Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 September 26, 1937) time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census
was an American blues singer.
as a minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence, Alabama.) He died before his daughter could remember
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was
the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and him. By the time she was nine, she had lost her mother
and a brother as well. Her older sister Viola took charge
1930s.[1] She is often regarded as one of the greatest
[3]
singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a ma- of caring for her siblings.
jor inuence on other jazz vocalists.[2]

To earn money for their impoverished household, Bessie

Smith and her brother Andrew began busking on the
streets of Chattanooga as a duet: she singing and dancing, he accompanying her on guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets in the heart of the citys AfricanAmerican community.

Life

In 1904, her oldest brother, Clarence, covertly left home,

joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes.
If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with
him, said Clarences widow, Maud. Thats why he left
without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready,
even then. Of course, she was only a child.[4]
In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the
Stokes troupe. He arranged for its managers, Lonnie and
Cora Fisher, to give Smith an audition. She was hired as
a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also
included the well known singer, Ma Rainey. Smith eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines,
making the 81 Theater in Atlanta her home base. There
were times when she worked in shows on the black-owned
T.O.B.A. (Theater Owners Booking Association) circuit.
She would rise to become its biggest star after signing
with Columbia Records.
By 1923, when she began her recording career, Smith had
taken up residence in Philadelphia. There she met and fell
in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her rst record was released.
During the marriagea stormy one, with indelity on
both sidesSmith became the highest paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her
own custom-built railroad car. Gee was impressed by the
money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to
Smiths bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Bessie Smith
ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a
divorce.

Portrait of Bessie Smith, 1936

The 1900 census indicates that Bessie Smith was born in

Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892, a date provided
by her mother. However, the 1910 census recorded her
birthday as April 15, 1894, a date that appears on all subsequent documents and was observed by the entire Smith
family. Census data also contribute to controversy about
the size of her family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, while later interviews with
Smiths family and contemporaries did not include these Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old
friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's unindividuals among her siblings.
cle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him
Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura (ne Owens) and
until her death.[3]
William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part1

Career

CAREER

day.[7] Columbia nicknamed her Queen of the Blues,

but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to Empress.
Smith had a powerfully strong voice that recorded very
well from her rst record, made during the time when
recordings were made acoustically. With the coming
of electrical recording (her rst electrical recording was
Cake Walking Babies (From Home)" recorded Tuesday,
May 5, 1925),[8] the sheer power of her voice was even
more evident. She was also able to benet from the new
technology of radio broadcasting, even on stations that
were in the segregated south. For example, after giving a concert for a white-only audience at a local theater
in Memphis, Tennessee, in October 1923, she then performed a late night concert on station WMC, where her
songs were very well received by the radio audience.[9]
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the nest musicians of the day, most notably
Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green.

2.1 Broadway

Portrait of Bessie Smith by Carl Van Vechten

All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did

not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop
a stage presence.[5] Smith began forming her own act
around 1913, at Atlantas 81 Theater. By 1920, Smith
had established a reputation in the South and along the
Eastern Seaboard.
In 1920, sales gures of over 100,000 copies for Crazy
Blues, an Okeh Records recording by singer Mamie
Smith (no relation) pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to blacks, but
the success of the record led to a search for female blues
singers. Bessie Smith was signed to Columbia Records
in 1923 by Frank Walker, a talent agent who had seen
her perform years earlier. Her rst session for Columbia
was February 15, 1923. For most of 1923, her records
were issued on Columbias regular A- series; when the
label decided to establish a "race records series, Smiths
Cemetery Blues (September 26, 1923) was the rst issued.
She scored a big hit with her rst release, a coupling of
Gulf Coast Blues and "Downhearted Blues", which its
composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit
on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on
the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.[6] Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest
of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car),
Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her

Smiths career was cut short by a combination of the

Great Depression, which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of talkies, which
spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville
shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway
op called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she
was the only asset.

