Afro-American Music Exam 2

Gertrude “Ma Rainey”

Mother of Blues

• born in a small town near Columbus, GA in 1886

• husband: Will “Pa Rainey“

• traveled with Rabbit Food Minstrels

• over 100 songs

• 2 of her blues songs: See See Rider Blues, Black Bottom

saloons

clubs

rags

spin off from African dances

Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton

• born 1890

• combined ragtime and blues on the piano to make jazz

• formed the “Red Hot Peppers”

• New Orleans jazz to black people, Dixie Land jazz to white people

Scott Joplin

King of Ragtime

• born in 1868, died in 1917

• he composed over 40 ragtime pieces and 2 operas

• the opera that is survived, Treemonisha

• two of his rags: The Entertainer and The Maple Leaf Rag

Bessie Smith

Empress of Blues

• she was the face of jazz, considered the pretty one

• songs: Jail House Blues; Send Me to the Lectric Chair; Downhearted Blues; St Louis Blues

• born in Chattanooga, TN 1849; died in 1937

• horrible car accident, 2 myths of how she died

  • her arm was severed, and she bled out

  • she made it to the hospital, but they refused to treat her because she was black

William Christopher Handy

Father of the Blues

• commercialized the blues

• trumpet player

• wrote many songs that became the “stapler" of Blues standards

• The St. Louis Blues

syncopation

beats between other beats (claps between claps)

Mahalia Jackson

Mother of Gospel

Assignment 3 and 4 Songs

• Kathleen Battles - Lord How Come Me Here

• Sweet Honey in the Rock - Wade in the Water

sacred

religious

• spirituals (folk songs)

• spirituals (concert form)

• early gospel

secular

not religious

• work songs

• ragtime and blues

• New Orleans jazz & Dixieland jazz

• swing jazz

• bebop jazz

blues

songs that originated in the American South by descendants of slaves; usually sung in 3-line stanzas and depicted personal hardship, sadness, and humor

ragtime

style that grew out of traditions of African American dance and flourished at the end of the 19th century

usually in a duple meter and segments of 8 or 16 measures

characterized by syncopations and a steady bass line stride

comparisons

Blues was performed openly and was about personal everyday life situations, usually played in a minor key

Spirituals were sung collectively and privately between black people