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Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African American artist to make vocal blues recordings. Willie "The Lion" Smith (no relation) described the background of that recording in his autobiography, ''Music on My Mind'' (1964). Early life Robinson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1891. The year of her birth has previously been given as 1883, but in 2018, researcher John Jeremiah Sullivan discovered her birth certificate stating she was born in Cincinnati in 1891. When she was around 10 years old, she found work touring with a white act, the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's ''Smart Set''. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married William "Smitty" Smith, a singer. Musical career On Februar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classic Female Blues
Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles and were the first blues to be recorded. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, and the other singers in this genre were instrumental in spreading the popularity of the blues. History Origin Blues, a type of black folk music originating in the American South, were mainly in the form of work songs until about 1900.Fabre and Feith 2001, p. 100. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939), known as "The Mother of the Blues”, is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902. Rainey had heard a woman singing about the man she had lost, learned the song, and began using it as her closing number, calli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Bradford
Perry Bradford (February 14, 1893, Montgomery, Alabama – April 20, 1970, New York City) was an American composer, songwriter, and vaudeville performer. His most notable songs included "Crazy Blues," "That Thing Called Love," and "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down." He was nicknamed "Mule" because of his stubbornness, and he is credited with finally persuading Okeh Records to work with Mamie Smith leading to her historic blues recording in 1920. Biography Bradford grew up in Atlanta, where his family moved when he was six, and in 1906 started working in minstrel shows. He played in Chicago as a solo pianist as early as 1909 and visited New York City the following year. Through extensive experience with traveling minstrel shows and theatre companies, Bradford obtained exposure to African-American folksongs. Bradford broke down walls of racial prejudice that had kept African-American singers from recording. Prior to Bradford's influence, African-American artists recorded in a styl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. With an estimated population of 2,256,884, it is Ohio's largest metropolitan area and the nation's 30th-largest, and with a city population of 309,317, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and 64th in the United States. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population, surpassed only by New Orleans and the older, established settlements of the United States eastern seaboard, as well as being the sixth-most populous city from 1840 until 1860. As a rivertown crossroads at the junction of the North, South, East, and West, Cincinnati developed with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Race Record
Race records were 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between the 1920s and 1940s.Oliver, Paul. "Race record." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Feb. 2015. They primarily contained race music, comprising various African-American musical genres, blues, jazz, and gospel music, Rhythm and blues and also comedy. These records were, at the time, the majority of commercial recordings of African American artists in the U.S., and few African American artists were marketed to white audiences. Race records were marketed by Okeh Records, Emerson Records, Vocalion Records, Victor Talking Machine Company, Paramount Records, and several other companies. History Before the rise of the record industry in America, the cost of phonographs prevented most African Americans from listening to recorded music. At the turn of the twentieth century, the cost of listening to music went down, providing a majority of Americans with the ability to afford records. The prim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porter Grainger
Porter Grainger ( Granger; October 22, 1891 − October 30, 1948) was an American pianist, songwriter, playwright, and music publisher. Biography When Grainger was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Granger family name did not include an "i". Although the exact date at which Grainger changed his name is unknown, he registered for the World War I draft by signing his name "Grainger". At that time, he was living in Chicago, and by 1916, he had begun his professional career. In the spring of 1920 he left Chicago for New York City, and by 1924, he was living in Harlem. Working with another pianist and composer Bob Ricketts, in 1926, Grainger wrote and published the book ''How to Play and Sing the Blues Like the Phonograph and Stage Artists''. Though he would never really be known as an exceptional soloist in his own right, Grainger thrived as an accompanist, working with singers such as Fannie May Goosby, Viola McCoy, Clara Smith, and Victoria Spivey. From 1924 to 1928, he w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Dunn
Johnny Dunn (February 19, 1897 – August 20, 1937) was an American traditional jazz trumpeter and vaudeville performer, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He is probably best known for his work during the 1920s with musicians such as Perry Bradford or Noble Sissle. He has been compared in sound and style to both King Oliver and Louis Armstrong. In 1922, he recorded as a member of Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, together with Garvin Bushell, Coleman Hawkins, Everett Robbins, Bubber Miley and Herb Flemming. As bandleader As a bandleader, he led the following lineups: *Johnny Dunn's Original Jazz Hounds (1921-3): Perry Bradford, Herschel Brassfield, Elmer Chambers, Charlie Dixon, Earl Granstaff, Ernest Ellis, Herb Flemming, Robert Horton, Harry Hull, Charles E. Jackson, George Mitchell, Rollen Smith, Dan Wilson, Sam Wooding, George Rickson, and Bob Ricketts (arranger) *Johnny Dunn and his Jazz Band (1923): Sam Speed, Leroy Tibbs, others unknown *Johnny Dunn and his Origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garvin Bushell
Garvin Bushell ''(né'' Garvin Lamont Payne; September 25, 1902 – October 31, 1991) was an American woodwind multi-instrumentalist. Biography Bushell was born in Springfield, Ohio, to Alexander Payne, Jr. (1875–1908) and Effie Penn ''(maiden;'' 1879–1968). After his father's death, his mother – on January 12, 1910, in Covington, Kentucky – married Rev. Joseph Davenport Bushell (1878–1960). Garvin adopted the surname of his stepfather. Bushell played both jazz and classical music on clarinet, alto clarinet, oboe, english horn, flute, saxophone, bassoon, and contrabassoon. He was best known as a jazz sideman with people such as Perry Bradford, and performed and/or recorded with many of jazz's great names, such as Fletcher Henderson, Bunk Johnson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Eric Dolphy, Gil Evans, and John Coltrane. Bushell eventually settled in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he worked as a music teacher. Family Bushell – on July 24, 1923, in Manhattan – marrie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, Oregon, Multnomah County, the most populous county in Oregon. Portland had a population of 652,503, making it the List of United States cities by population, 26th-most populated city in the United States, the sixth-most populous on the West Coast of the United States, West Coast, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle. Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area, Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the List of metropolitan statistical areas, 25th most populous in the United States. About half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area. Named after Portland, Maine, the Oregon settlement began to be po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Smith was young when her parents died, and she and her six siblings survived by performing on street corners. She began touring and performed in a group that included Ma Rainey, and then went out on her own. Her successful recording career with Columbia Records began in 1923, but her performing career was cut short by a car crash that killed her at the age of 43. Biography Early life The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. The 1910 census gives her age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ajax Records
Ajax Records was a record company and label founded in 1921. Jazz and blues records were produced in New York City, with some in Montreal, and marketed via the Ajax Record Company of Chicago. History Ajax was a subsidiary of the Compo Company of Lachine, Quebec. Although a U.S. trademark on the name "Ajax" was filed in 1921, Ajax did not issue its first record until October 1923. The head of Ajax Records was H. S. Berliner, son of disc record pioneer Emile Berliner. Berliner's corporate headquarters were in Quebec City, Quebec, although U.S. issues listed the company as being based in Chicago, Illinois, where its U.S. office was located, but apparently no recording studio. Ajax is known to have used Compo's recording studios in Montreal and New York City. In addition to the sides which Ajax recorded themselves, the label also issued discs pressed from masters leased from New York Recording Laboratories and the Regal Record Company. The last Ajax released was in August 1925. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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