Black Eye Blues
One of the wonderful films that rolled out this month is “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the latest in Denzel Washington’s exciting ongoing project to bring the best of the late August Wilson’s plays to the screen. That movie — an excellent vehicle for the Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman — has introduced a lot of people to the recordings of jazz legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, often called “the mother of the blues.” But we in The Flood are proud to say that we started doing Ma Rainey tunes, gosh, more than 40 years ago. Early on we recognized a kindred spirit in Ma through her randy lyrics and raucous wit. Shoot, even now, nearly a century after it was recorded, most of Ma Rainey’s music is meant for the midnight hour and afterward. And, hey, we’re still doing Ma’s songs. For instance, here, from a rehearsal we had a month or so before the the movie’s release, we roll out “Black Eye Blues,” in which Miss Rainey offered up this heartfelt warning to an errant lover: “You low-down alligator, you watch ’n’ sooner or later I’ll catch ya with your breeches down!” Ah, Ma, you could paint a picture!