2.2 Film
In 1929, Smith made her only lm appearance, starring in
a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's
song of the same name. In the lm, directed by Dudley
Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and
a string sectiona musical environment radically dierent from any found on her recordings.

2.3 Swing era

In 1933, John Hammond, who also mentored Billie Holiday, asked Smith to record four sides for Okeh (which
had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He
claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, working as a hostess in a speakeasy on Philadelphias Ridge
Avenue.[10] Bessie Smith worked at Arts Cafe on Ridge
Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of
1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, Bessie

2.4

Death

was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to the shoulmemory and gratuitous embellishments.[11]
der of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a
Bessie Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house
each selection and these Okeh sides, which were her last about 500 feet o the road to call an ambulance.
recordings. Made on November 24, 1933, they serve as a
hint of the transformation she made in her performances
as she shifted her blues artistry into something that t the
"swing era". The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as
trombonist Jack Teagarden, trumpeter Frankie Newton,
tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, pianist Buck Washington,
guitarist Bobby Johnson, and bassist Billy Taylor. Benny
Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection. Hammond was not entirely pleased
with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old
blues groove. Take Me for a Buggy Ride and Gimme
a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", both written by Wesley
Wilson, continue to be ranked among her most popular
recordings.[3] Billie Holiday, who credited Smith as her
major inuence along with Louis Armstrong, would go
on to record her rst record for Columbia three days later
with the same band personnel.

2.4

Death

On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in

a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving and misjudged
the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire
marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid
the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the
rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the
truck sheared o the wooden roof of Smiths old Packard.
Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her
right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of
the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.

By the time Broughton returned approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with
no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that
they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton
had almost nished clearing the back seat when they
heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr.
Smith ashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming
car failed to stop and plowed into the doctors car at full
speed. It sent his car careening into Bessie Smiths overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming
car ricocheted o Dr. Smiths car into the ditch on the
right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.[14]
The young couple in the new car did not have lifethreatening injuries. Two ambulances arrived on the
scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had
not seen the accident victims.
Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdales G. T. Thomas
Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was
amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smiths death, an often repeated but
now discredited story emerged about the circumstances;
namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale.
Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in
an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smiths death and the rumor
promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.[15]

The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a

white hospital, you can forget that. Dr. Smith told Albertson. Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought
of putting a colored person o in a hospital for white
The rst people on the scene were a Memphis surgeon,
folks.[16]
Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation), and his shing partner
Henry Broughton. In the early 1970s, Dr. Smith gave Smiths funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a
a detailed account of his experience to Bessies biogra- week later on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally
pher Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness laid out at Upshurs funeral home. As word of her death
testimony about the events surrounding Bessie Smiths spread through Philadelphias black community, the body
had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accomdeath.
modate the estimated 10,000 mourners who led past
After stopping at the accident scene, Dr. Smith examher con on Sunday, October 3.[17] Contemporary newsined Bessie Smith, who was lying in the middle of the
papers reported that her funeral was attended by about
road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had
seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the
lost about a half-pint of blood, and immediately noted a
burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill.
major traumatic injury to her right arm; it had been alGee thwarted all eorts to purchase a stone for his es[12]
most completely severed at the elbow. But Dr. Smith
tranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for
was emphatic that this arm injury alone did not cause her
that purpose.[18]
death. Although the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970,
and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her when a tombstonepaid for by singer Janis Joplin and
Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for
body, consistent with a sideswipe collision.[13]

6 IN POPULAR CULTURE
ing Registry.[24] The board selects songs on an annual
basis that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically
signicant.[25]
Downhearted Blues was included in the list of Songs of
the Century by the Recording Industry of America and
the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that
shaped rock 'n' roll.[26]

4.3 Inductions
U.S. Postage Stamp

5 Digital remastering

Smiths death certicate

Smithwas erected.[19]

Technical faults in the majority of her original

gramophone recordingsespecially variations in
recording speed, which raised or lowered the apparent
pitch of her voice, misrepresented the light and shade
of her phrasing, interpretation and delivery. They altered
the apparent key of her performances (sometimes raised
or lowered by as much as a semitone). The fact that
the centre hole in some of the master recordings had
not been in the true middle of the master disc meant
that there were wide variations in tone, pitch, key and
phrasing, as commercially released records revolved
around the spindle.

