The Queen of Blues Music

Get an inside look at the life and career of the one and only, The Queen of Blues Music.

The Early Years

The Queen of the Blues, Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, on April 26, 1886. She began her career in her teens as a touring vaudeville performer. It was around this time that she adopted the stage name “Ma Rainey”, which was inspired by her marriage to Will Rainey, a fellow vaudeville performer.

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey

Gertrude “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 gained regional popularity for her recordings in the 1920s. She was the first black entertainer toTour interstate with a white band. In addition to her own recordings, she collaborated with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and other jazz musicians.

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 15, 1894. Her parents were William Smith, a laborer and part-time preacher, and Laura Smith, a housewife. Bessie had nine siblings, seven brothers and two sisters. When she was a child, her family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager she moved to Memphis, Tennessee to live with her older sister Viola.

Bessie began her singing career in 1912 when she started touring with Ma Rainey’s vaudeville act. In 1923 she made her first recordings for Columbia Records. Her first recordings were blues songs written by others such as “Downhearted Blues” and “Gulf Coast Blues”. Bessie also wrote some of her own songs such as “No Good Man” and “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair”.

Bessie’s records were very popular. She became one of the first African American celebrities and one of the highest paid performers of her time. Bessie toured the United States and Europe extensively throughout the 1920s and 1930s. She performed with many famous musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Lester Young.

Bessie died in 1937 at the age of 43 in Clarksdale, Mississippi after a car accident.

The Golden Age

The Queen of the Blues, Bessie Smith was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s. She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1894 and died in 1937. Bessie Smith began her career singing in vaudeville shows and eventually made her way to New York City where she recorded her first album in 1923. She went on to record over 160 songs and became one of the most successful blues singers of her time.

Billie Holiday

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, which made up for her limited range and lack of formal music education.

Holiday’s influential vocal style continued to be recognized long after her death. In 1972, Robert Goulding wrote in The Jazz Record that Holiday was “the most important jazz singer of her time – indeed all time”. In 2017, NPR declared that “there’s no voice more associated with the blues than Billie Holiday’s”. She won four Grammy Awards, all posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame both as a singersongwriter (“Strange Fruit”, 1944) and as a musician (“Lady Sings the Blues”, 1956).

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald was an American singer who flourished in the jazz and big band world during the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, latterly finding particular acclaim singing the First Lady of Song title she was given in the 1950s. A versatile vocalist able to scat sing and belt out ballads with equal aplomb, Fitzgerald was as comfortable with pop tunes as she was with classical standards, making her one of the most popular and respected singers of her generation.

Born in 1917 in Newport News, Virginia – although she would later claim 1918 as her birth year – Fitzgerald moved to Yonkers, New York as a child following the death of her father. There she found herself in a children’s home before being taken in by an aunt. It was during her teenage years that Fitzgerald started to display an interest and aptitude for singing; appearing amateur nights at various Harlem clubs, including the Apollo Theater.

The Modern Era

There are not many people in the music industry who have had such a profound and lasting impact as the Queen of Blues music. She has been a force to be reckoned with ever since she stepped into the music scene and has continued to influence the industry even in the modern era. Let’s take a look at how she has managed to stay relevant in the modern era.

Etta James

Etta James is a legendary figure in the world of blues music. She rose to prominence in the 1950s with her critically acclaimed album At Last!, which showcased her powerful vocal style and earned her a place in the pantheon of great blues singers. James continued to release successful albums throughout her career, including several that reached the top of the charts, and she remained an active performer until her final years. Her legacy as one of the all-time greats of blues music is secure, and she has influence numerous subsequent generations of singers.

Janis Joplin

In the late 1960s, Janis Joplin helped to usher in a new era of blues music. Drawing influence from the likes of Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, Joplin combined elements of blues, soul, and rock to create a sound that was all her own. Her distinctive style made her one of the most popular singers of her time, and she is still considered one of the greatest blues musicians of all time.

Born in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas, Joplin started playing guitar and singing in local clubs as a teenager. In 1966, she moved to San Francisco, where she became a member of the experimental rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. The band’s debut album, 1967’s Cheap Thrills, featured Joplin’s gritty vocals on classics like “Piece of My Heart” and “Ball and Chain.” The record was a huge success, and Joplin quickly established herself as a powerful live performer.

In 1968, Joplin left Big Brother to pursue a solo career. She released her first album, Cheap Thrills (1968), which went on to become one of the best-selling records of all time. Over the next few years, she continued to release successful albums and singles, including “Me and Bobby McGee” (1971) and “Mercedes Benz” (1971). tragically died of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 27. Despite her short career, Joplin left a lasting legacy as one of the most important figures in blues history.

The Legacy

The impact of the blues on popular music

The blues has been a major influence on subsequent genres of music, including jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and country music. The blues also served as a major influence on the development of African American culture, shaping the musical styles of R&B and hip hop and influencing the spoken-word styles of rap and hip hop.