Perry Bradford

Happy Birthday Perry Bradford 1893-1970...Pianist, singer, dancer and composer, Bradford got his start at age 13 in minstrel shows, touring the South and parts of the North with a song and dance act called "Bradford and Jeanette." He worked with Alberta Hunter and lead five recording sessions of his own with a group that included Louis Armstrong and James P. Johnson but it would be his relationship as a manager of Mamie Smith that would be his legacy.

Through his extensive touring he gained huge exposure to African American folk songs and worked diligently early in his career to break down the barriers of racial prejudice that kept African-Americans from recording in their own characteristic style. Before Bradford's breakthrough, African-Americans had recorded in a style that was closely similar to white dance orchestras.

In 1920, Bradford was able to persuade Okeh records to record Mamie Smith singing his own composition, "Crazy Blues" which would become the first recording of vocal blues by an African-American. Smith also starred in Bradford's revue, "Made in Harlem" which he claimed was the first show to offer blues music to the northern Harlem audiences.

Bradford promoted blues and jazz music and musicians by publishing and managing but the crash of the stock market in 1929 and the changing character of jazz and African-American music in general put an end to his career and he slipped into obscurity. In 1965 his autobiography "Born with the Blues" was published with a forward by Noble Sissle. His best known songs are "Crazy Blues", "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down".