The Ma Rainey Stamp

The Ma Rainey Stamp

**This Ma Rainey stamp is a part of the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page dedicated to this long-running series of the United States Postal Service.

Many people are newly familiar with Ma Rainey because of the 2020 motion picture “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” That film is receiving a lot of Oscar buzz this year. Of course, the movie features the American blues singer “Ma” Rainey. In 1994, a stamp depicting Rainey was a part of a series of stamps featuring Jazz and Blues singers. Known as “The Mother of the Blues,” she was able to bridge the transition from vaudeville to the recording industry. Furthermore, she was one of the first women to have success in the early years of the modern music industry. As a result, she has been an inspiration to generations of subsequent musicians across musical styles.

Ma Rainey

Gertrude Pridgett was possibly born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. Although both the date and place of her birth have been disupted. She began performing as a child, in minstrel and vaudeville shows, and in her local church. She had a duo act with her husband, Will Rainey, and they performed together in several traveling vaudeville shows. Rainey would later claim that she first heard the Blues in 1902 . The story she told was that one night in Missouri she heard a girl sing a sad song about a man leaving a woman. Rainey would incorporate the song into her stage act. She began to add more and more Blues songs to her repertoire.

In New Orleans during the winter of 1914, Rainey was able to meet many of the important early jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Joe “King” Oliver, and Sidney Bechet. In 1923, Rainey went on contract with Paramount Records, creating eight recordings in December of that year. The following year, she partnered with Louis Armstrong to record several songs including “Jelly Bean Blues,” and “See, See Rider.” That same year, she began a regular collaboration with the bandleader Thomas Dorsey, touring with his band the Wildcats Jazz Band off and on for the next few years. By 1928, Rainey would record more than one hundred songs.

Rainey also wrote music, by some estimates around a third of the songs she recorded were written by her. This includes such classic blues songs as “Moonshine Blues,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Further, in some of these songs, Rainey was fairly open about her sexuality. The 1928 song “Prove it on Me,” alludes to lesbian love. There were many rumors about Rainey having women lovers, including the possibility of a romantic relationship with fellow Blues singer Bessie Smith.

By the 1930s, the Blues style of Rainey was falling out of fashion. When her contract ended with Paramount, she returned to her Columbus, Georgia, where she ran several theaters. She died of a heart attack in 1939.

The Ma Rainey Stamp

Ma Rainey Stamp
The Ma Rainey Stamp
Scott Number 2859

The “Ma” Rainey postage stamp from 1994 was a part of the set of eight stamps featuring jazz and blues singers. The designers of these stamps was the artist Julian Allen. The image on the stamp his his rendition of a famous photograph of Rainey from 1917.

Rainey in 1917
Rainey in 1917

Readers of this blog will know that I have mixed feelings about the “Legends” series. While I acknowledge this is a very important project elevating so many styles of American popular music, it is also inconsistent and uneven. I find Koslow’s designs to be particularly cartoonish. The “Ma” Rainey stamp is typical of the series with flat features and a bright color background. To me, it does not feel like it respects her and the contributions she made to American music. Yet, there can be no doubt that she was deserving of the honor of being on a U.S. postage stamp.

Make sure to check out “Ma” Rainey’s music. You might start with one of my favorites, See, See Rider.