Ma rainey gay
Ma Rainey
Country
United States
Birth - Death
1886 - 1939
Occupation
Entertainment
Notable Achievements
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Description
A prolific musical recorder and entertainer, Ma Rainey helped to create and popularize the newly emerging genre of the Blues during her lifetime. Her influence was so great that she has been tagged ‘the mother of the Blues’. Ma Rainey is considered the first trendy stage entertainer of the blues and the first excellent female black vocalist. She not only sang the Blues but created them.
Born as Gertrude Pridgett, she inherited her name of Ma Rainey when she married fellow musician Will Rainey in 1904. Their initial stage performances were under the name Rainey and Rainey. With a powerful and intense voice, her talents were quickly known and she soon signed an exclusive recording contract with Paramount Records. She made over 100 recordings, with notable songs including Bo-weevil Blues, See-See Rider, and Countin’ the Blues.
Ma Rainey’s music and singing is noteworthy for its ability to aesthetically capture the essence of the black rural animation of her upbringing and generatio
Between 1923 and 1928, Rainey "leapt from Southern minstrel actor to national recording artist." Then, in the late 1920s, Lieb tells us, show business "became more centralized" and was "increasingly tamed by larger corporations." These tried to satisfy a "mainstream and Puritanical taste." The "entire show industry" moved "closer to traditional pale middle-class values." Rainey "slowly faded into obscurity in the early '30s." On December 22, 1939, at the age of 53, Rainey died of heart disease.
50th Anniversary of Rainey's Death
On December 22, 1989, the 50th anniversary of Rainey's death, I suggested in a history column in The Advocate that fans of the blue's singer impression the day by turning up the volume and playing her "Prove It on Me Blues" for all the world to hear.
Lyrics: Ma Rainey: Prove It On Me Blues"
Went out last evening, had a wonderful big fight
Everything seemed to go on wrong
I looked up, to my surprise
The gal I was with was gone.
Where she went, I don’t know
I imply to follow everywhere she goes;
Folks speak I’m crooked.
I didn’t know where she took it
I crave the whole planet to know.
They express I do it,
Ma Raine's Bisexuality Was A Revolutionary Act In The 1920s That Still Matters Today
Netflix's new film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom—based on August Wilson's play of the same name (and the playwright's first Broadway hit)— follows the "Mother of Blues" and her band in during a recording session on one sweltering Chicago afternoon. Viola Davis stars as the titular Ma Rainey alongside the late Chadwick Boseman (who some already speculate could win a posthumous Oscar for his recital as the band's trumpet player, Levee.)
"I think one of the reasons that August was drawn to her is [that] she lived outside the rules. And when somebody lives outside the rules, it becomes very clear what the rules are," director George C. Wolfe told The New York Times. "If you were a Black woman, if you waited around for somebody to acknowledge your influence, it was never going to happen. So you had to claim your power."
The excellently-cast ensemble clip largely centers on the struggle for power between Ma Rainey's blues band and the white document producers who profit from her music. (One scene shows Ma refusing to sing unless the producers buy her a Coca-Cola. &qu
The Real Gertrude "Ma" Rainey Was a Trailblazing Bisexual Blues Singer
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, released on Netflix on Dec. 18, is already poised for Oscar nominations. With a phenomenal cast and costumes, and an electrifying score, Ma Rainey is a dazzling biopic that follows the real-life "Mother of Blues," Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. Ma, who is portrayed by the infinitely talented Viola Davis, is shown to be a trailblazer in every meaning of the word. As a Black woman in the '20s, she captivated her audience with her powerful voice, and demanded the recognition she deserved — and she got it.
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Aside from her talent, charisma, and determination, Ma Rainey is also depicted as gay in the movie, with a focus on her girlfriend, Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige). But was Ma actually queer? And was Dussie based on a genuine person?
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Was Ma Rainey gay?
It's believed that Ma Rainey was bisexual, due to suggestive lyrics in some of her songs, and the evidence that she got busted by the police for hosting a queer orgy. Although Dussie Mae is a fictional character, Ma was romantically linked