5 Famous Black Women in Blues Music
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In honor of Black History Month, we’re highlighting 5 famous black women in blues music. From Bessie Smith to Aretha Franklin, these women have made a huge impact on the genre and are truly legends.
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was one of the first generation of blues singers to be recorded, and she was one of the most influential performers of her time. She was born in 1886 in Columbus, Georgia, and began her career in the early 1900s, touring with black vaudeville shows. Ma Rainey was a powerful singer with a deep, resonant voice, and she was a master of the blues vocal style known as “moaning.” Her records were hugely popular, and she influenced a generation of singers, including Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.
Life and career
Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, in 1886. Her father, Thomas D. Paisley, was a Baptist minister; her mother, Ella Allen Pridgett, was a trained musician and singer. Rainey began singing at the age of 14 and soon after started touring with local minstrel and medicine shows. In 1905 she moved to Augusta, Georgia, where she worked briefly as a restless young woman with an ambition to sing professionally on the stage.
In 1906 she married Will Rainey, with whom she had performed in minstrel shows; they adopted the surname Rainey and began working together as a team. The couple eventually settled in Chicago, where they performed regularly atResearch Article clubs such as the 63rd Street Club and the Dreamland Café. Ma Rainey’s first recording was made in 1923 for the Paramount label; it was around this time that she began working with Louis Armstrong, who would become one of her most famous collaborators.
Over the next decade Ma Rainey recorded nearly 100 songs for Paramount; her recordings from this period include such classics as “See See Rider” and “Boogie Woogie Blues”. In 1935 she retired from show business and returned to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia; she died there five years later, at the age of 53.
Contribution to blues music
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest African American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as the “Mother of the Blues”. She began performing as a teenager and recorded approximately 85 songs between 1923 and 1928. Her recordings were released by Paramount Records and helped to launch the careers of other jazz and blues musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Clora Bryant, and Bessie Smith.
Rainey was known for her powerful vocalizations, her inventive phrasing, and her dynamic presence onstage. Her vocal style influenced other blues singers, such as Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. As a result of her influence on subsequent generations of singers, music critics have referred to Rainey as “Mother of the Blues”.
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer. She is often referred to as the “Empress of the Blues.” She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1894. Bessie’s career in the music industry began when she was discovered by vaudeville star Ma Rainey.
Life and career
Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 15, 1894. orphaned at an early age, she and her brother were taken in by an aunt, who ran a brothel. As a young woman, Smith worked as a maid and later as a prostitute. It was through these jobs that she was exposed to the music that would shape her career.
In 1912, she met Ma Rainey, one of the most successful black entertainers of the time. Rainey took Smith under her wing and helped her develop her singing style. In 1920, Smith made her recorded debut with Rainey on the song “Down Hearted Blues.” The record was an instant hit and established Smith as a major talent.
Over the next decade, Smith became one of the most popular performers in the United States. She toured extensively and recorded more than 160 songs. Her hits included “St. Louis Blues” (1925), “Black Bottom” (1927), and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (1929).
In the early 1930s, the Great Depression brought an end to Smith’s success. Her recordings were no longer selling, and she was forced to cut back on her touring. In 1937, she was in a car accident near Clarksdale, Mississippi. She died from her injuries on September 26th at the age of 43
Contribution to blues music
Bessie Smith was an African American blues singer. She is often referred to as the “Empress of the Blues”. She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is a major figure in the development of blues music. Her vocal style influenced many other blues and jazz singers.
Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 15, 1894. Her parents were William and Laura Smith. She had seven brothers and sisters. Her father was a minister in the Church of God in Christ. When Bessie was nine years old, her parents died in a fire, and she went to live with her older sister Viola in Pennsylvania. Viola was married to Jack Gee, a successful vaudeville comedian. Bessie began touring with Gee’s revue when she was eighteen years old.
In 1923, she made her first recordings for Columbia Records. These records were very popular, and she soon became one of the highest-paid black performers of her time. In addition to her recordings, she also toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe.
Bessie Smith died on September 26, 1937, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, after a car accident. She was forty-three years old.
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American singer and songwriter who was one of the most influential blues musicians of her time. She was known for her unique vocal style and her ability to convey emotion in her music. Holiday had a difficult life, and her music often reflected the struggles she faced.
Life and career
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, as well as her controversial life off the stage.
Born in Philadelphia, Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem where she was heard by the producer John Hammond who commended her voice. She signed a recording contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”, which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall but her reputation deteriorated because of her drug and alcohol problems.
Though she signed another record contract with Verve in 1957, financial difficulties continued to plague her. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959.
Contribution to blues music
Billie Holiday was an American jazz and blues singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, as well as her controversial life off the stage.
