Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong

New Orleans and Storyville

Feb 6, 2007 Mary Trotter Kion

Ma Rainey performs in New Orleans with Joe "King" Oliver and Louis Armstrong. She sings in dance halls and saloons in Storyville.

Dance Halls, Saloons, and the Circus

Ma Rainey's life was busy now, and for the next thirty-five years, as she traveled and performed. Not only did she appear in the Rabbit Foot show, but also with the Tolliver's Circus and Musical Extravaganza, the C. W. Parks Minstrels, and with Silas Green's.

Often these shows would spend the winter, or winter over, in New Orleans and there Ma could be seen and heard in alley tent shows, hiring local musicians who also performed in the saloons and dance halls in Storyville, New Orleans' that was the town's famous 'red light' district.

Oliver and Armstrong

Ma Rainey became familiar with many who would later be famous in their own right, such as Joe "King" Oliver, who was Louis Armstrong's teacher. Armstrong, himself, would later appear on some of Ma Rainey's recordings.

A lot of the musicians of that time could read music, then there were those who 'faked it,' or played by ear. It was from both of these, the learned and the unlearned, that an old southern form of working music was revived. Once again, the call and response was to be heard. This time, however, it was made between voice and instruments and became the classic blues.

Ma Rainey Just Regular Folk

Ma Rainey's life might have been the theater but she left the glitter and sequins for the stage performances. Out in the street, where the regular people roamed, Ma dressed as they dressed and became one of them, and one with them.

Theaters were not the only places where her poignant blues could be heard. She'd sing in the fields where the folks were working. She'd sing in barns and schoolhouses or dancehalls. It didn't matter, as long as she was singing to her people.

Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong: New Orleans and Storyville continues with Ma Rainey Gets Discovered: Only Her Words and Music Mattered.

Previous: Black Blues is Born: Call and Response in Cotton and Cane

Recommended Reading:

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement: Rosa Parks.

Mary Fields

Biddy Mason: Entrepreneur, Humanitarian.

The copyright of the article Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.