From Jug Band to Dixieland: The Musical Development behind August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Abstract

Ma Rainey takes place in 1927 and introduces us to a fictionalized version of the real blues singer Ma Rainey, spending an afternoon in the recording studio with her backup band. The latter dominates the action, and we watch as Cutler, Slow Drag, Toledo, and Levee practise a few tunes, chat about their lives, and squabble over their differences while being overseen by the people who have the real control: the white producer, Sturdyvant, and the band's agent, Irvin. Ma, with her entourage, appears late in the play to make her recording, and although she is a powerful symbol, it is Levee who dominates the action of the play and provides the shocking denouement in which he kills Toledo. One question the play raises is, Whom should we support — Ma or Levee? The play's title attests to the ambivalence of Wilson's answer. Although it names Ma, it actually refers to the song rather than to the person, and it is a song that Levee is trying to claim for his own. The similarities between the characters ensure that we cannot easily dismiss the claims of either one..