Search - Artist/Band: Bessie Smith

• Name: Bessie Smith
• Birthday: 04/15/1894
• Birth Place: Chattanooga, TN
• Died: 09/26/1937
• Decades Active: 1920,1930
• Genre: Blues
• Styles: Classic Female Blues, Classic Jazz, Vaudeville Blues
• Moods: Confident, Earthy, Exuberant, Raucous, Rollicking, Boisterous, Carefree, Irreverent, Passionate, Earnest, Freewheeling, Playful, Rousing, Sensual, Sexy

Title	Release
Empress of the Blues, Vol, 2: 1926-1933 WA	05/27/2008
Itinerary of a Genius	09/25/2007
Blues Queen	05/07/2007
Queen of the Blues Volume 1 WA	03/13/2007
Empty Bed Blues: 42 Classic Recordings	11/21/2006
The Undisputed Queen of the Blues	11/13/2006
Empress of the Blues, Vol. 3 [Italy]	07/18/2006
Empress of the Blues, Vol. 2 [Italy]	06/20/2006
Empress of the Blues, Vol. 1 [Italy]	05/16/2006
Jazz 'N' Blues	02/14/2006
Queen of the Blues, Vol. 1 [Disc A]	01/01/2006
Queen of the Blues, Vol. 1 [Disc B] WA	01/01/2006
Queen of the Blues, Vol. 1 [Disc C] WA	01/01/2006
Queen of the Blues, Vol. 1 [Disc D] WA	01/01/2006
Sweet Mistreater	08/23/2005
Greatest Hits	06/21/2005
The Empress of the Blues: 1923-1933	11/02/2004
Preachin' the Blues: Original Recordings 1925-1927	08/17/2004
Best of the Empress of the Blues	08/10/2004
Complete Recordings, Vol. 8 WA	05/25/2004
Careless Love	04/20/2004
Complete Recordings, Vol. 7 WA	02/24/2004
Careless Love Blues	2004
Down Hearted Blues [Proper]	2004
Me & My Gin	2004
Young Woman Blues	2004
Complete Recordings, Vol. 6 WA	11/25/2003
St. Louis Blues	09/23/2003
Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Bessie Smith WA	09/09/2003
Complete Recordings, Vol. 5 [Frog] WA	05/06/2003
Downhearted Blues	03/18/2003
The Gold Collection [1 Disc]	02/12/2003
Complete Recordings, Vol. 4 [Frog]	10/22/2002
The Quintessence "The Empress": 1923 - 1933 WA	07/30/2002
The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3 [Frog] WA	07/16/2002
Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 [Frog]	11/02/2001
After You've Gone	10/23/2001
Empress of the Blues [Aim Trading]	10/01/2001
Legendary Blues Recordings: Bessie Smith	05/01/2001
Down Hearted Blues [Golden Options]	03/24/2001
Bessie Smith: The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 WA	2001
Black Mountain Blues	12/12/2000
Nobody Knows You When Your Down & Out	11/13/2000
Woman's Trouble Blues	02/21/2000
Together	12/14/1999
The Empress & the Pianist: 1923-1931	10/12/1999
The Incomparable	09/14/1999
Queen of the Blues	06/01/1999
Masters	01/05/1999
1929-1933 WA	04/07/1998
The Ultimate Collection	1998
The Essential Bessie Smith WA	08/27/1997
Bessie Smith: Members Edition	08/20/1997
L' Arte Vocale, Vol. 3: La Sélection 1923-1933	06/24/1997
1923 WA	11/19/1996
1923-1924 WA	11/19/1996
1924-1925 WA	11/19/1996
1925-1927 WA	11/19/1996
1927-1928	11/19/1996
1928-1929 WA	11/19/1996
An Introduction to Bessie Smith: Her Best Recordings 1923-1933 WA	11/19/1996
Beale Street Mama	04/09/1996
Sings the Blues	03/01/1996
Bessie Smith Sings the Jazz WA	02/22/1996
American Legends No. 14: Bessie Smith	1996
Empty Bed Blues [Living Era]	1996
Blue Spirit Blues	12/12/1995
Do Your Duty: The Essential Recordings of Bessie Smith	1995
Mama's Got the Blues	09/25/1994
Alexander's Ragtime Band	1994
Empress of the Blues: Collectors Edition	1994
Mother of the Blues	07/01/1991
1923-1933: Empress of the Blues	1991
The Collection	1989
1925-1933 WA	1987
Nobody's Blues But Mine	1979
The Bessie Smith Story, Vol. 4	1951
Lady Luck Blues	02/16/1923
World's Greatest Blues Singer	1923
I Ain't Got Nobody
I'm Wild About That Thing: Blues Collection
The Bessie Smith Collection

The first major blues and jazz singer on record and one of the most powerful of all time, Bessie Smith rightly earned the title of "The Empress of the blues." Even on her first records in 1923, her passionate voice overcame the primitive recording quality of the day and still communicates easily to today's listeners (which is not true of any other singer from that early period). At a time when the blues were in and most vocalists (particularly vaudevillians) were being dubbed "blues singers," Bessie Smith simply had no competition.

Back in 1912, Bessie Smith sang in the same show as Ma Rainey, who took her under her wing and coached her. Although Rainey would achieve a measure of fame throughout her career, she was soon surpassed by her protégée. In 1920, Smith had her own show in Atlantic City and, in 1923, she moved to New York. She was soon signed by Columbia and her first recording (Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues") made her famous. Bessie Smith worked and recorded steadily throughout the decade, using many top musicians as sidemen on sessions including Louis Armstrong, Joe Smith (her favorite cornetist), James P. Johnson, and Charlie Green. Her summer tent show Harlem Frolics was a big success during 1925-1927, and Mississippi Days in 1928 kept the momentum going.

However, by 1929 the blues were out-of-fashion and Bessie Smith's career was declining despite being at the peak of her powers (and still only 35). She appeared in St. Louis Blues that year (a low-budget movie short that contains the only footage of her), but her hit recording of "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" predicted her leaner Depression years. Although she was dropped by Columbia in 1931 and made her final recordings on a four-song session in 1933, Bessie Smith kept on working. She played the Apollo in 1935 and substituted for Billie Holiday in the show Stars Over Broadway. The chances are very good that she would have made a comeback, starting with a Carnegie Hall appearance at John Hammond's upcoming From Spirituals to Swing concert, but she was killed in a car crash in Mississippi. Columbia has reissued all of her recordings, first in five two-LP sets and more recently on five two-CD box sets that also contain her five alternate takes, the soundtrack of St. Louis Blues, and an interview with her niece Ruby Smith. "The Empress of the blues," based on her recordings, will never have to abdicate her throne. ~ Scott Yanow!, All Music Guide