Ma Rainey was an American blues singer born Gertrude Pridgett on April 26, 1886, in Columbus, Georgia. She began performing as a teenager in local stage shows, then entered the Black vaudeville and tent-show circuit, where she developed a direct, theatrical vocal style before marrying performer William “Pa” Rainey in 1904. The couple toured as Rainey and Rainey, “Assassinators of the Blues,” and by the 1910s Ma Rainey had become one of the best-known blues performers on the Southern circuit. In 1923, she signed with Paramount Records and began recording in Chicago, cutting early sides such as “Bo-Weevil Blues,” “Moonshine Blues” and “Bad Luck Blues.” Between 1923 and 1928, Ma Rainey recorded close to 100 titles, often with top jazz and blues musicians, including Louis Armstrong on her 1924 recording of “See See Rider Blues.” Her catalogue also included “Jelly Bean Blues,” “Countin’ the Blues,” “Chain Gang Blues,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Prove It on Me Blues” and “Black Eye Blues,” songs that linked vaudeville blues, classic female blues, early jazz and Southern blues expression. After Paramount ended her contract, she continued performing for several years, then returned to Columbus, where she operated theaters before her death on December 22, 1939. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, while “See See Rider Blues” entered the National Recording Registry in 2004 and she received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.
![Blues with the Masters of Jazz (Armstrong, Ory & More) [Remastered]](https://cdn-images.dzcdn.net/images/cover/44f5fb861fd19e78ff30207b0804a975/120x120-000000-80-0-0.jpg)
