Behind all blues music, there is a mother. That mother is Ma Rainey.
Born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett, Rainey would go on to become one of America’s most influential blues singers, a key player in the Harlem Renaissance and an important mentor and inspiration to many singers that followed. Her legacy continues in modern times with Broadway shows and movies inspired by her tale.
Rainey was born in Georgia. Her parents were both minstrel performers, and from a young age Rainey also displayed great singing talent. From the time she was a teenager, Rainey began touring the country with vaudeville acts and making a name for herself.
Over the years she developed her signature sound, a combination of traditional vaudeville and Southern folk and blues. Even though her style would now be considered “classic blues” at the time it was considered a unique and radical amalgamation of many different American forms of music.
Rainey stood out from the crowd due to her immense showmanship and huge personality. She wore flashy dresses and jewelry and came across with unwavering authenticity. Rainey’s style appealed to both Black and white audiences, though crowds were usually segregated. Her cabaret-style theatrical performance drew in white audiences ,while her folk-based lyrics about the struggle of African Americans resonated with Black audiences.
Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount Records in 1923, making her one of the earliest recorded blues musicians. And between 1923 and 1928, she recorded nearly 100 songs, many of which became national hits and staples of the genre. While much of blues is an oral tradition, Rainey’s ability to pen her own music and expand upon the genre was another selling point for her music.
Rainey directly mentored the “empress of the blues” Bessie Smith. Their respective styles brought blues to the mainstream and paved the way for many musicians. Other females who followed, such as Big Mama Thornton, Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt also cited Rainey as a major influence.
At the center of Rainey’s character and music was an emphasis on strong, independent women who refused to be constrained by societal norms. The characters in her songs reflected this strong will.
Rainey’s female protagonists did not rely on male partners or submit to conventional rules. In “Prove It on Me Blues,” Rainey openly alludes to an attraction to women. “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends,” she sang. “They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men. It’s true I wear a collar and tie. Makes the wind blow all the while.”
Angela Davis, in her 2011 book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism noted that Rainey’s songs are filled with women who “explicitly celebrate their right to conduct themselves as expansively and even as undesirably as men.”
Music allowed Rainey to speak candidly about life as a Black American woman, something she normally would never be allowed to speak directly at the time.
Ma Rainey died of a heart attack in 1939 but her story and music is constantly revitalized. Rainey’s life story inspired the 1982 play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a reference to one of her songs of the same name. The song is a cheeky reference referring not just to Rainey’s body but also to a Black neighborhood in Detroit that held such a nickname.
The play is part of a larger series by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson ,which documents the African American experience in the 20th century. 10 plays each represent a different decade from the 1900s and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom chronicles life in the roaring 20’s and Harlem Renaissance.
The play itself centers around a recording session in Chicago and sees Ma Rainey standing up to white record label executives and exposing the absurd double-standards of racism and misogyny in America.
The show made it to Broadway when it was published in the 80’s and was revived once again in the early 2000s, this time starring Whoopi Goldberg.
In 2020, the broadway show was adapted into a full-blown movie featuring stars Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman.
Over the years Ma Rainey’s influence continues to be increasingly recognized and renowned – her legacy during and after the Harlem Renaissance lives on in the many artists that continue to follow in her footsteps.
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