Mamie Smith

Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1883 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, who appeared in several films late in her career. As a vaudeville singer she performed a number of styles, including jazz and blues. She entered blues history by being the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings in 1920. Willie "The Lion" Smith (no relation) explained the background to that recording in his autobiography, Music on My Mind.

Early life

Mamie Robinson was probably born in Cincinnati, Ohio, although no records of her birth exist. When she was ten years old, she found work touring with a white act called the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's Smart Set. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married a singer named William "Smitty" Smith.

Musical career

On February 14, 1920, Mamie Smith cut "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down" on Okeh Records, in New York City, after African-American songwriter and bandleader Perry Bradford persuaded Fred Hagar. The record marked the first time that a black blues singer was recorded; the musicians however were all white. Fred Hagar had received multiple threats from Northern and Southern pressure groups saying they would boycott the company if he was to record a black singer. Despite these threats the record was a commercial success and opened the door for more black musicians to record their music. Smith's biggest hit was recorded later, on August 10, 1920. Smith recorded a set of songs written by Perry Bradford, including "Crazy Blues" and "It's Right Here For You (If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine)", again on Okeh Records., and the record became a best seller, selling a million copies in less than a year.

Crazy Blues

"Crazy Blues" is a song written by Perry Bradford.

It was recorded on August 10, 1920, by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds, and released that year on a grammophone record by Okeh Records, catalogue 4169. The stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith appeared in photographs associated with the recording session, although Perry Bradford claimed to have played piano on the recording (albeit buried in the mix). Within a month of release, it had sold 75,000 copies. Although there were many recordings made of songs with blues in the title during the previous decade, this recording is considered a landmark as the very first blues record ever issued. Another claimed that is was the first recording with a blues title by a black artist. However, "Crazy Blues" is not actually a blues tune in that it does not follow the harmonic structure generally associated with true blues. It was ushered into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994.

In Episode 10, Season 1 of Boardwalk Empire, the 1920 Mamie Smith version of the song was used.

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Mamie

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Blues

Blues is a genre and musical form that originated in African-American communities in the "Deep South" of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in traditional African music, combined with European American folk music. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. The blue notes (or "worried notes") which are often thirds or fifths which are flatter in pitch than in other music styles, are also an important part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect called a groove.

Blues as a genre possesses other characteristics such as lyrics, bass lines, and instruments. The lyrics of early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the so-called AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating troubles experienced within African American society.