Ma Rainey

One of the earliest blues singers, and one of the first to record, Georgia-born Ma Rainey pretty much created the template for vocal-oriented piano blues. She started making records toward the beginning of the recording era in the 1920s, but she had in fact been performing since the first decade of the century. Rainey's style was more sophisticated than the Delta sound that dominated blues in the '30s. She was often accompanied by some of the finest early jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory, and her style owed as much to New Orleans jazz and ragtime as it did to blues. Hugely influential, she has been a key inspiration for generation upon generation of blues singers.