Ma Rainey - Black Bottom
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CD Details
Artist: Ma RaineyEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1991-07-01
Music Label: Yazoo
Soundtracks:
- Oh Papa Blues
- Black Eye Blues (Take 1)
- 'Ma' Rainey's Black Bottom
- Booze And Blues
- Blues Oh Blues
- Sleep Talking Blues (Take 1)
- Lucky Rock Blues
- Georgia Cake Walk
- Don't Fish In My Sea
- Stack O' Lee Blues
- Shave 'Em Dry Blues
- Yonder Come The Blues (Take 1)
- Screech Owl Blues
- Farewell Daddy Blues
Music reviews of Black Bottom
Music Review: The Mother of the Blues
Rating: 5 Stars
This is raw, vulgar music filled with joy and passion. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886 -- 1938)was born in Columbus, Georiga. As a teenager, she began signing in black tent and vaudeville shows. She cut a flamboyant figure with her outlandish entrances, fancy dresses, large hats, and gold teeth. But with her powerful, blues-filled voice Ma Rainey rose above all the hokum.
In 1923, Ma Rainey began making blues records. By that time, many other younger female vaudeville singers had already been recording to take advantage of the new craze for the blues. Blues recordings by male "country" singers, such as Charlie Paton, Son House, and Robert Johnson would come a bit later. The vaudeville blues women are closer to their country male counterparts than is sometimes realized.
Ma Rainey had been performing in obscurity in small Southern towns and in the ghettos of Northern cities for over 20 years. Ma Rainey recorded for Paramount under a black producer, and she cut over 100 sides between 1923 and 1929. Paramount used primitive recording technology even for the 1920s and many of Ma Rainey's recordings are full of scratches, hisses, and a distant tinny sound. Yet her voice, humanity, and music come through the shoddy recording technique.
With the revival of interest in the blues, there have been many reissues of Ma Rainey's recordings. This CD, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" remains one of the best for those listeners wanting an introduction to this singer of "classic" vaudeville blues. The CD consists of 14 songs recorded between 1924 and 1928. The tawdry, vaudeville character of the music is combined with singing of great force and with frequently inspired accompanists, ranging from pianist Georgia Tom Dorsey and guitarist Tampa Red to larger back-up combos that swing with Dixieland.
The CD's title song became the basis of a play by August Wilson which showed Ma Rainey and her musicians exploited by white record producers. (Rainey's producer was in fact black.) The song is a wonderful novelty of double-entendre sex,dance, and fun. Other songs in this compilation have less upbeat themes, as Ma Rainey sings of jails, lost loves, cheating, alcohol, voodoo, and the difficulty of black life in the early 20th Century. The songs are an admixture of joy and sadness, an attempt to make sorrowful themes better through music and laughter.
Each of the songs on this CD is worth hearing. Besides the title track, I particularly like "Farewell Daddy Blues" with its simple theme accompanied by two guitars. "Shave 'Em Dry Blues" was recorded at the same time (1924) with the same accompaniment. The lyrics are difficult to follow, but they are dirty in the extreme. This song became something of standard among the lady blues singers of the day. "Oh Papa Blues" and "Blues oh Blues" have flowing choruses; I can imagine Ma Rainey's audiences singing along and clapping their hands as Ma sang. In "Black Eye Blues", Ma Rainey sings of a cheating man and of revenge: "You low down alligator/just watch me sooner or later/ I'm going to catch you with your britches down." "Stack O'Lee Blues" is, of course, a song that has been recorded many times, before Ma Rainey and since.
For several years of my life when I was experiencing difficulty, I listened to a great deal of Ma Rainey and other blues singers, largely the ladies. Before and since these years, I listened mostly to classical music. I returned to this CD recently. After a short initial period of readjustment, I became captivated again by Ma Rainey. For all the vaudeville character of the material, Ma Rainey was a singer of great gifts and power. These songs deserve their place in American music. I was glad to hear them again.
Robin Friedman
Description of Black Bottom
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