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34-401: Although Delta blues certainly existed in some form or another at the turn of the twentieth century, it was first recorded in the late 1920s, when record companies realized the potential African-American market for " race records ". The major labels produced the earliest recordings, consisting mostly of one person singing and playing an instrument. Live performances, however, more commonly involved

68-401: A famous black composer, sparked a transition that displayed the potential for African American artists. Bradford persuaded the white executive of Okeh Records , Fred Hager , to record Mamie Smith , a black artist who did not fit the mold of popular white music. In 1920, Smith created her "Crazy Blues"/"It's Right Here for You" recording, which sold 75,000 copies to a majority-black audience in

102-413: A few tangential references." Though not studied comprehensively, race records have been preserved. Publications like Dixon and Godrich's Blues and Gospel Records 1902-1943 list the names of race records that were commercially recorded and recorded in the field. Billboard published a Race Records chart between 1945 and 1949, initially covering juke box plays and from 1948 also covering sales. This

136-681: A group of musicians. Record company talent scouts made some of the early recordings on field trips to the South, and some performers were invited to travel to northern cities to record. Current research suggests that Freddie Spruell is the first Delta blues artist to have been recorded; his "Milk Cow Blues" was recorded in Chicago in June 1926. According to Dixon and Godrich (1981), Tommy Johnson and Ishmon Bracey were recorded by Victor on that company's second field trip to Memphis, in 1928. Robert Wilkins

170-493: The radio brought competition to the record industry. To maximize exposure, record labels advertised in catalogs, brochures, and newspapers popular among African Americans, like the Chicago Defender . They carefully implemented words and images that would draw in their targeted audience. Race records ads frequently reminded readers of their shared experience, claiming the music could help African Americans who moved to

204-548: The 1920s and 1940s. They primarily contained race music , comprising various African-American musical genres, blues , jazz , and gospel music , rhythm and blues and also comedy . These records were, at the time, the majority of commercial recordings of African American artists in the U.S., and few African American artists were marketed to white audiences. Race records were marketed by Okeh Records , Emerson Records , Vocalion Records , Victor Talking Machine Company , Paramount Records , and several other companies. Before

238-545: The African American artists that major record companies hired before the 1920s were not properly compensated or acknowledged. This was because contracts were given to black artists on the basis of a single record, so their future opportunities were not guaranteed. African-American culture greatly influenced the popular media that white Americans consumed in the 1900s. Still, there were not any primarily black genres of music sold in early records. Perry Bradford ,

272-447: The African American community. However some white companies in the music industry were strongly against Black Swan and threatened the company on multiple occasions. Pace not only issued jazz, blues, and gospel records, but he put out race records that deviated from popular African American categories. These genres included classical, opera, and spirituals, chosen by Pace to encourage the advancement of African American culture. He intended

306-485: The Library of Congress researchers did not record any Delta bluesmen or blueswomen prior to 1941, when he recorded Son House and Willie Brown near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi , and Muddy Waters at Stovall, Mississippi . However, among others, John and Alan Lomax recorded Lead Belly in 1933, and Bukka White in 1939. In big-city blues, female singers such as Ma Rainey , Bessie Smith , and Mamie Smith dominated

340-500: The North stay connected with their Southern roots. Companies like Okeh and Paramount enforced their objectives in the 1920s by sending field scouts to Southern states to record black artists in a one-time deal. Scouts neglected the aspirations of many singers to continue working with their companies. Field recordings were presented to the public as chance encounters to seem more genuine, yet they typically were arranged. Perspectives on

374-414: The claim that white-owned companies aimed to maintain the racial divisions in society through race records. Media companies even implemented racial stereotypes in advertising to invoke black sentiments and sell more records. Others regard the investments as being motivated simply by profit, namely by the low cost of production resulting from the easy exploitation of black writers and musicians, combined with

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408-401: The company to provide an economic ideal for African Americans to strive towards, proving that they could overcome social barriers and be successful. Hence, Black Swan paid fair wages and allowed artists to showcase their race records using their real names. Pace urged record companies owned by white individuals to recognize the demands of African Americans and increase the flow of race records in