Dory Previn wrote a song of Janis Joplin and the tomb- Given those historic limitations, the current digitally restone called Stone for Bessie Smith on her album mastered versions of her work deliver signicant, very
positive dierences in the sound quality of Smiths perMythical Kings and Iguanas.
formances. Some critics believe that the American
The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat
Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R.
historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.[20]
T. Davies for Frog Records.[27]

Hit records

Selective awards and recognition

4.1

Grammy Hall of Fame

Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the

Grammy Hall of Fame. This special Grammy Award was
established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least
25 years old and that have qualitative or historical signicance.

4.2

National Recording Registry

In 2002 Smiths recording of the single, "Downhearted

Blues", was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Record-

6 In popular culture
The 1948 short story "Blue Melody" by J. D.
Salinger and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie
Smith by Edward Albee are both based on Smiths
life and death, but poetic license is taken by both authors; for instance, Albees play distorts the circumstances of her medical treatment, or lack thereof,
prior to her demise, attributing it to racist medical
practitioners.
Bessies Back In Town, a new musical in production
by Barry Edelson, avoids the poetic-license issue, as
it accurately as possible presents true and major aspects of her life, as well as her death, while remaining true to her music.[28]
Playwright Angelo Parra wrote the 2001 musical
play The Devils Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie
Smith, with Miche Braden in the title role

5
The video game series Bioshock (1 and 2) Bessie
Smith is portrayed as a cameo of a character by
the name of Grace Holloway. Bessie Smiths music can be heard during the loading screen and in
the level Paupers Drop, and in the various hallways
and rooms of the sunken city.
HBO released a movie about Smith, called Bessie,
starring Queen Latifah on May 16, 2015.[29]

Notes

[1] Joel Whitburn's methodology for creating pre-1940s chart

placings has been criticised,[22] and they should not be
taken as denitive.

References

[1] Jasen, David A.; Gene Jones (September 1998). Spreadin'

Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 18801930.
Schirmer Books. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-02-864742-5.
[2] Bessie Smith at sparknotes.com

[17] Chris Albertson, Bessie: Empress of the Blues (London:

Sphere Books, 1975, ISBN 0-349-10054-3)
[18] Albertson, Bessie, pp. 25 and 277.
[19] Albertson, Bessie, p. 277.
[20] Historical marker placed on Mississippi Blues Trail.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. January 25,
2007. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
[21] Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories: 1890-1954.
Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
[22] Joel Whitburn criticism: chart fabrication, misrepresentation of sources, cherry picking. Songbook. Retrieved
15 July 2015.
[23] Grammy Hall of Fame Award Database
[24] 2002 Registry choices
[25] Librarian of Congress Names 50 Sound Recordings to the
Inaugural National Recording Registry
[26] 500 Songs That Shaped Rock at the Wayback Machine
(archived July 5, 2008)
[27] The Telegraph 100 best Jazz Recordings

[3] Chris Albertson, Bessie (Revised and Expanded Edition),

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-30009902-9.

[28] Bessies Back In Town - The Bessie Smith Story on

YouTube.

[4] Albertson, 2003, p. 11.

[29] 'Bessie' Starring Queen Latifah to Premiere this Spring on

HBO

[5] Albertson, 2003, pp. 1415.

[6] Oliver, Paul. Bessie Smith, in Kernfeld, Barry. ed. The
New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition, Vol. 3. London: MacMillan, 2002. p. 604.
[7] Albertson, 2003, p. 80.
[8] Chris Albertson: Bessie Smith, The Complete Recordings
Vol. 2 (CD booklet), Columbia COL 468767 2
[9] Hit on Radio, Chicago Defender, October 6, 1923, p. 8.
[10] Hammond, John Hammond On Record, p. 120.
[11] Albertson, Bessie, pp. 224225.
[12] Blues Legend Bessie Smith Dead 50 Years. Schenectady Gazette. 26 September 1987. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
[13] Chris Albertson: Bessie: Empress of the Blues (London:
Sphere Books, 1972; ISBN 0-300-09902-9), pp. 192
195.
[14] Albertson (1972), p. 195.

