A rundown of singers we could — and should — explore during Black History Month would require unlimited bandwidth.
From Aretha Franklin to Solange Knowles, Tina Turner to Janelle Monae, Sarah Vaughan to Lizzo, it’s an eternal roll call of some of the most potent and influential Black vocalists, musicians and performers in music history. However, I’ll keep it concise.
The pioneers
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Her boundary-busting songs — most prominently, her 1938 hit “Rock Me” — earned her the moniker of “the godmother of rock ‘n’ roll. Presenting gospel songs married to distorted electric guitar, the Arkansas native-born Rosetta Nubin was an anomaly in the best way, even recording the first gospel song to translate to the R&B charts in 1945 (“Strange Things Happening Every Day”).
Ma Rainey: As portrayed by Viola Davis in the Netflix film adaption of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Rainey is a package of voluptuousness and volcanic talent. Though the movie focuses on one Chicago recording session with the Georgia-born singer (Gertrude Pridgett became “Ma” Rainey when she married Will “Pa” Rainey in 1904), her catalog is notable not only for the vocals that produced her “Mother of the Blues” nickname but for the fact that she wrote much of her own music, an uncommon occurrence in those male-dominated times. Her 1928 composition, “Prove It on Me Blues,” pronounced Rainey’s bisexuality, while songs performed with Louis Armstrong (“Jelly Bean Blues”) and tours with Tommy Dorsey and his Wildcats Jazz Band expanded her success.