Arizona Dranes — He Is My Story: The Sanctified Soul Of Arizona Dra
Arizona Dranes is a new name to me, but the accompanying book makes very clear her talent and importance. She was probably born in 1889, in Sherman, Texas. She was born blind, and had the fortune to be educated at the Austin Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youths; here, music was concentrated on, being seen as a viable way for a blind person to make a living. Dranes was thus schooled classically in piano and vocal - there can’t be many old blues musicians who were studying Mozart at the age of ten! After school, Dranes found work in the theatre, playing blues, ragtime and barrelhouse; until she crops up as full-time missionary for the Pentecostal Church Of God In Christ. The Pentecostal church was an emerging presence in Dranes’s time, with its emphasis on being “slain in the spirit”: speaking in tongues and being “possessed”, as it were, by the Holy Spirit. Dancing might have been frowned upon outside of the church, but at services it was a form of worship in itself. Drane’s inspired playing was recommended to the Okeh label; and in June, 1926, she travelled to Chicago to record - the first of three sessions across two years. The cd contains the results of these sessions.
I’m always drawn more to the guitar, when it comes to blues recordings; but the sheer exuberance and passion of Dranes’ performances would come across if she was a cappella. As it is, her piano playing is fluid and intricate; injecting her ragtime and barrelhouse styles with the precision and touch of her classical training. With a thundering, percussive style, her hands dance around each other; rhythmically and melodically. The upbeat, jaunty feel of most of her songs, is aided on her July, 1928 sessions by an unknown mandolin player; who adds sprightly counterpoint to her keys. If the performances are built on the solid ground of her classical schooling, they are also evidence of the intensity of her religious belief and experience. Most of the tracks feature backing vocals from several singers; giving the tracks the feel and tone that most of us associate with gospel worship - not so much a “choir” as a group of people singing along individually. This produces a fervent, raw sound; urgent and passionate: indeed, Dranes herself produces several loud exclamations of “Hallelujah!”. On top of this, several of the tracks have a call and response form, as used in Pentecostal worship.
The twin influences of her education and the Holy Spirit are also to be found in Dranes’ vocals. Perhaps the bulk of the performances show her voice in a raw and joyful light, with a song like “I’m Glad My Lord Saved Me” featuring her hollering and wailing - “slain in the spirit”. But, at other points, her study of arias and vocal technique shine through; “It’s All Right Now” has vocal pronunciation thats almost “clipped” in places, whilst “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go” displays her powerful vibrato. A song like “In That Day” combines both her tutored and rawer states, with the rolled “r”s of elocution sitting alongside bluesy straining. Echoing this, sometimes the passion of her vocals leads to slight melodic waywardness; whilst, at other times, Dranes is clinically precise and deliberate in terms of pitch. The sessions also produced two instrumental pieces, “Crucifixion” and “Sweet Heaven Is My Home”, which lay bare Dranes’ piano virtuosity; but even without vocals, the passion of her beliefs comes through in the barely restrained energy of her playing.
After these recording sessions, and an unsatisfactory relationship with OKeh, Dranes disappeared into obscurity and church work. She died in Los Angeles, in 1963. Like many early blues musicians, her legacy remains her recordings - the book features only two confirmed photographs, with a possible third - but Tompkins Square have done their best to flesh out her life. The book, written by Michael Corcoran, is clearly the result of rigorous research; and has a wealth of documentary material: photos, letters, documents, OKeh adverts. It isn’t always brilliantly written, but the last paragraph is a very affecting salute to Dranes’ memory indeed. However, as I said earlier, her legacy is her recordings; and here, the sound quality on the cd is very good indeed for pieces that are nearly one hundred years old. They present an interesting meeting between classical training, popular music and religious experience; between the devil’s music and the Holy Spirit. Beyond the pure sensual pleasure of listening to Arizona Dranes - and a song like “God’s Got A Crown” has incredible peaks of intensity - her recordings also have genuine historical significance; as succinctly put by Corcoran (pardon the lengthy quote):
“Black Baptist and Methodist churches of the time wouldn’t think of including ragtime at their services. But early Pentecostals erased the divide between secular and sacred because in their perspective all experience was religious. They could only dance at church, so they snatched the good stuff from the devil, colored it in deep devotion and had a Holy Ghost party every Sunday. When the “saints” got together in praise, it was a time of jubilation, not assimilation– an unflinching celebration of blackness.
Before long, mainline black churches had to begrudgingly incorporate elements of the “hard gospel” style or risk losing even more parishioners to the Pentecostal churches. The “tongue people” started a musical renaissance that eventually gave birth to soul music and rock and roll.”