Ma Rainey: Mother of the Blues

A tough, forthright woman blessed with a powerful, earthy voice and a deep soulfulness, Ma Rainey waxed a remarkable body of songs between 1923 and 1938. All 111 of those songs, including alternate takes, can be found on JSP’s exhaustive 5-CD Ma Rainey - Mother Of The Blues box set. Rainey was extremely consistent throughout her five-year recording career making this set particularly worthwhile and listenable. It didn’t hurt that the quality of her songs is consistently high and lyrically interesting plus she was backed by outstanding musicians like Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Coleman Hawkins, Tommy Ladnier, Kid Ory and on later sides by Georgia Tom and Tampa Red.

For an artist of her stature Rainey hasn’t been well served in the reissue market no doubt because of the poor quality of the original Paramount 78’s. It’s one of the great blues ironies or tragedy’s if you will, that while Paramount recorded some of the greatest blues of the era the quality of their pressings was notoriously bad. Compounding the problem were the popularity of the discs which means existing copies are often quite worn. Prior to the JSP box all of Rainey’s recordings could be found on five volumes on Document with adequate sound. JSP hasn’t performed any miracles with their transfers but have managed some worthwhile noise reduction, sometimes subtle, occasionally fairly significant, all in the service of bringing out Rainey’s vocals with better clarity. Formerly muffled numbers sound clearer and the consistent hiss, while still present, has been submerged. Songs that show improvement are “Slave To The Blues”, “Titanic Man Blues”, “Seeking The Blues”, “Dead Drunk Blues”, “Damper Down Blues”, “Booze And Blues”, “Honey Where You Been So Long”, “Bo-Weavil Blues”, “Cell Bound Blues”, “Stormy Sea Blues”, “Misery Blues” among several others.

Many of the early woman blues singers had a strong vaudevillian streak but Rainey’s output is dominated by the blues, something by her own account she added to her act in 1902. Like Charlie Patton did, Rainey’s was a decidedly downhome southern viewpoint, no doubt really connecting with southern audience on songs about the Bo-Weavil (”Bo-Weavil Blues”), Hoo-Doo (”Southern Blues”, “Louisiana Hoo-Doo Blues”, “Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues”), jail (”Chain Gang Blues”, “Cell Bound Blues”), plus self explanatory numbers like “Levee Camp Moan”, “Log Camp Blues” and “Moonshine Blues.” Rainey tackled a wide range of topics in a poetic, direct, and sometime arresting fashion; sexuality in “Sissy Man Blues”, “Don’t Fish In My Sea”, the lesbian proclamation of “Prove It to Me Blues”, prostitution in “Hustlin’ Blues”, spousal violence in “Black Eye Blues” and “Sweet, Rough Man.” While there’s a somber tone to much of the music she had innate sense of swing, showcased on numbers like “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, “Hellish Rag” and “Hear Me Talking to You.” As mentioned Rainey was blessed with better bands than most female singers; there were the great horn players mentioned above, jug groups and guitarists like Miles Pruitt, Blind Blake and Tampa Red on a terrific batch of sides from 1928 at the tail end of Rainey’s recording career. Spending time with this box set also makes clear Rainey’s influence, not only recording songs that became standards like “See See Rider” and “Bo-Weavil Blues” but also her influence on male country blues singers; “Booze And Blues” was transformed by Charlie Patton into “Tom Rushen Blues, “Last Minute Blues” echoed in Willie Brown’s “Future Blues” as well as lyrically influencing artists as diverse as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Hicks, Robert Johnson and others.

Ma Rainey - Mother Of The Blues ranks as one of JSP’s more impressive and important reissues. This is a set to savor with timeless music that retains a high artistic quality from start to finish, improved sound that brings Rainey’s magnificent voice closer to the surface and an unbeatable budget price. The only knock is that a set like this deserves a first class set of notes and Max Haymes’ booklet fails to deliver. It’s a odd mix of dry academic writing and fannish praise that fails to do justice to the material.

Booze And Blues (MP3)

Yonder Comes The Blues (MP3)

Black Eye Blues (MP3)