Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939), known as “The Mother of the Blues”, is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902.
Who was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s?
Apr 15, 1894 – Sep 26, 1937 – Bessie Smith was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.
How did Bessie Smith influence the blues?
With her subsequent recordings, Smith was one of the artists who propelled the fledgling “race records” market of music targeted to black audiences that had launched a few years earlier in 1920 with Mamie Smith’s hit “Crazy Blues.” Through the rest of the 1920s, Bessie Smith became one of the earliest stars of recorded
What year was the first race record released?
Johnson, a whistler who is widely believed to be the first black artist ever to record commercially, in 1890.
Where did blues music get its structure from?
Blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861–65). It was influenced by work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, church music, and the folk and popular music of the white population.
What two later American musical forms emerged from this blues evolution?
African American slaves on southern plantations cultivated their own musical styles, which later evolved into gospel, blues, and what is now known as bluegrass and country music.
What did Duke Ellington do?
Duke Ellington was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader of his time. One of the originators of big-band jazz, he led his band for more than 50 years and composed thousands of scores.
What happened Ma Rainey?
In 1935, Rainey returned to her home town, Columbus, Georgia, and became the proprietress of three theatres, the Liberty in Columbus, and the Lyric and the Airdrome in Rome, Georgia, until her death. She died of a heart attack in 1939.
Who played Bessie Smith?
Queen Latifah plays blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO movie Bessie. A Mississippi car accident in 1937 cut short the life of Bessie Smith. She was just 43 years old.
Where does Ragtime come from?
Ragtime evolved in the playing of honky-tonk pianists along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the last decades of the 19th century. It was influenced by minstrel-show songs, African American banjo styles, and syncopated (off-beat) dance rhythms of the cakewalk, and also elements of European music.
Who was the most popular blues woman of the 1920s and 1930s?
| Bessie Smith | |
|---|---|
| Smith in 1936 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Empress of the Blues |
| Born | April 15, 1894 Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S. |
Who was the first black female singer?
In 1920, jazz singer Mamie Smith released a record called “Crazy Blues.” She was the first Black female singer to record and release a blues song.
Why is WC Handy recognized as the father of blues?
Why is W.C. Handy recognized as the “Father of Blues?” He dedicated his time and career to documenting the blues. Which female performer was one of the earliest professional blues singers and is called the “Mother of the Blues”?
Who is a famous blues singer?
| Name | Birth year | Primary style |
|---|---|---|
| Blind Lemon Jefferson | 1893 | Country blues |
| Blind Willie Johnson | 1897 | Gospel blues |
| Edith North Johnson | 1903 | Classic female blues |
| Lonnie Johnson | 1899 | Urban blues |
What did they call black music during the time?
At the start of the 18th Century, work songs, developed from African traditions, were commonplace in enslaved communities. Field hollers, chain gang songs and corn ditties were the predecessors to ‘spirituals’, the ‘call-and-response’ singing style forming the blueprint for many strands of Black music that followed.
What is the stage name of Eleanora Fagan?
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing.
What did Bessie Smith sing about?
Smith’s subject matter was the classic material of the blues: poverty and oppression, love—betrayed or unrequited—and stoic acceptance of defeat at the hands of a cruel and indifferent world. She was known for her rich contralto voice and her breathtaking emotional intensity.
Who wrote St Louis blues?
W. C. Handy
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