... -less rural audiences, yet eventually the jazz connection did pay off. Performed as somewhat urbanized blues with large jazz-musician ensembles, Mamie Smith's 1920 breakout hit "Crazy Blues" and the ensuing (1923-on) recordings of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith first exposed the blues to a mass audience (this was despite the blues having been considered as primarily a man's medium!). The earliest ... , Johnson was a superb synthesis of styles, taking everything he borrowed--even the integration of the pietistic of Leroy Carr--a step further. Other Mississippian bluesmen such as Skip James, Mi...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate