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The Recording Studio - Coggle Diagram

- - - - JET: Her liveness is neither contingent on the recording nor her physical presence onstage
      - JET: exudes a magnetic pull even when asbent
      - JET: best singers of the blues, from Ma Rainey to Billie Holiday, have voices that sound like they have been through something
        
        JET: They represent voices that have lived
  - - - voice is still being heard through recordings. What does it mean for these voices to be disembodied?
        
        HoD
        
        PM: sound of the voice, bodily expression of selfhood.
        
        uncanny
        
        depersonalised?
        
        JET: Wilson's play demonstrates the importance of the human body - and in this case, the black body.
        
        JET: It is only with the presence of live bodies in juxtaposition with phantom presence of the records that Wilson can express what it means to have lived the blues & reclaim the music from an exploitative white recording industry.
        
        JET: Important for Wilson that the audience both feels Ma Rainey's absence, as well as her presence.
        
        For WIlson, the 'black body' is fundamental to the blues performer
      - PMG: the blues, in this play functioning as Wilson's symbol of the African American heritage
        
        Thus, by separating the sound from the source, the music is separated from its integral heritage.
        
        JET: [Wilson's suspension of the recording, he] introduces the tensions of a history that might have been
        
        JET: Wilson has created a break in which he can fictionalise the events surrounding the recording
        
        JET: As the band members wait for Ma's arrival, they riff and improvise on themes ranging from shoes & women to art, black exploitation, and African history.
      - If blues are humanised by their fundamentally communal nature then, by separating the performer from their audience through recording, the white producers may be seen to be dehumanising the blues musicians.
      - JET: When the recording of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is made at last, the audience neither sees or hears it. Instead it ostensibly occurs outside the time of the play, and as the stage directions indicate, "Lights come up in the studio. The last bars of the last song of the session are dying out."
        
        JET: Makes the recording itself a kind of phantom limb
        
        JET: Wilson's decision to leave out the recording [...] illustrates the fundamental impossibility of staging a recording.
  - - - JET: Recording industry was beginning to shape how people thought about ownership in music.
        
        JET: Ma might have sung the song first, but Bessie recording it first with Columbia Records in 1924.
        
        creating divide in blues community; promoters claim more power
        
        BC: No one [...] can 'own' this music - certainly not Sturdyvant, who as a white understands nothing about it and only wishes to make money out of itl and not even Ma herself, even though she's known as the Mother of the Blues.
  - - - JET: 1920s, recorded more than a hundred songs & mentored other young blues singers, including Bessie Smith.
    - - JET: unconcerned with record sales, Ma Rainey's allegiance is to her fans
        
        blues are humanising in their functioning as a reciprocal matrix between performer and audience.
      - JET: scepticism of recording implies that they are merely a way to advertise for her tour.
- - - - Norton Anthology: tracks came to be known as "race records"
        
        Term suggests white supremacy is central to the appeal of the music. (Race = power construct - Ibram X. Kendi)
- - - - BC: Irvin is more subtle and, apparently, sensitive, in his approach to Ma Rainey and the musicians, but again only as a means to a mercenary end.
    - - SGS: [Ma] knows full well that whites, such as her record promoters Sturdyvant & Irvin, ultimately determine her longevity in the business
      - PMG: these men have become wealthy exploiting Ma's recordings.
        They don't seem to care about the music; money is their main incentive.
    - - 'I don't care what she calls herself. I'm not putting up with it. I just want to get her in here ... record those songs on that list ... and get her out.' (p.18)
        
        vague lang. used to describe what Ma is recording indicates lack of interest in the actual music.
      - 'she marches in here like she owns the damn place... doesn't like the songs we picked out... says her throat is sore... doesn't want to do more than one take...' # (p.18)
        
        demonstrates anxiety around ownership. He owns the studio, though can't make money without the recordings.
        
        Should the studio rightfully belong to the musicians?
        
        Attempt to restore threat to power by repositioning Ma's relationship to the space. Suggesting she is a guest in the space who should 'obey' their rules &, through this, present her as rude.
      - Sturdyvant: You told me she'd be here.
        Irvin: She'll be here, okay? I don't know what's keeping her. You know they're always late, Mel. [...]
        Sturdyvant: But if she doesn't come... if she doesn't come... #
        
        Ma's authority
        
        Anxiety about Ma's absence. She occupies the conversation despite not being there.
        
        Lack of info on her whereabouts suggests level of independence from their control. Whilst not the case this time, suggests she is generally free to turn up to meetings on her own accord.
        
        Sturdyvant fails to finish last sentence. Is this answer too painful? Too ashamed? Doesn't want to appear reliant upon her? Alternatively, threat to Irvin or Ma?
        
        'they're': ambiguous - either blues musicians, blues women or women more generally. Either way, use of generalisations as means of control, repression.
        
        Their attempts to regain power through speech suggests anxiety that they don't have as much power as they'd like.
  - - - BC: If she behaves imperiously, brooking no compromise, it is because she has no illusions about the real nature of her relationship with the white-owned and white-controlled record industry.
      - HJE: Recognizing that the purpose of the recording session is to record her voice and her music, Ma does not allow herself to be objectified but uses her position as desired musical commodity to legitimate her authority
        
        Ma Rainey: Why you all keep it so cold in here? Sturdyvant try and pinch every penny he can. You all wanna make some records, you better put some heat on in here or give me back my coat. [...]
        Ma Rainey: Irvin, call down there and see about my car. I want my car fixed today.
        *Irvin: I'll take care of everything, Ma.
        
        Ma mocks Sturdyvant's economic fixation: undermines his authority.
        
        Ma dictates commands to Irvin and he obeys. Reversal of roles: when with Sturdyvant, they express power through language though this exposes superficiality of these claims. For Ma to record, they must meet her requirements.
        
        Ma: All this hurry up and he goes off back there with Sturdyvant. I know he better come on 'cause Ma ain't gonna be waiting.'
        
        Ma recognises & calls out double standards. As far as she can, she will not stand for this injustice.
        
        Blues is about giving voice to those silenced by history.
        
        Self-respect: recognises her time as valuable and refuses for it to be wasted.
- - - - HJE: deciding how the music would be played
      - HJE: deciding [...] when she would record & perform