Classic Blues 1
Created by the historian of jazz music, Rudi Blesh, in his book Shining Trumpets, published in 1949, the term "Classic Blues" was elementary but widely adopted. His classification system also consisted of "Archaic," or "Preclassic Blues," including Blind Lemon Jefferson and Robert Johnson; the "Classic Blues" of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Jelly Roll Morton; and the "Post Classic Blues." In addition, the latter embraced the "Contemporary" of Lonnie Johnson, the "Decadent" of Jazz Gillum, the "Sophisticated" of Lil Green, and the "Eclectic" Blues, represented by Billie Holiday. While many of his representative examples would later be questioned or deemed unacceptable, Blesh's identification of the Classic Blues has continued to be seen as a helpful category.
Within the research limitations of the period, Blesh concluded that a "handful" of singers represented the Classic Period. In his view, the most remarkable was Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, followed by Bessie Smith, Bertha "Chippie" Hill, "Sippie" Wallace, Hociel Thomas, and "very few others, most of whom are dead or have disappeared" (1949, 111). He, however, made no mention of the first such singer to record, Mamie Smith, or the unrelated Trixie Smith and Clara Smith. Singers such as Lucille Hegamin, Edith Wilson, Martha Copeland, Lizzie Miles, Ida Cox, and the younger Victoria Spivey, Rosetta Howard, and Lil Green were included in the classification by Derrick Stewart-Baxter two decades later in his book Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers (1970).
Although the regular commercial recording of blues did not begin until 1920, our knowledge of the sounds and forms of early blues is based mainly on recordings' evidence. By that time, however, the music had been in circulation for roughly twenty years. According to her manager, the pianist Perry Bradford, Mamie Smith was the first African American blues singer on record. Like most women singers who dominated the recorded blues for several years, Smith was a professional stage performer who entertained in vaudeville shows. The commercial success of her "Crazy Blues" , recorded for Okeh with a jazz accompaniment, led to recordings by Rosa Henderson, Lizzie Miles, Trixie Smith, and many other female Classic Blues singers on various recording labels.
With her husband Will, Ma Rainey had the reputation of being the "Assassinators of the Blues." Although the phrase would appear to denigrate them, it related to the concept of the blues as a state of mind, as a fit of depression, which their performances eliminated. Ma Rainey used musical structure and performing style that reflected both the blues' significance and their escape from it by singing.
Many used her success in dispelling the blues as a condition to evaluate other female blues singers. Listen to her singing Bo-Weavil Blues" by the renowned Bessie Smith:
Ma Rainey - Bo-Weavil Blues [ 00:00-00:00 ]
Bo-Weavil Blues
Hey, bo-weavil, don't sing the blues no more
Hey, hey, bo-weavil, don't sing the blues no more
Bo-weavil's here, bo-weavil's everywhere you go
The St. Louis Blues
I got them Saint Louis Blues
just as blue as I can be
He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me