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Ida Cox (February 26, 1896 – November 10, 1967)〔"Cox, Ida." The Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography. Basingstoke: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 25 March 2014.〕 was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues".〔Harrison, Daphne Duval. ''Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988.〕 ==Childhood and early career== Cox was born February 26, 1896 to sharecropper parents as Ida Prather in Toccoa, Habersham County, Georgia,〔Toccoa was in Habersham County, not yet Stephens County at the time〕 Georgia, United States, the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather, and grew up in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia.〔"Cox, Ida -LSB - Née Prather - RSB (February 25, 1896, Toccoa, Ga. - November 10, 1967, Knoxville)", ''Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'', Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. March 25, 2014.〕 Her family lived and worked in the shadow of the Riverside Plantation, the private residence of the wealthy Prather family, from which her namesake came.〔Wilson, Karen. "Harlem Wisdom in a Wild Woman's Blues: The Cool Intellect of Ida Cox." Afro - Americans in New York Life and History 30.2 (2006): 99-126. ProQuest. Web. March 25, 2014.〕 She faced a future of desperate poverty and limited educational and employment opportunities.〔Dicaire, David. ''Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century''. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999.〕 Cox joined the local African Methodist Choir at a young age and thus developed a strong interest in gospel music and performance.〔 At the young age of 14, she left her home to tour with the White and Clark's Black & Tan Minstrels.〔Paul Oliver. "Ida Cox" profile, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. March 25, 2014.〕 She began her career on stage by playing Topsy, a "pickaninny" role prevalent on the vaudeville stage at the time and often performed in blackface. Cox's early road show experience also included stints with other African American travelling minstrel shows in the Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A) vaudeville circuit, including the Florida Orange Blossom Minstrels, the Silas Green Show, and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels.〔Bethel, Kari. ("Ida Cox" profile ), answers.com, Gale Contemporary Black Biography; retrieved April 27, 2014.〕 The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, organized by F. S. Wolcott and based after 1918 in Port Gibson, Mississippi, was important not only for the development of Cox’s performing career but was also instrumental in launching the careers of fellow blueswomen and Cox’s idols, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.〔Oliver, Paul. ''The Story of the Blues'', Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998. 〕 The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, known colloquially as “The Foots”, provided a nurturing environment for Cox to develop her career and stage presence, but life on the vaudeville circuit was trying for performers and workers alike. In his book ''The Story of the Blues'', Paul Oliver wrote: "The 'Foots' travelled in two cars and had a 80' x 110' tent which was raised by the roustabouts and canvassmen, while a brass band would parade in town to advertise the coming of the show...The stage would be of boards on a folding frame and Coleman lanterns – gasoline mantle lamps – acted as footlights. There were no microphones; the weaker voiced singers used a megaphone, but most of the featured women blues singers scorned such aids to volume..."〔 When not singing, Cox earned money performing as a sharp-witted comedienne in vaudeville variety shows, gaining valuable stage experience and cultivating her characteristic charismatic stage presence.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ida Cox」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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