9 Further reading
Albertson, Chris, Liner notes, Bessie Smith: The
Complete Recordings, Volumes 1 5, Sony Music
Entertainment, 1991.
Albertson, Chris, Bessie (Revised and Expanded
Edition), New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
ISBN 0-300-09902-9.
Barnet, Andrea (2004). All-Night Party: The
Women of Bohemian Greenwich Village and
Harlem, 19131930. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin
Books. ISBN 1-56512-381-6.
Brooks, Edward, The Bessie Smith Companion: A
Critical and Detailed Appreciation of the Recordings,
New York: Da Capo Press, 1982. ISBN 0-30676202-1.

[15] Love, Spencie (1997). One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-80784682-7.

Davis, Angela Y., Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie
Holiday, New York: Pantheon Books, 1998. ISBN
0-679-45005-X.

[16] Chris Albertson, Bessie: Empress of the Blues (London:

Sphere Books, 1972; ISBN 0-300-09902-9), p. 196.

Eberhardt, Cliord, Out of Chattanooga, Chattanooga: Ebco, 1994.

10
Feinstein, Elaine, Bessie Smith, New York: Viking,
1985, ISBN 0-670-80642-0.
Grimes, Sara, Backwaterblues: In Search of Bessie
Smith, Amherst: Rose Island Pub., 2000, ISBN 09707089-0-4.
Kay, Jackie, Bessie Smith, New York: Absolute,
1997. ISBN 1-899791-55-8.
Manera, Alexandria, Bessie Smith, Chicago: Raintree, 2003. ISBN 0-7398-6875-6.
Martin, Florence, Bessie Smith, Paris: Editions du
Limon, 1994. ISBN 2-907224-31-X.
Oliver, Paul, Bessie Smith, London: Cassell, 1959.
Palmer, Tony, All You Need is Love: The Story
of Popular Music, New York: Grossman Publishers/Viking Press, 1976. ISBN 0-670-11448-0.
Scott, Michelle R., Blue Empress: Bessie Smith and
the Emerging Urban South in Black Chattanooga,
Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
ISBN 0252075455.
Welding, Pete; Byron, Tony (eds), Bluesland: Portraits of Twelve Major American Blues Masters, New
York: Dutton, 1991. ISBN 0-525-93375-1.
Schuller, Gunther; Early Jazz, Its Roots and Musical
Development, Vol. 1, New York: Oxford University
Press, 1968 ISBN 0-19-504043-0 (pbk).

10

External links

Interview with Bessie Smith biographer Chris Albertson

Bessie Smith discography at Discogs
Bessie Smith at Find a Grave

EXTERNAL LINKS

11
11.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Bessie Smith Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith?oldid=671476782 Contributors: Mav, Koyaanis Qatsi, Gareth Owen,
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11.2

Images

File:BessieSmith.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/BessieSmith.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: American Memory from the Library of Congress Original artist: Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer.
File:Bessiesmith3.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Bessiesmith3.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Van Vechten Collection, reproduction number LC-USZ62-117880 (digital
le from original photo). Original artist: Carl Van Vechten
File:Death_certificate_(1).jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Death_certificate_%281%29.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/ Original artist: Hugh Cottrell
File:Office-book.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Office-book.svg License: Public domain Contributors: This and myself. Original artist: Chris Down/Tango project
File:Saxo_Boca1.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Saxo_Boca1.JPG License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Symbol_book_class2.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Symbol_book_class2.svg License: CC
BY-SA 2.5 Contributors: Mad by Lokal_Prol by combining: Original artist: Lokal_Prol

11.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0