Bessie Smith

From Harlem Renaissance

Called "The Empress of the Blues", Bessie Smith went from a rough childhood of poverty to fame and fortune with her rich, deep, and powerful voice.

1 Biography
2 Career
3 Selected Recordings
4 References

Biography

Bessie Smith was born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was poor and both her parents died when she was very young. She was one of seven siblings and after her parents' death her older sister, Viola, had to take care of everyone. Viola supported the family by doing white peoples' laundry. Bessie started singing for money when she was nine. Overall, Smith had a very hard childhood but as she said, "It's a long road, but I know I'm gonna find the end."

There is little known about her education. Some think that she had little or no education.

Bessie Smith

Smith was bisexual. She dated Richard Morgan (a bootlegger), Lillian Simpson (a dancer), Arthur Eggie (a musician), and Sydney Bechet. Smith was married twice. The first time to Earl Love who died soon after their marriage. The second time she was married to Jack Gee who was a security guard. After they married Gee helped manage Smith's career. They adopted a kid together named Jack Gee Jr. They had a tough marriage and separated in 1930. Soon after that she started drinking and became an alcoholic. She weighed over 200 pounds and was six feet tall.

Smith died in a car accident on September 26, 1937. She was 43 years old at the time. She was driving with her close friend Richard Morgan when a truck hit them. Her ribs were bruised and her arm was so badly crushed that it was almost severed. She bled to death by the time she got to the hospital. There was a rumor that she went to a white hospital and was turned away, and didn't get to the black hospital in time but it was later proved untrue. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Career

Smith started singing for nickels and dimes on street corners when she was nine. She ran away as a teenager to join a traveling show as a dancer. In 1912, her brother Clarence set up an audition with Moses Stoes' traveling show, which he had been performing with since 1904. She met blues vocalist Gertrude "Ma" Rainey in that show and then started performing in shows with Chappelle's Rabbit Foot Minstrels, which starred Ma Rainey.

Bessie Smith performed with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels at the start of her career

Ma Rainey became Smith's mentor. When Smith first started performing, she was a dancer. Ma Rainey realized that Smith had very little talent for dancing but had a fabulous talent for singing. Many people have said that although Smith had a better voice, Ma Rainey was a much better performer and Smith soon surpassed Ma Rainey. She continued performing in other shows on the vaudeville circuit, but once she started recording her career skyrocketed. Her first recording "Down Home Blues" (1923), sold 800,000 copies. She continued recording until 1933 and toured with her troupe, The Liberty Belles. She also appeared in the movie St. Louis Blues in 1929. She was in three performances of Pansy on Broadway that same year. At the height of her career in the 1920sm she was making $2000 a week and was the highest paid African American singer at the time. At the start of her career she toured mostly in the South. Later on she started working more in New York. She performed once at the Apollo Theater

The Apollo Theater Starring "The Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith

and also performed with many famous artists such as Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman. Smith performed for mostly black audiences. Her white fans were still able to listen to her music on the radio but they had a hard time buying her records because she "recorded for what were classified as race records that were not stocked in record shops catering to whites" according to a biography of Smith from American Decades.

Compared to many other artists at the time, Bessie Smith had a very wide range of material. She mixed vaudeville and popular songs with traditional jazz. She was one of the first major recorded blues and jazz singers.

Selected Recordings

She recorded 160 records and these are just a few.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Back Water Blues

Chattanooga Gal

Downhearted Blues

Empty Bed Blues

Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer

I Ain’t Going to Play No Second Fiddle

Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out

‘Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do

Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair

St. Louis Blues (with Louis Armstrong)

References

Beckman, Wendy H.. Artists and Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2002.

"Bessie Smith." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/servlet/BioRC

Bessie Smith Photo

"Bessie Smith." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.sfpl.org/servlet/BioRC

Haskins, James. Black Music in America - A History Through Its People. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1987.

"Bessie Smith." iTunes Store: Music: Vocal: Bessie Smith: Biography

Rabbit Foot Minstrels Photo

http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9486520

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566327/Smith_Bessie.html

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/bsmith.html

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/faces/smith_text.html

http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/2667/Smith.htm?tqskip=1

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_smith_bessie.htm

http://www.who2.com/bessiesmith.html

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/jarvis6.html