Ma Rainey
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Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of souther
Rainey in 1917
Rainey and the band
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a 1982 play by August Wilson, set in a recording studio in 1920s Chicago, during a recording session of the titular song by the blues singer Ma Rainey. The play deals with
Ma Rainey
…everywhere would hear her sing. In 1981, Sandra Lieb wrote the first full-length book about Rainey titled Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a 1982 play by August Wilson, is a fictionalized account of a recording of her song of the same title set in 1927. Theresa Merritt and Whoopi Goldberg…
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
A performance in 2009