Ma Rainey

The next few artists are a cross-section of the two former thematic unities: They are lesbian or bisexual Black artists. And they're the cream of the crop. Today's artist was one of the earliest American professional Blues singers and one of the first generation of Blues singers to record. She was billed as the Mother of the Blues.

It is surprising how many of the biggest Blues singers were either lesbian or bisexual. Or perhaps not. In the early 20th Century, the Blues world was the perfect realm for people who were thought of as “sexual deviants” to inhabit, in part because people in the entertainment industry had far more leeway to flout sexual mores. But Blues music also thrived far outside the scope of the dominant white American culture in the early 20th century. In Jazz Age speakeasies, dive bars, and private parties, Blues singers had the freedom to explore alternative sexuality, and on a rare occasion, they even expressed it in song.

Researcher and documentary maker Robert Philipson says, “In lyrics, they talk about ‘bulldykers,’ which is what they called butch lesbians at that time, or ‘BD women,’ ‘BD’ being short for bulldykers”. Also “There were references to being ‘in the life,’ which was understood to mean being LGBT.”

"Ma" Rainey was born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett, either in 1886 in Georgia or in 1882 in Alabama. Documentation wasn't too exact those days. She got her start singing and dancing on the turn-of-the-century vaudeville circuit. She formed the Alabama Fun Makers Company with her husband, Will "Pa" Rainey, but in 1906 they both joined the larger and more popular Rabbit's Foot Company. While in New Orleans, she met numerous musicians, including King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. As the popularity of blues music increased, she became well known. Around this time, she met Bessie Smith.

In 1923, Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount, and in December she made her first eight recordings in Chicago, including Bad Luck Blues, Bo-Weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. She made more than 100 other recordings over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South.

Here's Bad Luck Blues:

Here's Bo-Weevil Blues:

Here's Moonshine Blues:

In 1924, she recorded a number of songs, including Jelly Bean Blues, Countin' the Blues and See, See Rider, with old pal Louis Armstrong.

Here's Jelly Bean Blues:

Here's Countin' the Blues:

Here's See, See Rider:

In 1925, or early 1926, she  recorded Stack O'Lee Blues:

Ma Rainey was bisexual: there was her husband and there were her numerous affairs with women. At that period, the black bourgeoisie, the aspiring post-Victorian middle-class blacks, were very hostile to homosexuality. They were not the majority of the black community, but they were trying to set themselves up as the leaders. Post-Victorian morals were that you have no premarital sex, you get married, you raise a family, you stay together all of your life, you go to church, and you raise proper Christian children who take their place in society and reproduce.

Which meant that Rainey had to be careful. In 1925, however, she was arrested for taking part in an orgy at her home involving women in her chorus. She wasn't convicted. Her experience inspired her to write Prove It On Me, which was recorded in 1928. The lyrics told the story: "they said I do it, ain't nobody caught me. Sure got to prove it on me. Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, cause I don't like no men."

Here are some more Ma Rainey notable releases:

Sissy Blues was recorded in 1926:

Trust No Man was also recorded in 1926:

As was Don't Fish in My Sea:

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was from 1927:

Hear Me Talking To You came out in 1928:

So did this one, Hustlin' Blues, which was about prostitution:

In 1935, Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran three theatres until her death. She died of a heart attack in 1939, at the age of 53.