Mary Lou Williams: Night Life

Mary Lou Williams is probably the most important female African-American jazz pianist. Williams was also a fine songwriter and arranger and she worked with major figures in jazz including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Williams was born Mary Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1910.

Williams played with Duke Ellington’s band, The Washingtonians, in 1925. By the late Twenties she was pianist in the Andy Kirk’s band, “The Twelve Clouds of Joy.” While with Kirk, Williams supplied the band with the songs, “Cloudy,” and “Little Joe from Chicago.” Williams made her first recordings with Kirk in 1929/30 and recorded the piano solo sides, “Drag ‘Em” and “Night Life.” These solo sides would see Williams become a national name and brought her to the attention of Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey who all hired her as an arranger.

Williams became involved in the bebop movement of the Forties and wound up as a mentor of sorts for the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

In the Sixties, Williams began recording religious jazz music, and she continued recording prolifically until her death in 1981.

Williams best recordings can be heard on the following albums: “Mary Lou Williams Trio” (1944), “Signs of the Zodiac” (1945), “Piano Solos” (1946), “Black Christ of the Andes” (1964), “Zoning” (1974), “Mary Lou’s Mass” (1975), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1927-1940” (1995), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1944-1945” (1998) and The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1945-1947” (1999).

Ma Rainey Songs and Albums

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Bessie Smith was known as the “Empress of the Blues,” so it’s only fitting that her mentor and senior, Ma Rainey, should be forever remembered as “The Mother of the Blues.” Ma Rainey was born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, in 1886. She acquired the moniker, “Ma,” after she married William “Pa” Rainey in 1904.

Rainey began performing music when she was 12-years-old, and she and her husband eventually became members of the legendary touring ensemble, F.S. Walcott’s Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels. From 1914, the Raineys became known as “Rainey and Rainey, Assassins of the Blues.” Ma Rainey eventually met Bessie Smith, and she acted as a mentor for the younger singer.

Mamie Smith became the first African-American woman to make a blues record in 1920, and the sensation that her recording, “Crazy Blues,” stirred led to record companies searching out other African-American blues singers. Paramount discovered Rainey in1923, and enabled her to make her first recordings. She went to Chicago in late 1923 to make her first record “Bad Luck Blues,” Bo-Weevil Blues,” and “Moonshine Blues.”

Rainey would record over 100 sides for Paramount over the next five years. She was marketed as “Mother of the Blues” among other tags. In 1924, she recorded with the young Louis Armstrong on “See See Rider Blues,” “Jelly Bean Blues,” and “Countin’ the Blues.”

As the Thirties approached, Rainey’s brand of Vaudeville blues was beginning to lose popularity, and Paramount failed to renew her recording contract. Rainey died in Rome, Georgia, in 1939, of a heart attack.

Ma Rainey’s best recordings can be found on the following compilations: “Ma Rainey” (1974), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (1975), and “The Best of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey-Mother of the Blues” (2004).

Alberta Hunter Blues Singer/Blues Diva

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Alberta Hunter was one of the first female blues singers to record. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1895, and made her first recordings, “Bring Back the Joys/ How Long, Sweet Daddy, How Long,” in 1921, for the Black Swan label. By 1922, she had moved on to the Paramount label and established herself as one of the most prolific blues performers of the early Twenties.

Hunter continued to perform and record late into her long life. She died in New York City in 1984 and the age of 89. Among several compilation albums of Hunter’s music are “Complete Recorded Works” (Volumes 1-4) (1996) and “Young Alberta Hunter: The 20’s and 30’s” (1996).

Ethel Waters: Sweet Man Blues

Ethel Waters was one of the most popular African-American singers and actresses of the Twenties. She was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1896. Waters attained success of a level that saw her eventually become the highest-paid female entertainer of her day, an unheard of accomplishment for an African-American woman in the early years of the 20^th century.

Waters moved to New York in 1919, following several years of touring in vaudeville shows as a singer and a dancer. In 1921, she made her first recordings for Cardinal Records. Later, she switched to the African-American run Black Swan label, and recorded “Down Home Blues” which would be the first blues recording for the label. Waters recorded blues and vaudeville numbers for the label including “Oh Daddy,” “Royal Garden Blues,” “Jazzin’ Baby Blues,” “Sweet Man Blues,” and “Sugar.”

Waters appeared in a number of musical productions and films during the Twenties including, “Check and Double Check,” featuring Amos and Andy and Duke Ellington. By the end of the Thirties, she was a big star on Broadway.

In 1949, Waters received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for the film, “Pinky.” Waters died in 1977. A series of compilations called, “The Chronological Classics” are the best sources of her classic recordings.

Ethel Waters in 1940

Billie Holiday: Lady Day

Billie Holiday’s life is the stuff of jazz legend. She rose from poverty and abuse to become one of the biggest stars of jazz during the Thirties and Forties. Holiday was a great singer who did not possess a great voice. She employed her voice like a horn player would his horn, and had a reputation for taking mediocre songs and transforming them into greatness. Her singing style was influenced by Bessie Smith’s singing and Louis Armstrong’s trumpet playing. Fellow jazz musicians referred to her as simply, “Lady Day.”

Holiday was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1915. In 1933, she was discovered by the legendary John Hammond, talent scout extraordinaire. Hammond signed her to Columbia Records, and she recorded for some of the company’s subsidiary labels.

Despite being offered only mediocre material to record, she was supported by some of the finest musicians in jazz, including pianist Teddy Wilson and saxophonist, Lester Young, who would coin her “Lady Day” and become her closest friend and musical collaborator.

In 1937, Holiday toured with the Count Basie Orchestra and later joined Artie Shaw’s Orchestra. She stayed with Columbia Records until 1942, only leaving once for the Commodore label with which she recorded the classic and searing song about lynching, “Strange Fruit.” In 1942, she signed with Decca records and later ended up recording for Verve. One of her last sessions with Columbia produced the classic side, “God Bless the Child.”
In the late Forties, Holiday was convicted of heroin possession and spent several months in prison. Due to the conviction, she was unable to obtain a cabaret card, making it impossible for her to find work in New York City clubs. Suffering from both liver and heart disease, Billie Holiday died in a New York hospital, in 1959.

Holiday’s best recordings can be found on the following collections: “Lady Sings the Blues” (1956), “Songs for Distingue Lovers” (1958), “Lady in Satin” (1958), “The Billie Holiday Story” (1959), “The Golden Years” (1962), “Billie Holiday’s Greatest Hits” (1967), “Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944)” (2001), “Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday” (2001), “The Ultimate Collection” (2005), and “Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles” (2007).

Lady Day

Sippie Wallace: I'm a Mighty Tight Woman

Sippie Wallace was another of the early female blues singers who started her recording career in the Twenties on the heels of Mamie Smith’s 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues,” the first-ever blues recording. Wallace was born Beulah Thomas in Houston, Texas, in 1898.

Wallace made her first recordings for the Okeh label in 1924 with “Leaving Me Daddy is Hard to Do.” She enjoyed a number of hits with Okeh during the Twenties with the songs, “I’m a Mighty Tight Woman,” “Jack O Diamonds Blues,” “Dead Drunk Blues,” and “Lazy Man Blues.” Wallace, like Alberta Hunter and Ida Cox, would enjoy a lengthy career and continue to perform well into old age. Wallace died in Detroit in 1986.

Her music is best heard via the compilations, “Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1923-1925)” (1995) and “Complete Recorded Works, Vol.2 (1925-1945)”