Celebrate Ma Rainey, Mother of the Blues

Name: Celebrate Ma Rainey, Mother of the Blues
Start: 2025-02-07T17:30:00-05:00
Location: Sopac Way, South Orange, NJ 07079, United States

Schedule

Fri, 07 Feb, 2025 at 05:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Sopac Way, South Orange, NJ 07079, United States | South Orange, NJ

North Jersey Blues Society and Blues Alive collaborated to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy with this unique musical journey.
This program frames Gertrude Pritchett—a.k.a. Ma Rainey—known as a "Mother of the Blues" as a trail-blazing American composer and band leader.
We shine a light on the woman as a powerful blues musician, mentor, and collaborator to several musicians who in turn became innovators in their own careers: pianist Thomas Dorsey, guitarist Tampa Red, and saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
The free 80-minute concert features
Beareather Reddy, vocals
Charlie Apicella, guitar, tenor banjo
Avery Sharpe, bass
Steve Johns, drums
who will perform a set of Rainey’s classics and discuss the musical, historical, and cultural impact of her work. Includes Q&A and audience participation.
Selections start with Rainey’s works and progress into examples of call and response, R&B, swing, gospel, and soul. The set climaxes with Dr. Billy Taylor’s homage to Dr. King, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.” The song was made an anthem of The Movement of the 1960s by Nina Simone.
The setlist will be augmented with audience engagement conversations that frame American music up to the present day as a living tradition of the blues.
Funding for this program is provided by the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission.