Ma Rainey/Liberty Theater District endanged again

[Will Dockery]

[QUOTE who="Smiths Station Panthers"]<quoted text>
I don't think that is what that poster was trying to do. I know the area in
Columbus that he is talking about and I don't see anything wrong with
emphasizing the history of the Liberty Theater and Ma Rainy and the blues
history in Columbus. Its is a part of the local history here along with
building ironclads, The Springer Opera House and the invention of Coke in
Columbus, not Atlanta.
[/QUOTE]

Ma Rainey is a huge part of our Columbus Georgia history, as well as
American Musical History... Ma Rainey, after all, was "The Mother of the
Blues":

http://pennyspoetry.wikia.com/wiki/Ma_Rainey

Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 - December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest known
American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such
singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.

She began performing at the age of 12 or 14, and recorded under the name Ma
Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. Touring as Rainey and
Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in
1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them
include, Bo-weevil Blues (1923), Moonshine Blues (1923), See See Rider
(1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).

Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic
disposition, majestic phrasing, and a 'moaning' style of singing similar to
folk tradition.

Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis
Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band.
Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.

Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia, child of
Thomas and Ella (Allen) Pridgett, from Alabama. She had at least two
brothers and a sister named Malissa, with whom Gertrude was later confused
in some sources. She came onto the performance scene at a talent show in
Columbus, Georgia when she was 12-14 years old. Around 1902 she was first
exposed to blues music,They sang and danced together in Black minstrel
shows, and for several years toured with F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot
Minstrels From 1914, the Raineys were billed as Rainey and Rainey,
Assassinators of the Blues.

In New Orleans she met musicians including Joe "King" Oliver, Louis
Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Pops Foster. Blues music increased in
popularity and Ma Rainey became well known for songs such as "Bad Luck
Blues", "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". She made more than 100 more
over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South. Paramount
marketed her extensively, calling her "the Mother of the Blues", "the
Songbird of the South", "the Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues" and "the
Paramount Wildcat". In 1924 she made some recordings with Louis Armstrong,
including "Jelly Bean Blues", "Countin' the Blues" and "See, See Rider".

In 1924 she embarked on a tour of the Theater Owners Booking Association
throughout the South and Midwestern United States, singing both for black
and white audiences. She was accompanied by bandleader and pianist Thomas
Dorsey, and the band he assembled called the Wildcats Jazz Band which
included Eddie Pollack, Gabriel Washington, Albert Wynn and David Nelson.
They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and
continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926 due to ill
health and was replaced as pianist by Lillian Hardaway Henderson, the wife
of Rainey's cornetist Fletcher Henderson, who became the band's leader.

In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran
two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome",until her death from a heart
attack in 1939 in Rome, Georgia.
In 1983, Rainey was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame and
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990

--
Music & poetry from Will Dockery & The Shadowville All-Stars:
http://www.reverbnation.com/willdockery