Ma Rainey - 'Mother Of The Blues'

Ma Rainey has been called "The Mother Of The Blues", and rightfully so.  She reportedly was singing the blues as early as 1902.  Born as Gertrude Malissa Nix Bridgett in 1886, she was married to Will Rainey in 1904.  They were known for a time as "Rainey and Rainey: Assassinators of the Blues".  Will Rainey was long gone by the time Ma Rainey made her first recording in 1923.  Between 1923 and, 1928 she recorded 94 songs plus 28 alternate takes.

Ma Rainey was a powerful singer who stuck to blues and near-blues throughout her career, with just a few exceptions. While not as versatile as Bessie Smith, there is a good amount of variety on these performances, both in Rainey’s interpretations of the material and her accompanying bands.

Heard along the way are such notables as Lovie Austin’s Blues Serenaders (with excellent playing from cornetist Tommy Ladnier and clarinetist Jimmy O’Bryant), three groups drawn from the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (with Louis Armstrong appearing on the session that result in Rainey’s greatest hit “See See Rider” and Coleman Hawkins featured on baritone), trombonist Albert Wynn, Doc Cheatham (on soprano sax rather than trumpet), pianists Jimmy Blythe and Georgia Tom Dorsey, guitarists Blind Blake and Tampa Red, trombonist Kid Ory, and banjoist Papa Charlie Jackson who also sings during the final two songs that Ma Rainey recorded.

Family problems resulted in her largely retiring after 1928 and missing being part of the hokum fad with Georgia Tom Dorsey and Tampa Red.  By the early 1930s, female blues singing became less popular with blues audiences, and she retired from performing in 1933, settling down in her hometown of Columbus.

In 1939, Ma Rainey died of a heart attack.  She left behind an enormous recorded legacy, which continued to move and influence successive generations of blues, country, and rock & roll musicians.  In 1983, she was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame; seven years later, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Today's freeload 'Mother Of The Blues' is a 5CD set released by the JSP label in 2007.  Ma Rainey recorded exclusively for Paramount, a label infamous for its awful recording, and poor quality shellac records, which sounded distant and noisy.  JSP's remastered versions are listenable, and all things considered pretty good for the era.  This box, clocking in at over 5 1/2 hours, has just about everything Ma Rainey left us

For the freeload, what are some of your favorite lyrics that are double entendres.