Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s

by Daphne Duval Harrison

Throughout the 1920s, in tents, theaters, dance halls and cabarets, and on "race" records, black American women captivated large audiences with their singing of the blues. University of Maryland professor Harrison examines the subjects and texts of their songs, the toll these performers paid for their right to be heard, and what they did to transform a folk tradition into a popular art. She describes the singing and lifestyles of Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey, Edith Wilson and Alberta Hunter to illustrate how they introduced a new model of the black woman: assertive and sexy, gutsy yet tender, bereft but not downtrodden, exploited but not resentful, independent yet vulnerable. The author shows that their choice of performing style, inflection, emphasis and improvisation provided a perspective and expressiveness that profoundly affected later American popular music.

Genres: Music, History, African American, Nonfiction, Race, Feminism

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Pearls cover the blues scene of the 1920s and specifically follows the careers of notables Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey, Edith Wilson, and Alberta Hunter. Each woman had her own style from the strong seductive voice of Sippie Wallace who was known as the "Texas Nightingale" to the high pitched moans and groans of Victoria "Vickie" Spivey. The author does a fine job of analyzing these careers and each woman's specific songs and style. An interesting read for the music lover of blues.

[Jack Blackfelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Harrison's book is sadly both one-of-a-kind and strangely schizophrenic. She sets the stage of recording the phenomenon of the great lady blues singers of the 1920s well, explaining the specific conditions of economics, migration, and shifting changes in attitudes black women were experiencing as Reconstruction, Jim Crow, technological advancement and modern transportation changed their landscape. Then she re-iterates those same factors while describing the often unexplained "chittlin circuit" of touring and the little known TOBA staging circuit of the early 1900s. Then she reminds us of them again in an entire chapter in which she examines the content of the singers' lyrics. Then she does so yet again in a summary of the white-run recording industry of their day - unintentionally making the psyche of the blues seem almost one-dimensional and redundant. It's almost as if the first part of the book is a collection of papers or articles, separate from each other, or written for middle-school readers.

But then she delivers a handful of chapters to us dedicated to influential singers not quite so well known as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, giving us specific details of their beginnings, trajectory, and legacy. I found this part totally engaging, reading about the perseverance, selflessness and faith of the likes of Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey and Edith Wilson, as well as the determination and diversity of Alberta Hunter. I wanted an entire book for each one of them. But this book appears to be all there is for now.

The tedium of parts of the first half aside, I am grateful this book was written for its historical reference, and that it was done so with Ms. Harrison's at times scholastic yet overall sympathetic voice.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book counters the idea that blues began with lone bluesmen like Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. It recounts how black women sang the blues in the 1920s (although the arrangements were probably ragtime or swing). Victoria Spivey is one example. She came late to the "race records," not recording until 1929, and managed to survived during the 1930s and even the 1940s, when most of these women had stopped recording. Then in the 1960s she started Spivey Records, and one of the people on an early compilation was Bob Dylan. Another woman to listen to is Memphis Minnie, one of the few 1920s blueswomen to play guitar. She often played with her husband, Kansas Joe McCoy.

Memphis Minnie wrote "When the Levee Breaks," covered by Led Zeppelin. My favorite song title of hers is "Selling My Pork Chops, Giving My Gravy Away."