ma rainey true story

the year Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is set in — Ma was in her forties and had already made recordings with various musicians under the name Ma Rainey and Her Georgia Jazz Band, including music giants such as Willie "The Lion" Smith and Louis Armstrong. rumored relationships with her female dancers and with, The True Story Behind New Movie 'Breakthrough', The True Story Behind 'Mindhunter' on Netflix, The True Story Behind 'The Last Czars' on Netflix, The Haunting True Story of Henry Lee Lucas, The True Story Behind 'The Pharmacist' on Netflix, Of Lice and Men: The Story of a True Classic. Around the same time, Sandra R. Lieb published a book about Ma's life titled Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. Her ability to negotiate sizable contracts, combined with her generosity, made her a beloved bandleader among musicians. Long before bling was in vogue (or even a word), Rainey traveled with four trunks full of accessories which included ostrich plumes, sequins and jewelry. Viola Davis stars as the blues pioneer and queer icon in the film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The following story contains spoilers from the movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” now streaming on Netflix. We Need Monthly Stimulus Checks Until the Pandemic Is Over. The stage name “Ma Rainey” would come in the aftermath of her 1904 marriage to Will Rainey, a comedian and singer. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Her shows were also some of the earliest integrated shows to take place in the Jim Crow South, according to Lieb. Postal Service commemorative stamp in 1994. And it would likewise inspire imitators for generations to come. While other blues singers of the day, like Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith, largely sang songs written by others, Rainey penned at least one third of the songs she recorded. "We're going to do one a year for the next nine years. During this time, she brought massive blues hits like "Moonshine Blues," "See See Rider," and "Trust No Man" to the mainstream. Rainey had a perfect voice for her new brand of music: low and gravelly, filled with both raw pathos and brassy authority. But She Broke More Than Musical Barriers Ma Rainey and her band the Rabbit Foot Minstrels circa 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. The subject of Oscar-tipped Netflix drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was a pioneering queer black singer who battled white producers for control Last modified on … Although Viola worried she wouldn't be able to sing well enough to play the iconic "Mother of Blues," after reading the script she knew she had to get involved. No, the movie sadly isn’t based on a true story. Inside Viola Davis's Marriage to Julius Tennon, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. According to a New York Times obituary published in 2019 for its "Overlooked" series highlighting luminaries whose deaths went unreported in the paper, Ma was the first entertainer to "bridge the divide" between vaudeville and "authentic Black Southern folk expression." In the new film, Rainey’s style of blues is portrayed as archaic compared to the faster hot jazz preferred by her young band member Levee (Chadwick Boseman). According to A&E, she recorded her last session in 1928, producing songs such as "Black Eye Blues," "Sleep Talking Blues," and "Runaway Blues." By signing up you are agreeing to our. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is actually one of several works included in August's American Century Cycle collection. That style is now known as “classic blues”—but at the time, it was a unique and radical hybrid of several American forms, and Rainey was pivotal in creating and popularizing it. No, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is no longer based totally on a real story. "That they put it in my hands, the estate, and trust me. Onstage, she wore satin gowns and diamond tiaras; a necklace of gold coins often hung from her neck. In this week’s Sunday Spotlight, NBC’s Rehema Ellis shares the real-life story and music behind the movie, which stars Viola Davis as an early pioneer of the blues. So, the main question - is Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom a true story? Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images. Inspired by the performer, she allegedly started singing the same song as an encore at her own shows. So, yes, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is based on a true story, in that Ma Rainey was a real person, but most of the actual plot is fictional. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, The Sad Backstory Behind Disney+'s 'WandaVision'. By Joanna Langfield Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom This adaptation of the August Wilson drama is revelatory, beautifully staged as well as acted and almost perfect. The White Tiger Is a Complex Crime Drama with a Dazzling Performance at Its Center, Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Approval the Most Globally Important, Save on the cover price and get Free Issues, Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. Is Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Based on a True Story? However, it’s based on the 2008 Booker Prize-winning fiction novel of the same name by Aravind Adiga. Like Viola, the real Ma Rainey was an incredibly gifted performer. Based on the true story of a legendary, but historically underappreciated blues singer, we spend most of the film in two rooms, as Ma … Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is set in 1920s Chicago, and predominantly deals with themes of Black art and culture, racial tensions, and power dynamics. