See, See Rider" and obtained the copyright for it
--Was posthumously inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1990

Further reading links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5






Quotes of the Day: 
"When she started singing, the gold in her teeth would sparkle. She was in the spotlight. She possessed listeners; they swayed, they rocked, they moaned and groaned, as they felt the blues with her."
--Thomas A. Dorsey
"Whether this music came from Alabama or Mississippi or other parts of the South doesn't matter anymore. The men and women who make this music have learned it from the narrow crooked streets of East St. Louis, or the streets of the city's Southside, and the Alabama or Mississippi roots have been strangled by the Northern manners and customs of free men. . . . "
--August Wilson