Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American Blues Singer.
Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.
Smith was gifted with a powerfully strong voice that recorded very well from her first record, made during the time when recordings were made acoustically. With the coming of electrical recording (circa 1925), the sheer power of her voice was even more evident. She was also able to benefit 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.
She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green.
Please Read More on Ms Bessie @: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith
Listen to her sing - "Tain' Nobody's Business If I Do" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cngx_KKiWE |
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