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was, without any exaggeration, an icon. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Netflix ends—as many films based on a true story tend to—with a photo montage of the real-life characters depicted on screen. While Ma did live in Chicago in 1927, had relationships with women, and traveled with a band, all of the characters in the play — Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige), Butler (Colman Domingo), Slow Drag (Michael Potts), Toledo (Glynn Turman), Sylvester (Dusan Brown), Sturdyvant (Jonny Coyne), and Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — are fictional. When she was just a teenager, Gertrude started traveling with vaudeville acts, which New York Times jazz critic Giovanni Russonello describes as "cabaret-like shows that developed out of minstrelsy in the mid-1800s and catered largely to white audiences." “Have you ever been drunk, slept in all your clothes? Though her music temporarily fell out of print when the Great Depression hit and Paramount closed down, her catalog was revived in the 1960s when the songs were picked up by Milestone and Biograph labels, per the New York Times. As race records flourished in the 1920s, record companies scrambled to sign Black artists while undermining them and exploiting them at every step. Is McGee Really Leaving 'NCIS' This Year? During the '80s and '90s, Ma's contributions to music continued to be recognized. “They showed you had a whole self and you were not to succumb to being somebody else’s—as they would say—’play toy.’”. This is what you need to know about the real Ma Rainey before (or after) watching. She was with her first husband, Will Rainey, for at least 10 years before separating, according … Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. She and her band could make a sizable $350 a week on tour with the Theater Owners’ Booking Association (for comparison, George Williams and Bessie Brown could make $175, while superstar Bessie Smith raked in $600). For much of the 1920s, Ma lived in Chicago and performed at house parties and concerts around the city while recording tracks for Paramount. That said, there are some real historical elements highlighted in the play. Many of those, like “Moonshine Blues” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” would become standards of the genre to be covered time and again. This is the true story of the life of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, the “Mother of the Blues,” and the subject of the Netflix film starring Oscar-winner Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. Image Source: Netflix While Ma Rainey was very much a real blues trailblazer with an unforgettable persona, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom isn't actually based on a true story… In 2004, her hit "See See Rider" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. A young Louis Armstrong learned from Rainey while playing with her on several recordings (including “See See Rider,” a song that would later be covered by Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Janis Joplin and Old Crow Medicine Show). When the black bottom exploded in popularity during the Roaring Twenties, several artists, including Ma, recorded dance tracks for it. Produced by Denzel Washington and starring Viola Davis, the movie centers around real-life blues pioneer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, on the day that she and her band record a song called "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.". Ma was born Gertrude Pridgett in the South under Jim Crow laws to her mother, Ella, and father, Thomas. Ma Rainey 's Black Bottom takes place during one day in the blues singer's storied life. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. While very few public performers were fully out of the closet, Rainey didn’t try very hard to hide her bisexuality. Please attempt to sign up again. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. (The title song of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” for instance, refers both to sex as well as the Black neighborhoods of cities across the country, including Detroit.) “They must’ve been women, ‘cause I don’t like no men. After this, The Guardian reports that Paramount ended up canceling her recording contract "because her style of blues was no longer deemed fashionable.". Rainey sang about “sissy men” and mannish women, seemingly without judgment; onstage, she performed with “uninhibited, provocative movements,” according to Sandra Lieb, author of Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey. ", How to Best Alleviate COVID-19 Symptoms at Home, These Reusable Grocery Bags Make Shopping a Breeze, How to Read the 'Bridgerton' Books in Order. Though, per The Guardian, records suggest Ma was born in … ... was a true … Though, per The Guardian, records suggest Ma was born in Alabama in September of 1882, the singer herself often said she was born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. For instance, the song Ma is seen recording with her band, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," was an actual number written in response to the 1920s dance craze known as the black bottom, which originated in the Southern Black community (and was reportedly named after a predominantly Black neighborhood in Detroit). Ma Rainey, which began streaming on Netflix today, marks the final role for Boseman, who died of complications with colon cancer in August after keeping his diagnosis a secret for four years. