DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
High up in the pantheon of the iconic musicians in U.S. history are blues legends like Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Bessie Smith. One of the greatest of all time, though, who's often overlooked, is Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. She was known as the Mother of the Blues and was among the most influential blues artists of her time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOOZE AND BLUES")
GERTRUDE MA RAINEY: (Singing) Went to bed last night, and folks, I was in my dream.
ELLIOTT: Until now, you could only hear these scratchy versions of her early recordings, but a new, remastered version of nearly her entire music catalog is out in a new boxed set. We wanted to know what that means to musicians inspired by Ma Rainey. So we called up Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Dom Flemons. Welcome to the program. Thanks so much for joining us.
DON FLEMONS: Thank you so much for having me, Debbie. It's a pleasure to be with you.
ELLIOTT: Tell us a little about Ma Rainey. She was quite a force. What is her origin story as a musician?
FLEMONS: She came from Columbus, Georgia, and she was a musician that came up in the later part of the 1880s. She was on the Black vaudeville circuit. She was what they called a blues shouter. She sang these different blues numbers that would talk about the hardships and struggles of her people.
ELLIOTT: So what is it about Ma Rainey's music, her voice that speaks to you in particular?
FLEMONS: The first time I heard Ma Rainey's voice, I heard her song "Black Eye Blues."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACK EYE BLUES")
RAINEY: (Singing) Down in Hogan's Alley lived Miss Nancy Ann. She always fussin' 'n' squabbling with her man.
FLEMONS: And I just was blown away by the way she had this very clear tone. And then I began to hear the jazz band recordings, where she's being backed by people like Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins. And so I got to hear her voice cut through the band as well...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEE SEE RIDER")
RAINEY: (Singing) See See Rider, see what you have done, Lord, Lord, Lord.
FLEMONS: 'Cause these are very interesting type of recordings because they're built around Ma Rainey's singing. She's actually using her voice as the conduit to guide and direct everything in the recording. You know, you're hearing improvised jazz backing up Ma Rainey. And it's not just normal 1920's jazz. It's actually quite wilder, and it is less inhibited than jazz as it would solidify in the mid-1920s.
ELLIOTT: Is there a song or two that you think really exemplifies that uninhibited feel?
FLEMONS: For vocals, one of my favorite is "Moonshine Blues."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOONSHINE BLUES")
RAINEY: (Singing) You'll find me wrigglin' and a-rockin', howlin' like a hound. Catch the first train that's runnin' southbound. Oh, stop.
FLEMONS: One that I like to always listen back to again and again is "Ma Rainey's Mystery Record." The chording of the instruments and the way the notes come together is almost like bebop jazz.
ELLIOTT: How did her music influence your work as you built your career?
FLEMONS: There is one Ma Rainey song that I've played forever that's on my own solo record, "American Songster." That's the song "Yonder Comes The Blues."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YONDER COMES THE BLUES")
RAINEY: (Singing) I walked and I walked till I wore out my shoes. I can't walk no further, yonder come the blues.
FLEMONS: Also, in my singing style - you know, her voice sings in open tones. She doesn't do a lot of the type of glissando slides that you hear from R&B singers now.
ELLIOTT: Can you kind of demonstrate what you're talking about for me?
FLEMONS: Like "Moonshine Blues" - if someone were to do it in mine, they'd be like, (singing) I've been driiinkin' all nighhht, baaabe (ph). Ma Rainey, when you hear her, she does, (singing) I've been drinnnkin' all nighttttt, baaaabe (ph). It's very straight-toned, very forceful. Every note lands straight on the tone.
ELLIOTT: You know, she was also remarkable because she did things that were not really in the mainstream at the time, like singing openly about being attracted to women, and at times, she would actually dress like a man. These seem risky in the 1920s. Can you talk about the significance of what that was for a Black woman at the time?
FLEMONS: There was a thrill of talking about the theatrical aspect of all of these different areas of life. And so Ma Rainey reached into that pocket.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PROVE IT ON ME BLUES")
RAINEY: (Singing) Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men. It's true I wear collar and a tie.
FLEMONS: The song "Prove It On Me," which is a song that speaks openly about lesbianism, is from a later recording session she did in 1928. And actually, all of the songs from that later session speak about areas of life that are underground, and also communities that may be marginalized because it is not acceptable for a mainstream audience. But then, other times, they're treated with a little bit of humor and a wink of the eye. Also with songs like Ma Rainey's "Black Bottom," a wink of the tail feather...
ELLIOTT: (Laughter).
FLEMONS: ...To tell a bit of that story.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACK BOTTOM")
RAINEY: (Singing) All the boys in the neighborhood, they say your Black bottom is really good.
ELLIOTT: You know, she had quite the independent streak. She was her own manager a good part of her career. And some of her songs are about not relying on men. She had some feminist ideas. Was that part of her appeal even back in the '20s?
FLEMONS: Oh, absolutely. Ma Rainey was one of those artists that was giving people that voice. You'd have to imagine, in a Black woman's world, this is one generation after slavery, maybe two. This is the first time that people are choosing who their families are or choosing not to have families, at the same time, and breaking away from the preordained order of what a woman should be doing in the world. But at the same time, while she had this image on stage, she was also said to be an extremely kind and wonderful, actually, motherly woman people remembered for many generations after working with her.
ELLIOTT: Which sounds to me just like a well-rounded woman. Don Flemons, what was it like for you listening to this new remastered version of Ma Rainey's recordings?
FLEMONS: It was staggering. It was like I was sitting right in the room with her. It's like seeing a painting that's been in an old barroom, and it's covered up in the yellow dust of old cigarette smoke, and then finally seeing it restored to its original color and framework so that you can actually see it for what it is. I was absolutely blown away, almost as if I've never heard her before.
ELLIOTT: Don Flemons is a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter and member of The Traveling Wildfires. Thank you so much for being with us.
FLEMONS: Absolutely, Debbie. Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PROVE IT ON ME")
RAINEY: (Singing) Went out last night, had a great big fight. Everything seemed to go on wrong. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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