Holiday began singing in nightclubs in Harlem, where she was heard by the producer John Hammond, who commended her voice. She signed a contract with Brunswick in 1935. Collaborations with Teddy Wilson yielded the hit “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”, which became a jazz standard. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. By the late 1940s however, she was beset with legal troubles and drug abuse. After a short prison sentence, she performed at a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall, but her worsening health prevented further progress.
Holiday’s final recordings were met with mixed reaction, owing to her deteriorated voice, but were mild commercial successes. Her final album Lady in Satin (1958) was released posthumously to widespread critical acclaim; Holiday herself was too ill to participate in its promotion before she died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959.
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success. After signing with Atlantic Records in 1966, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect”, “A Natural Woman” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)”. These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul by the end of the 1960s.
Life and career
Aretha Franklin was born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Barbara (née Sigmon) and Clarence LaVaughn “C. L.” Franklin. She had four sisters: Erma, Carolyn, Carolyn’s twin sister Louise, and Ruth; and two brothers: Vaughn and Cecil. After her mother died when she was 10, Aretha and her siblings fell into poverty. living without running water or electricity in a small wood-frame house on Clarkson Street in Buffalo’s East Side. When Aretha was 12, her father began managing her career as a gospel singer. At the age of 18 she married Ted White, becoming a mother to four sons before she turned 20: Clarence Jr., Edward Teddy Richards), Theodore Roosevelt “Teddy”White Jr., and Kecalf Cunningham .
In 1961, Aretha signed with Columbia Records after being courted by John Hammond who had previously worked with her father on some of his recordings from the 1940s. Her first release for Columbia was “The Righteous Brothers'” African-Americanized version of “Carole King”‘s “Natural Woman”, which reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The success of the single established Aretha’s name in the music industry. Two years later she released I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You which topped the charts; its title track also reached number-one. After a string of hits including “Respect”, “Chain of Fools”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, and “I Say a Little Prayer”, Aretha left Columbia in 1967 for Atlantic Records. She enjoyed more commercial success with Atlantic including her signature song “Respect”, which spent two weeks at number one on the Hot 100 chart in 1967; it earned Franklin a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording as well as becoming an anthem for both the Civil Rights Movement and feminist movement . She became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when she was inducted in 1987
Contribution to blues music
Though she is most famous for her soul music and R&B hits, Aretha Franklin began her career singing blues. In fact, Franklin’s first two albums were predominately blues albums. It was only after she was signed to Atlantic Records that she began to experiment with other genres of music. Even so, the blues has always been a central part of Franklin’s music. Her clear, powerful voice is well-suited for the blues, and many of her greatest hits incorporate elements of the genre. Aretha Franklin is one of the most important figures in blues music, and her contributions have helped to shape the sound of the genre.
Etta James
Etta James was an American singer who performed in a variety of genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, and jazz. She is considered one of the greatest blues singers of all time. James was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1938. Her father, an African American, was a sharecropper. Her mother, a white woman, was a housewife. James had a tumultuous childhood, which included being sexually abused by a family friend and running away from home at the age of 14. Despite these hardships, James went on to have a successful career in music.
Life and career
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California, to Dorothy Hawkins, who was 14 years old at the time. She had no knowledge of her father, a teenager named Arthur James. Dorothy dealt heroin and was frequently in and out of prison for the crime; James’ early years were spent with multiple foster families, as well as back with her mother on welfare in Los Angeles’ South Central neighborhoods.
When James was seven years old, she and her mother were living in one such house with two other families. The arrangement proved unsatisfactory for all involved, and Dorothy Hawkins took her daughter and moved to San Francisco’s Fillmore district, where they joined the Pentecostal church. There, James began singing gospel music at the age of eight in the choir at the Church of God in Christ congregation on McAllister Street; she would often sneak out of Sunday school to listen to performers such as Sarah Vaughan and Mahalia Jackson at nearby clubs like Jimbo’s Bop City.
Contribution to blues music
Etta James was an American singer who performed in a wide variety of genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Throughout her career, James released 25 studio albums, won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Born in Los Angeles in 1938, James began her musical career singing with The Creole Jazz Band at the age of 14. In 1955, she made her first recordings with Chess Records, which would go on to release the majority of her work. One of her most famous songs, “At Last,” was released in 1961 and quickly became a hit, cementing her place as one of the preeminent voices in blues music.
Throughout her career, James continued to evolve as an artist, branching out into different genres and experimenting with various sounds. In the 1970s, she began incorporating more rock and roll elements into her music, as well as experimenting with funk. In the 1980s and 1990s, James enjoyed a resurgence in popularity due to several successful tours and album releases.
Etta James passed away in 2012 at the age of 73. Her legacy continues to live on through her music, which has been influential to generations of musicians since she first burst onto the scene in the 1950s.