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom follows the story of real Chicago blues musician, Ma Rainey, but how much of her portrayal in Ruben Santiago-Hudson's adaptation remains accurate to the true story? Rainey was fired from Paramount in 1928; it is unclear if she received royalties for her work. But her overlooked legacy is being revisited thanks to the release of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film adaptation of August Wilson’s acclaimed 1982 play that arrived on Netflix on Friday. The stories highlighted in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom are also based on the real experiences of Black Americans in the early 20th century. And he humanizes us. Rainey didn’t just popularize the genre of classic blues: she helped write it. And he allows us to talk.". Read Tiger Woods's Agent's Reaction to New HBO Doc, Here's What We Know About 'Bling Empire' Season 2, Ken Jennings Got Majorly Trolled on 'Jeopardy! Could Amsterdam's New Economic Theory Replace Capitalism? In 1923, Ma became one of the first Black artists signed to Paramount, and she made her first of roughly 100 recordings. Per the critic, legend has it that during a visit to Missouri in 1902, Gertrude first heard a country blues singer. In it, Viola Davis plays Rainey with both regal composure and pitch-black fury over the course of a sweltering afternoon recording session in 1927, as she fights for respect and artistic autonomy. Angela Davis, in her 2011 book Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, wrote that Rainey’s songs are full of women who “explicitly celebrate their right to conduct themselves as expansively and even as undesirably as men.” They wield pistols, carouse until the morning, dodge the police, and sleep around for revenge. All of the events that unfold in the Netflix movie — which shows a day in the life of Ma Rainey and her band — did not actually happen quite as depicted. All the characters in the story are struggling in one way or another — even the famous Ma Rainey — and the story suggests that interpersonal conflict is a symptom of greater social issues. “When she started singing, the gold in her teeth would sparkle,” Rainey’s longtime musical director Thomas A. Dorsey wrote in his unpublished memoirs. With the Black Bottom story, viewers can get some interesting details about her life and her rise to fame. Together, they created a double act known as … In 1925, she was arrested for throwing an “indecent” and “intimate” party with a group of young women, forcing Bessie Smith—a possible lover of hers—to bail her out. While Ma Rainey was very much a real blues trailblazer with an unforgettable persona, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom isn't actually based on a true story. Even … Thanks to her showmanship, songwriting and powerful voice, Rainey earned a reputation as one of the most dynamic performers in America in the 1920s, and her tour earnings reflected that popularity. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett in either Alabama or Georgia, in 1882 or 1886, Ma Rainey would become the "Mother of Blues" in her lifetime. By 1927 — a.k.a. "I think that [August] captures our humor as Black people," she told CBS News. Per Robert Springer's "Folklore, Commercialism and Exploitation: Copyright in the Blues" and History.com, it was common practice for white-owned record labels to get Black artists to sign away their recording rights (and then have white artists release covers of their songs), underpay Black artists, and make it difficult for Black artists to receive the royalties they earned. Most recently, in 2017, the Rainey McCullers School of Arts in Columbus, Georgia was named after both Ma and novelist Carson McCullers. During the Black Arts Movement of the '60s, poet Al Young famously wrote "A Dance for Ma Rainey," to honor her artistry. Is The White Tiger based on a true story? But despite its real-life protagonist, the film’s plot is actually a work of fiction. Anthony Mackie is unable to watch his late friend Chadwick Boseman in Netflix’s critically acclaimed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” because it would be too emotional an experience for him. The exploitation of Black artists was widely prominent at the time of Ma's popularity. Who Is Ma Rainey? All Rights Reserved. So Rainey began to incorporate blues songs and structures into performances, helping to pioneer a genre that would both entertain crowds while also speaking candidly about Black life in America. That's good enough for me. Yes, it is. Watching Viola depict Ma, it's clear the Oscar-winning actress did a lot of preparation to portray the powerful, bawdy, and charismatic singer. