Gertrude Pridgett or better recognized as Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was one of the many famous women blues singers. She was called “Mother of the Blue’s since she was the first true blues singer and one of the female singers that performed the blues in minstrel and vaudeville shows. She was the first female to record the blues professionally when she signed a recording contract with Paramount in 1923. Between the years 1923 and 1928 she recorded 100 songs on Paramount records. In 1983, Gertrude Rainy was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blue Hall of Fame.
Bessie Smith was another one of the famous blues singers of the 1920s and 30s and was called the “Empress of the Blues.” She began her professional career in the year 1912 when she joined the Rabbit Foot Minstrels led by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey. Before long she signed with Columbia’s records and had major hits called Down Hearted Blues and Gulf Coast Blues. She went on to record more then 150 songs. Some were so popular that as many as 150,000 copies sold in a week. Her broad expressive range was only one of her many qualities that made her an outstanding blues singer.
A popular blues singer in the 1920s was Ida Cox. She was only 14 when she joined traveling vaudeville shows. Ida began a recording contract in 1923 with Paramount. Her first blues recordings were called “Graveyard Dream Blues” and Weary Way Blues.” She wrote many of her own songs. She often recorded songs for Paramount with her Blues pianist husband Jesse Crump. Some of the songs she performed with her husband were Bone Orchard Blues, Black Crepe Blues and Worn Down Daddy.
Alberta Hunter was one the famous women blues singers. Her career flourished in the 1920s and 30s. She was a songwriter as well as a blues singer. She wrote Downhearted Blues in 1923 for Bessie Smith and it was a big hit. Alberta also appeared in New York and London clubs and on stage in musicals. Her recording career began in New York in 1921 where she recorded for the Black Swan Label. In 1922 she started to record with Paramount. In 1927 she went to Europe where she sang in musical revues. She became famous there and stayed for many years. In 1956 she retired from singing and became a nurse. She resumed her singing career in 1977.
Ethel Waters was also one of the famous women blues singers. At seventeen, Ethel was discovered by Braxton and Nugent when they heard her sing at the apartments where she was employed. They paid her $10.00 a week to work in their vaudeville unit. She had a low and clear voice and audiences felt her emotions when she sang. Between 1921 and 1924 she recorded songs for the Black Swan label. She was signed on with Columbia records in 1925. The type of voice she had gave her the ability to sing many different types of music including jazz. She also became a dramatic actress.
By: Wendy Pan
The 20th century music world has seen the entry of light and easy listening music with African-American jazz music. Originating in southern USA, jazz music is a combination of African and European music traditions. It puts together the use of blue notes, improvisation, syncopation and swing notes.
Jazz music was first used in reference to music from Chicago early in the 20th century. It has evolved in several other subgenres such as New Orleans Dixieland, big band-style swing, bebop, Afro-Cuban jazz, Brazilian jazz, jazz-rock fusion, and the more recent acid jazz.
The realm of jazz music was and still is predominantly associated with the American black community. These black musicians transitioning from banjos and tambourines learned to play European instruments such as the violin. Black slaves from early America used to sing and play music as a form of spiritual or ritualistic hymns.
After emancipation, employment opportunities for black slaves were very limited as segregation laws were still in force. Most of these black slaves found themselves in the entertainment industry as piano players and instrumentalists. They became low-cost entertainers as minstrels, vaudeville players, piano bar players, and marching band members. Soon, this kind of jazz music called Ragtime Jazz spread from the southern USA to other areas in the western and northern cities in USA.
Ragtime jazz became very popular in the early part of the century. Musician Jelly Roll Morton published the first ever jazz arrangement in print in 1915 with the title Jelly Roll Blues. This printed arrangement brought forth a new breed of musicians playing ragtime. Ragtime music moved on from red-light district bars and vaudeville shows to major concert locations such as the Carnegie Hall.
The first jazz record was recorded in 1913 by Society Orchestra, the first black group to come out with a record. Another group that came up with their very own jazz music recording is the “Original Dixieland Jazz Band”. Other bands followed suit, releasing jazz music recordings starting in 1917. In 1922, the most famous blues singer of the decade, Bessie Smith, also released her first recording. Also in the 1920s, Jelly Roll Morton played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and made history as the first mixed-race recording collaboration. Big bands like those of Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Earl Hines played the more prominent venues and paved the way for the development of big-band-style swing jazz.
Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter, band leader and singer, came to be known as the Ambassador of Jazz, what with his early innovations in jazz music. Swing music is considered to be popular dance music and is played from printed musical arrangements. Then came the bebop which focuses more on small groups and simple arrangements.
Throughout the years jazz music has always been preferred music genre among those who enjoy light and easy listening. There are radio stations that play only jazz music. Jazz music can be heard most everywhere hotel lounges, salons, concert halls, wedding receptions, Jazz music is perhaps also the most unique form of music as there are no two jazz music performances are ever the same.
By: Sayid Aksa