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You know about last year’s smash movie, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on August Wilson’s classic play. But what about the real Ma Rainey, the actual mother of the Blues, of whom there are only 7 remaining photos? For this Very Special Episode, we are joined by guitar wizard and jazz historian Charlie Apicella, Grammy Award winning trumpeter Nabaté Isles, and jazz vocalist and impresario Barbara King, to break down how and why Ma Rainey was the root source of everything we know as American music.