442-472: The company's list of songs popular among African Americans was created: Harlem Hit Parade . It listed the “most popular records in Harlem" and began to replace the term "race music" in the industry. The Harlem concept was replaced by R&B chart listings in June 1949. The term "rhythm and blues" fully replaced the term "race music". Marketing race records was especially important in the late 1920s, when

476-603: The early 1980s, she was a member of the Terry Smith Blues Band. In 1988, Kelly began to suffer from headaches. In 1989 she had an operation to remove a malignant brain tumour . She died on 21 October 1990 in England, aged 46. Obituaries for Kelly appeared in major UK newspapers, including The Independent , The Times , and The Guardian . Remembrances and obituaries also appeared in contemporary Blues magazines such as Blues & Rhythm and

510-531: The early Delta blues (as well as other genres) were extensively recorded by John Lomax and his son Alan Lomax , who crisscrossed the southern U.S. recording music played and sung by ordinary people, helping establish the canon of genres known today as American folk music . Their recordings, numbering in the thousands, now reside in the Smithsonian Institution . According to Dixon and Godrich (1981) and Leadbitter and Slaven (1968), Alan Lomax and

544-513: The ease of distribution to a highly targeted class of consumers who have little access to a fully competitive marketplace. The control of white owned music companies was tested in the 1920s, when Black Swan Records was founded in 1921 by the African American businessman Harry Pace . Black Swan was formed to integrate the black community into a primarily white music industry, issuing around five hundred race records per year. The creation of this company brought widespread support for race records from

578-420: The first month. Okeh did not anticipate these sales and attempted to recreate their success by recruiting more black blues singers. Other big companies sought to profit from this new trend of race records. Columbia Records was the first to follow Okeh into the race records industry in 1921, while Paramount Records began selling race records in 1922 and Vocalion entered in the mid-1920s. The term "race records"

612-419: The future. Black Swan was eventually purchased by Paramount Records in 1924. The Great Depression destroyed the race record market, leaving most African American musicians jobless. Almost every major music company removed race records from their catalogs as the country turned to the radio. Black listenership for the radio consistently stayed below ten percent of the total black population during this time, as

646-572: The mid-1920s to the 1940s. In hindsight, the term race record may seem derogatory; in the early 20th century, however, the African-American press routinely used the term the Race to refer to African Americans as a whole and race man or race woman to refer to an African-American individual who showed pride in and support for African-American people and culture. Billboard began publishing charts of hit songs in 1940. Two years later,

680-404: The most notable of the original artists still living. Sue Foley and Shannon Curfman also performed blues music. Many Delta blues artists, such as Big Joe Williams , moved to Detroit and Chicago, creating a pop-influenced city blues style. This was displaced by the new Chicago blues sound in the early 1950s, pioneered by Delta bluesmen Muddy Waters , Howlin' Wolf , and Little Walter , that

714-460: The music they enjoyed did not get airtime. The exclusion of black artists on the radio was further cemented when commercial networks like NBC and CBS started to hire white singers to cover black music. It was not until after World War II that rhythm and blues, a term spanning most sub-genres of race records, gained prevalence on the radio. It has been noted that "whole areas of black vocal tradition have been overlooked, or at best have received

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748-607: The music well – 'rhythm and blues.'... [It was] a label more appropriate to more enlightened times." The chart has since undergone further name changes, becoming the Soul chart in August 1969, and the Black chart in June 1982. Jo Ann Kelly Jo Ann Kelly (5 January 1944 – 21 October 1990) was an English blues singer and guitarist. She is respected for her strong blues vocal style and for playing country blues guitar. Kelly

782-469: The reason white record companies invested in marketing race records vary, with some claiming it was "for the purpose of exploiting markets and expanding the capital of producers." Advocates of this philosophy emphasize the control that the companies had on the type and form of songs that artists could create. Another perspective points to evidence such as the fact that "race records were distinguished by numerical series… in effect, segregated lists", to support

816-560: The recordings of the 1920s. Although very few women were recorded playing Delta blues and other rural or folk-style blues, many performers did not get professionally recorded. Geeshie Wiley was a blues singer and guitar player who recorded six songs for Paramount Records that were issued on three records in April 1930. According to the blues historian Don Kent , Wiley "may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician". L. V. Thomas, better known as Elvie Thomas ,

