Sara Martin (June 18, 1884 – May 24, 1955) began her career as a vaudeville singer around 1915 in Illinois. In 1922 she was signed to a recording contract with Okeh Records by Clarence Williams. Williams wrote and played piano on a number of Martin’s early records. Sarah Martin was said to have excelled as a live performer and was a star on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920s. She had a deep, full-bodied voice that compared favorably with Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey but lacked the emotional punch of those two singers. She often sounded a bit wooden, like she was reading the lyrics on her records, although her diction was impeccable. She recorded four sides with Clarence Williams that included King Oliver on cornet in 1928. “Death Sting Me Blues” from these sessions is one of her better records and shows Oliver to be a master of the Blues.

While primarily a popular singer Martin could get low down on the blues and was billed as the “famous moanin’ mama” as well as “the colored Sophie Tucker” reflecting her dual roles as a Blues and vaudeville performer. See toured the country until the early 1930s and recorded with Okeh until 1928. In 1929 she appeared in the film Hello, Bill with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. The following year she appeared in the first all African-American sound film Darktown Revue. When the blues fad died out in the early 1930s Sarah retired from show business, but continued to sing gospel. She returned to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky during the Depression where she ran a nursing home. She died of a stroke in 1955. Sara Martin also recorded under the names of Margaret Johnson and Sally Roberts.