Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Sara Martin


Sara Martin

Sara Martin was born in 1884 and began her vaudeville career around 1915 in Illinois. In 1922 she was signed to a recording contract with Okeh Records by Clarence Williams. Williams wrote and played piano on a number of Martin’s early records. Sara Martin was said to have excelled as a live performer and was a star on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920s. She had a deep, full-bodied voice that compared favorably with Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey but lacked the emotional punch of those two singers. She often sounded a bit wooden, like she was reading the lyrics on her records, although her diction was impeccable. She recorded four sides with Clarence Williams that included King Oliver on cornet in 1928. “Death Sting Me Blues” from these sessions is one of her better records and shows Oliver to be a master of the Blues. While primarily a popular singer, Martin could get low down on the blues and was billed as the “famous moanin’ mama” as well as “the colored Sophie Tucker” reflecting her dual roles as a Blues and Vaudeville performer. She toured the country until the early 1930s and recorded with Okeh until 1928. When blues faded out in the early 1930s Sara retired from show business but continued to sing gospel. She returned to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky during the Depression and worked in a nursing home. She died of a stroke in 1955.

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