850-558: The rise of the record industry in America, the cost of phonographs prevented most African Americans from listening to recorded music. At the turn of the twentieth century, the cost of listening to music went down, providing a majority of Americans with the ability to afford records. The primary purpose of records was to spur on the sale of phonographs, which were most commonly distributed in furniture stores. The stores white and black people shopped at were separate due to segregation , and

884-550: The type of music available to white and black people varied. Mainstream records during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 1900s were mainly made by and targeted towards white, middle class, and urban Americans. There were some exceptions, including George W. Johnson , a whistler who is widely believed to be the first black artist ever to record commercially, in 1890. Broadway stars Bert Williams and George Walker recorded for Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901, followed by black artists employed by other companies. Yet,

918-497: Was a blues singer and guitarist from Houston, Texas , who recorded with Geeshie Wiley. Memphis Minnie was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for more than three decades. She recorded approximately 200 songs, some of the best known being "Bumble Bee", "Nothing in Rambling", and " Me and My Chauffeur Blues ". Bertha Lee was a blues singer, active in the 1920s and 1930s. She recorded with and

952-482: Was a revised version of the Harlem Hit Parade chart, which it had introduced in 1942. In June 1949, at the suggestion of Billboard journalist Jerry Wexler , the magazine changed the name of the chart to Rhythm & Blues Records. Wexler wrote, " ' Race' was a common term then, a self-referral used by blacks...On the other hand, 'Race Records' didn't sit well...I came up with a handle I thought suited

986-742: Was born in Streatham , South London , England on 5 January 1944. She had two younger siblings, Susan and Dave. Her early interest in performing music grew out of hearing the Everly Brothers , Elvis Presley , Little Richard and skiffle in the late 1950s. She learned three or four guitar chords from her brother, Dave Kelly . She appeared on several compilation albums with her first in 1966 being New Sounds In Folk and then two years later on Blues Anytime Vol. 1: An Anthology Of British Blues (1968) Immediate Records before releasing her first solo album titled Jo-Ann Kelly (1969), this

1020-516: Was coined in 1922 by Okeh Records. Such records were labeled "race records" in reference to their marketing to African Americans, but white Americans gradually began to purchase such records as well. In the 16 October 1920 issue of the Chicago Defender , an African-American newspaper , an advertisement for Okeh Records identified Mamie Smith as "Our Race Artist". Most of the major recording companies issued "race" series of records from

1054-849: Was first recorded by Victor in Memphis in 1928, and Big Joe Williams and Garfield Akers by Brunswick / Vocalion , also in Memphis, in 1929. Charley Patton recorded for Paramount in Grafton, in June 1929 and May 1930. He also traveled to New York City for recording sessions in January and February 1934. Son House first recorded in Grafton, Wisconsin, in 1930 for Paramount Records . Robert Johnson recorded his only sessions, in San Antonio in 1936 and in Dallas in 1937, for ARC . Many other artists were recorded during this period. Subsequently,

Delta blues - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-506: Was harking back to a Delta-influenced sound, but with amplified instruments. Delta blues was also an inspiration for the creation of British skiffle music, from which eventually came the British invasion bands, while simultaneously influencing British blues that led to the birth of early hard rock and heavy metal . Race records Race records is a term for 78-rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans between

1122-663: Was issued on CBS in the UK and Epic Records in the US. She was also a core member of the band Tramp along with her brother Dave Kelly . Jo-Ann and Dave Kelly helped raise donations for Memphis Minnie in the 1960s. Canned Heat and Johnny Winter both tried to recruit Kelly, but she preferred to stay in the United Kingdom. She expanded to the European club circuit, where she worked with guitarist Pete Emery and other bands. In

1156-568: Was the common-law wife of, Charley Patton. Rosa Lee Hill , daughter of Sid Hemphill, learned guitar from her father and by the time she was ten, was playing at dances with him. Several of her songs, such as "Rolled and Tumbled", were recorded by Alan Lomax between 1959 and 1960. In the late 1960s, Jo Ann Kelly (UK) started her recording career. In the 1970s, Bonnie Raitt and Phoebe Snow performed blues. Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedeschi and Rory Block are contemporary female blues artists, who were influenced by Delta blues and learned from some of

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