Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith, known as the "Empress of the Blues," was the most influential and controversial classical blues singer of the 1920s. During her prime, her powerful blues voice sold almost a million records and gave her a weekly salary of about $2000, placing her at the top of the blues charts. Though she was often criticized for her reputation of drinking, fighting, and sexual encounters with both sexes, she was a legend in the black community. Even though her career ended prematurely due to a tragic car accident, her music reached people throughout the south and the north and influenced later renowned singers like Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin.Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee sometime in 1894, Bessie Smith was raised by her older sister, Viola, after the early death of both her father and mother. Her older brother, Clarence, was her number one influence as a child, and it was he who influenced her and her younger brother Andrew to begin their performing careers in the
It has earned her several honors such as induction into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Several of her songs have survived to the present as certified blues classics. With such songs as "Gimmie a Pigfoot" she was still able to strike a note that her southern audience still found moving. But once with Columbia she teamed up with pianist Clarence Williams in February of 1923 and recorded "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Down Hearted Blues. Bessie Smith traveled with the Moses Strokes Company until 1915 when she left the group and moved to Philadelphia. Soon after Clarence began his professional career, she was able to get an audition with the same Moses Strokes Company for whom he was performing. Here she began her comeback as swing musician and recorded with different jazz musicians-- black and white. She joined the traveling show in 1912 where she became friends with her mentor, Ma Rainey, a blues vocalist. During her prime as a classical blues signer she performed with numerous noted musicians such as pianist Fletcher Henderson, James P. With these famous musicians she produced over 160 songs, including "Taint Nobody's Bizness," "Mama's Got the Blues," "Back Water Blues," and "Poor Man's Blues. Things would soon come to a tragic end in 1935 when she and her friend and lover, Richard Morgan, had a car accident while driving through Clarksdale, Mississippi. " Many of her songs reflected the tragedies she saw in the south, exemplifying the important historical place of music in African American culture.
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