Who are the best female blues singers?

12 Women Who Changed The Blues

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Who was a famous blues singer 1920s?

Bessie Smith
With her subsequent recordings, Smith was one of the artists who propelled the fledgling “race records” market of music targeted to black audiences that had launched a few years earlier in 1920 with Mamie Smith’s hit “Crazy Blues.” Through the rest of the 1920s, Bessie Smith became one of the earliest stars of recorded …

Who was the first woman blues singer?

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939), known as “The Mother of the Blues”, is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902.

Who are the blues queens?

In the 1920s, white composers sought authenticity by having black singers record their songs. Several blues queens, including Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox, wrote or co-wrote some of their songs.

How old is Ma Rainey?

53 years (1886–1939)
Ma Rainey/Age at death
Rainey passed away from heart disease on December 22, 1939 at the age of 53. Tischler, Barbara L.

Did Koko Taylor have kids?

Taylor’s first husband, Robert Taylor, died in 1989. Her survivors include her husband, Hays Harris; her daughter, Joyce Threatt; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Who was called the Empress of blues?

Bessie Smith, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936. Known in her lifetime as the “Empress of the Blues,” Smith was a bold, supremely confident artist who often disdained the use of a microphone and whose art expressed the frustrations and hopes of a whole generation of Black Americans.

Who is the best female blues singer?

Easily one of the best women blues singers, Bonnie Raitt’s soulful delivery can draw the listener in to everything she sings. Bessie Smith. A legendary singer that has influenced countless others, Bessie Smith was one of the best women blues singers and one of the genre’s earliest pioneers.

Who was the first female blues singer?

First on the list of blues singers you should know is Bessie Smith. She is known as “The Empress of the Blues” and was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. Columbia Records started a “race records” series and signed Bessie in 1923. Her album, “Cemetery Blues,” was the first issued.

Who are some female blues singers?

The classic female blues singers were pioneers in the record industry, among the first black singers and blues artists recorded. They were also instrumental in popularizing the 12-bar blues throughout the United States. Mahalia Jackson and Janis Joplin are among those who named Bessie Smith as an influence.

Who are the most famous blues singers?

The best-known Chicago blues musicians include singer-songwriters and bandleaders Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Willie Dixon; guitar players such as Elmore James , Luther Allison, and Buddy Guy; and harp (blues slang for harmonica) players such as Little Walter, Paul Butterfield , and Charlie Musselwhite .