![redman muddy waters 2 redman muddy waters 2](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lH2xuTVzk6w/UqIK8r3fZRI/AAAAAAAAMcY/srdYYq0BZlE/s1600/redman.jpg)
Following the death of her mother and sister, Rainey retired from the music business in 1935 and settled in Columbus. Though the TOBA and vaudeville circuits had gone into decline by the early 1930s, Rainey still performed, often resorting to playing tent shows.
![redman muddy waters 2 redman muddy waters 2](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/woman-s-legs-muddy-26807309.jpg)
During her last sessions, held in 1928, she sang in the company of her former pianist Thomas "Georgia Tom" Dorsey and guitarist Hudson "Tampa Red" Whittaker, producing such numbers as "Black Eye Blues," "Runaway Blues" and "Sleep Talking Blues." In 1927, Rainey cut sides such as "Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues" with the Tub Jug Washboard Band. That year, after Dorsey left the band, she recorded with various musicians on the Paramount label - often under the name of Ma Rainey and her Georgia Jazz Band which, on various occasions, included musicians such as pianists Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins and Willie the Lion Smith reed players Don Redman, Buster Bailey and Coleman Hawkins and trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Tommy Ladnier. Until 1926, Rainey performed with her Wild Jazz Cats on the Theater Owner's Booking Association circuit (TOBA). She possessed listeners they swayed, they rocked, they moaned and groaned, as they felt the blues with her." Later Years and Death As Dorsey recalled, in The Rise of Gospel Blues, "When she started singing, the gold in her teeth would sparkle. She often opened her stage show singing "Moonshine Blues" inside the cabinet of an over-sized victrola, from which she emerged to greet a near-frantic audience. Rainey's tour debut at Chicago's Grand Theater on State Street marked the first appearance of a "down home" blues artist at the famous southside venue.ĭraped in long gowns and covered in diamonds and a necklace of gold pieces, Rainey had a powerful command over her audiences. Serving as both director and manager, Dorsey assembled able musicians who could read arrangements as well as play in a down "home blues" style. Dorsey recruited members for Rainey's touring band, The Wild Cats Jazz Band. With the success of her early recordings, Rainey took part in a Paramount promotional tour that featured a newly assembled back-up band. Separated from her husband in 1916, Rainey subsequently toured with her own band, Madam Gertrude Ma Rainey and Her Georgia Smart Sets, featuring a chorus line and a Cotton Blossoms Show, and Donald McGregor's Carnival Show. Afterward, they were billed as the "Assassinators of the Blues" with Tolliver's Circus and Musical Extravaganza. READ MORE: Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey Forged a Powerful Friendship That Helped Bring Blues to the Mainstream Blues StarĪround 1915, the Raineys toured with Fat Chappelle's Rabbit Foot Minstrels. Though they shared an extraordinary command of the idiom, the two women delivered their messages in styles and voices that were dissimilar and manifestly personal." "Ma Rainey probably did pass some of her singing experience on to Bessie," explained Chris Albertson in the liner notes to Giants of Jazz, "but the instruction must have been rudimentary. Despite earlier historical accounts crediting Rainey as Smith's vocal coach, it has been generally agreed by modern scholars that Rainey played less of a role in the shaping of Smith's singing style. Eight years Smith's senior, Rainey quickly befriended the young performer. While performing with the Moses Stokes troupe in 1912, the Raineys were introduced to the show's newly recruited dancer, Bessie Smith.