In this classic blues song, Ma Rainey is backed by cornet, clarinet, trombone, piano and drums. Billed as the “Mother of the Blues”, Rainey was an influence to many early female blues singers including Bessie Smith, who traveled with Ma and Pa Rainey’s show billed as “Rainey and Rainey, the Assassinators of Blues” – for almost three years. In this classic 1924 blues recording, the arrangement and piano accompaniment was by pioneering jazz arranger Fletcher Henderson, who went on to arrange for Benny Goodman and is often credited for bringing sophistication and complexity to jazz bands in the mid-20s.