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. In 1935, she pivoted to another kind of leadership when she bought two movie halls: the Lyric and Airdome theaters, in Columbus Ga. She managed them until her death four years later. Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. The George C. Wolfe-helmed film takes plenty of liberties with the August Wilson play it's based on, which in and of itself took creative license with the blues musician's life. Ma is also credited for breaking new ground through the narratives told in her songs, as several of the tunes feature strong feminist elements in the lyrics, as Angela Davis noted in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the Netflix adaptation of August Wilson’s play, takes place in a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Ma Rainey, known as the “Mother of the Blues,” isn’t nearly as famous as the blues artists who built on her foundation, from Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday. “Her sexual braggadocio, popular in men’s blues songs, helped to create her legend as both fearless and sexually independent,” Mack says. From left, Chadwick Boseman as Levee, Colman Domingo as Cutler, Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, Michael Potts as Slow Drag, and Glynn Turman as Toldeo in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'. But while Rainey earned a good amount of money, it wasn’t nearly the amount that she deserved. The "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. In an article for The New York Times before his death in 2005, the legendary dramatist wrote: To honor August, Denzel made it known that he intends to bring all 10 of the American Century Cycle plays to the big screen in the years to come. Makes the wind blow all the while.” A cartoon ad for the song released by her record label Paramount embraces this genderbending: She wears a men’s three piece suit and fedora and mingles with two women on a corner, while a policeman watches suspiciously in the shadows. "He captures our humor, our vulnerability, our tragedies, our trauma. Per Rolling Stone, Ma is hailed as a queer icon for being so open about her attraction to both men and women in her songs, though she never publicly identified as bisexual. Sadly, just years after her retirement began, Ma died of a heart attack on December 22, 1939. Executives coerced blues singers—especially those who had no experience in the recording industry—to sign away future royalties or even ownership of their songs, leaving many artists destitute after the peak of their popularity. The gritty-voiced Joplin was open about how Rainey was one of her biggest influences, and so was Bonnie Raitt: during Rainey’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction in 1990, she said that “the fire and gusto of Ma’s singing was exceptional.”. And when you wake up, feel like you want a dose?” Rainey asks in “Dead Drunk Blues.”, “She transgressed these ideas of white middle class female respectability,” Kimberly Mack, an assistant literature professor at the University of Toledo and the author of Fictional Blues: Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White, said in an interview. Suits were far from the only fashion statement that Rainey made during her performing career. ', Kevin Costner Shared A New Photo For His Birthday, Watch Steve Harvey Completely Lose It on 'Feud'. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is among the leading contenders in several categories for this year’s Academy Awards. Ma was still performing in the early 1930s, but after officially quitting show business in 1935, she returned to Columbus, Georgia to run two entertainment venues and participate in church activities. “I loved the way they dealt with sexuality, with the relationships with men,” she says. A few years later, she would release “Prove It On Me Blues,” considered one of the earliest odes to lesbianism on record: “Went out last night with a crowd of my friends,” she sang. This content is imported from {embed-name}. Ma was born Gertrude Pridgett in the South under Jim Crow laws to her mother, Ella, and father, Thomas. This approach captured the imagination of many Black Americans at a transformative moment in which, thanks to the Great Migration, the longstanding divides between North and South, rural and urban, antique and modern were becoming eroded or blurred. Rainey was born in the 1880s in Columbus, Ga.; she performed on the vaudeville circuit for many years across the South, inheriting some performative traditions from minstrelsy and honing her outsize stage presence and comic timing. When looking at the new Netflix drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, one may come to the conclusion that the film is based on a true story.After all, the movie’s lead character — blues singer Ma Rainey — was a real person. Soon after, in 1904, Ma married her husband, William "Pa" Rainey. In 1904, she married comedian, dancer, and singer Will Rainey; together they toured the South with a variety of minstrel groups, billing themselves as Ma and Pa Rainey. 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