An Introduction to Ma Rainey

Credited with recording the first blues song "Crazy Blues" in 1923, Ma Rainey was a Huge influence on performers like Bessy Smith.

She began performing at the age of 12 or 14, and recorded under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them include, Bo-weevil Blues (1923), Moonshine Blues (1923),See See Rider (1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).

Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing similar to folk tradition. Though her powerful voice and disposition are not captured on her recordings, the other characteristics are present, and most evident on her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.

An Introduction to Ma Rainey Mp3 zip

Early Harmonica Blues Recordings zip

The first recordings of harmonicas were made in the U.S. in the 1920s.These recordings included “race” music, intended for the African-American market of the southern states with solo recordings by DeFord Bailey (who appeared on the first episode of the WSM Barn Dance after it had changed its name to the Grand Ole Opry), duo recordings with a guitarist Hammie Nixon,Walter Horton, Sonny Terry, jug band performers such as Jaybird Coleman, as well as hillbilly styles recorded for white audiences, byFrank Hutchison, Gwen Foster and several other musicians. There are also recordings featuring the harmonica in jug bands, of which the Memphis Jug Band is the most famous. But the harmonica still represented a toy instrument in those years and was associated with the poor. It is also during those years that musicians started experimenting with new techniques such as tongue-blocking, hand effects and the most important innovation of all, the 2nd position, or cross-harp.

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The Mysterious Death of Blind Lemon Jefferson

Blind Lemon Jefferson was the best selling early black blues singer in the US, where he recorded over a hundred titles for the Paramount label between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929.

To this day, little is known about his life, and his death remains a mystery.

Here is one version of how he died:

Lemon died shortly after meeting with his record company in Chicago, where they paid him some cash royalty money. I believe Lemon's own guide robbed him as he led Lemon back to the train station. Since Lemon was nearly totally blind, I bet the guide was able to take Lemon past the regular waiting area, to a more remote location near the tracks and robbed him. Poor Lemon was found the next day, in the snow by the tracks--many think that he had a heart attack.

And a few other possibilities:

His death certificate said he died "probably (from) acute myocarditis"

Some say he froze to death on the streets of Chicago.

Some have said that Jefferson died from a heart attack after being attacked by a dog in the middle of the night.

Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (later Wortham Black Cemetery). Far from his grave being kept clean, it was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas Historical Marker was erected in the general area of his plot, the precise location being unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, but a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery and his gravesite is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham, Texas.

A collection of Blind Lemon Jefferson music for auto-download