Sara Martin (June 18, 1884 – May 24, 1955) was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, in her time one of the most popular of the classic blues singers. She was billed as "The Famous Moanin' Mama" and "The Colored

Sophie Tucker Sophie Tucker (born Sofia Kalish; January 13, 1886 – February 9, 1966) was an American singer, comedian, actress, and radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertaine ...

". She made many recordings, including a few under the names Margaret Johnson and Sally Roberts.

Biography

Martin was born Sara Dunn in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, and was singing on the

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

circuit by 1915.Harris 1994, p. 350. She was the daughter of William T. Dunn and Mary Katherine "Katie' Pope. She was married three times, the first marriage to Christopher Wooden when she was 16. Christopher Wooden died in 1901. Her second marriage was to Abe Burton. At the time of her death she was married to Hayes Buford Withers. She began a successful recording career when she was signed by

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

in 1922. Through the 1920s she toured and recorded with such performers as

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

, Clarence Williams,

King Oliver Joseph Nathan "King" Oliver (December 19, 1881 – April 8/10, 1938) was an American jazz cornet player and bandleader. He was particularly recognized for his playing style and his pioneering use of mutes in jazz. Also a notable composer, he wr ...

, and Sylvester Weaver. She was among the most-recorded of the classic blues singers. She was possibly the first to record the famous blues song " 'T'aint Nobody's Bus'ness if I Do", with Waller on piano, in 1922. On stage she was noted for a dramatic performing style and for her lavish costumes, which she changed two or three times per show.Harrison 1990, p. 235. In his book ''Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers'', Derrick Stewart-Baxter said of her:

...she was never a really great blues singer. The records she made varied considerably, on many she sounded stilted and very unrelaxed. ... Occasionally, she did hit a groove and when this happened, she could be quite pleasing, as on her very original "Brother Ben". ... The sides she did with King Oliver can be recommended, particularly "Death Sting Me Blues".

According to the blues historian Daphne Duval Harrison, "Martin tended to use more swinging, danceable rhythms than some of her peers ... when she sang a traditional blues her voice and styling had richer, deeper qualities that matched the content in sensitivity and mood: "Mean Tight Mama" and "Death Sting Me" approach an apex of blues singing". Martin's stage work in the late 1920s took her to New York,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and to Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.Harrison 1990, p. 236. She made one film appearance,Harris 1994, p. 351. in ''Hello Bill'', with

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

, in 1929. Her last major stage appearance was in ''Darktown Scandals Review'' in 1930. She performed with Thomas A. Dorsey as a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

singer in 1932, after which she worked outside the

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

, running a

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

in Louisville. Martin died in Louisville of a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

in May 1955.

References

Bibliography

* Harris, Sheldon (1994). ''Blues Who's Who''. Rev. ed. New York: Da Capo Press. . *Harrison, Daphne Duval (1990). ''Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s''. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Rutgers University Press. . *McWilliams, Peter (1996). ''Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country''. Prelude Press. . *Stewart-Baxter, Derrick (1970). ''Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers''. London: Studio Vista. .

External links

Sara Martin recordings
at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Sara 1884 births 1955 deaths Classic female blues singers Country blues musicians American blues singers Okeh Records artists Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky Piedmont blues musicians Vaudeville performers Singers from Kentucky Blues musicians from Kentucky Kentucky women musicians 20th-century African-American women singers