Ma Rainey, Prove it on me Blues

Here’s another classic, recorded the year before I was born! Born Gertrude Pridgett, she first performed in talent shows when she was about 13 years old . She met Will Rainey (also a performer) and they married in 1904. During the following years, she met the young Bessie Smith, on whom she had great influence (and the rest is history!!) This recording is one of her earliest. Her “Tub Jug Washboard Band“ was made up of Herman Brown; kazoo&washboard, Thomas Dorsey; pno. Martin Pettiford; bjo. and Carl Re