Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith: Two Legendary Classical Blues Artists Essay

The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical abidance in the proto(prenominal) twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar cloth and three-lined stanzas its roots are based in early African-American songs, much(prenominal) as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a drab mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including authoritative, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this newspaper is to focus on the careers of two of stainless blues most powerful and legendary singers Ma Rainey and Bessie smith.Ma Rainey, considered by many to be the scram of the Blues, was maven of the first pioneers of the classical blues style. She sang with a deep, rich, and preferably frequently rough contralto voice while the voices of her contemporaries a generation later were more harmonious. Rainey was an important figure in connecting the Classical blues, largely female dominated, with the predominately male Country blues.1Born Gertrude Prid gett in gallium in 1886 to parents who had both performed in the minstrel shows, she was exposed to music at a very early age. At the age of fourteen, she performed in a local talent show called The Bunch of Blackberries, and by 1900 she was regularly tattle in public.2 Over the next couple of decades, she worked in a categorisation of traveling minstrel shows, including Tollivers Circus and Musical Extravaganza, and the Rabbit understructure Minstrels she was one of the first women to incorporate the blues into minstrelsy. It was while working with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels that she met William Rainey, whom she married in 1904 together, they toured as Ma and Pa Rainey Assassinators of the Blues. By the early 1920s, she was a star of the Theater Owners Booking Agency (TOBA), which were white-... ...line of Smiths career and in Classical blues, in general was due to changing trends in music. Classical blues was out, and Swing was now the music of choice. Smith, however, wa s determined to make a comeback. She began performing again, this time labeling herself as a Swing singer. But in the beginning she could re-establish herself as a household name, she passed away from injuries caused by an automobile accident. It was non until some years after her death that her music began to be favoriteized again. Her recordings with Armstrong became popular among jazz musicians and had great influence on singers such as Billie Holiday, who often listened to Smiths records for inspiration. Frank Sinatra held her in high esteem, and Janis Joplin often emulated Smiths voice in her singing. Bessie Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1939.