When was classic blues first recorded

During the afternoon of Tuesday, August 10, , clarinetists Johnny Dunn and Ernest Elliott, trombonist Dope Andrews, violinist, and pianist Perry Bradford — a group of musicians collectively known as The Jazz Hounds — were in the studio.

Not for one second did they think they were about to make history. They were simply there to play a song written by Perry Bradford, and ready to sing it with them was Mamie Smith. There are reports of 75, copies having been sold in the first month, and a million in the first year, but these sound like exaggerated claims.

Over the next three years, Mamie recorded some 60 sides for the OKeh label, though much of the material was closer to vaudeville than blues. The first male, black, country blues musician to get the opportunity to record did so as a guitarist, not as a singer.

Many have suggested that Papa Charlie Jackson was the first country blues singer to make a record, but this is not actually the case. The first field recordings Andrews is another musician we know next to nothing about. Nothing more was ever heard from him, and, on the evidence of the recording, it is not surprising. OKeh Records has already popped up frequently in the early days of the recorded blues. Initially, the company made phonographs, and in they branched out into the recording business.

Field recording trips, as they became known, were the way in which so many of the established northern record companies came to record the blues.

The company was a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Chair Company, who also made phonographs before branching out into making recordings to give away records with their equipment. Paramount began releasing records by black artists in , a year after OKeh, and appointed Mayo Williams, a black college graduate, as its talent scout.

Paramount lasted for 10 years and released over 1, records, many of which are much prized by collectors today often because they originally sold in such small numbers.

Its records were cheap and their quality was often poor, with high surface noise, and the label withdrew from recording in , a victim of the Great Depression. The recording ban By the end of , World War II had been raging in Europe for over two years, and now it involved the American people.

If the Depression was a punctuation mark in the history of recorded blues, then World War II was the end of a chapter. It also marked a sea change for the music industry, with the need for men, machinery, and raw materials creating change throughout the entertainment industry. Music and entertainment did not stop, records continued to be manufactured — and to sell — but problems were on the horizon.

In , the AFM called a strike of its members, which lasted until , when first Decca, and then Victor and Columbia, capitulated late in the year. She bridged the gap between the country blues singers like Blind Lemon Jefferson and the professional entertainers like Ethel Waters and Ida Cox. We know this because she made records, many of them, but she made them relatively late in her career. Up until then, the only black artists recorded were spiritual groups such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who were already popular with white audiences.

Whatever works, soon the companies were signing up female classic blues singers from the southern vaudeville circuit. They were the first performers recorded specifically for the African-American market.

Ma Rainey began recording for the Paramount label in , when she was already a seasoned veteran with a loyal following throughout the south and mid-west. Because she was so well-established she was able to pick the top musicians of the day to accompany her. Most blues and jazz singers of the day sang double-entendre songs — thinly disguised sexual innuendo.

Ma Rainey never hid her meanings, she just sang it straight. Besides the usual songs of love and travel, she sang about prostitution Hustling Blues , homosexuality Sissy Blues and just about anything else she felt like singing about. Those recordings were technically crude even by standards of the day. Most were recorded acoustically and then pressed on very rough, inferior material so even when brand new there was more noise than music.

Add to that the modern collector has to deal with the fact these records were very popular and were often played until they wore out. Without TV, radio, CDs, records, tapes, or any other process for hearing recorded music, it was spread literally by word of mouth. Naturally, this process was nowhere more piecemeal than in the countryside. Devoid of theatres or other places to hear music, the role of itinerant musician and collective singing in the family or other groups was the way in which people heard or learned new songs.

If you wish to capture them, you have to steal up behind them, unbeknownst, and sprinkle salt on their tails. The lack of any recording machinery is the reason for our lack of knowledge.

Life, then, was about survival and hard work. The notion that people, outside your immediate locality, or even country, would be interested in what you were singing was unimaginable. The first blues record In , when W.

They were about to play a song written by Perry Bradford, and to sing it with them was Mamie Smith. Smith was not specifically a blues singer, but more a vaudeville and cabaret singer. Then again, at this time, there was no such thing as a blues singer. Smith was around 37 years old when she made history; certainly no youngster. She had already recorded for OKeh in February , but her two earlier efforts were not blues songs.

These numbers may well be inflated, but there is no underestimating its importance, nor the fact that it was a sizeable hit. Over the next three years, Mamie recorded some sixty sides for the OKeh label, although much of the material was closer to vaudeville than blues. Egbert Bert Williams was born in Antigua in