Bessie Smith

1. Bessie
Smith
Empress of the Blues
Belen Brito Peret

2. Dates
The African American singer Bessie Smith was born in April 15, 1894
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
And she died in
September 26, 1937 (aged 43)
Clarksdale, Mississippi, U.S.

3. Short Biography
★ Bessie Smith was born into poverty in Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of
seven children of William and Laura Smith.
★ Her father was a Baptist minister and a laborer. Her father died soon
after her birth and her mother and two of her brothers died by the time
she was eight or nine.
★ An unmarried aunt raised her and her siblings. Smith realized that she
had an unusual voice and sang for money on street corners at an early
age, accompanied on guitar by Andrew, her younger brother.

4. ★ At age eighteen Bessie worked with the Moses Stokes traveling
minstrel show. The minstrel show (a show based on African American
music and humor) circuit was a difficult life.
★ Late hours, low pay, gambling, fighting, and abusing alcohol and
drugs were commonplace. But Smith's voice was remarkable, filling
the largest hall without amplification (the expansion of sound) and
reaching out to each listener in beautiful, earthy tones.
★ Bessie Smith produced "Down-Hearted Blues" and "Gulf Coast Blues"
in February 1923. An astounding 780 thousand copies sold within six
months.

5. Why was she famous/important?
In 1923 Smith's big break came when
she was discovered by Columbia Records.
Frank Walker handled her recording contract
from 1923 through 1931 and helped launch her
successful career of 160 titles.
Smith recorded with a variety of accompanists
during her ten-year recording career.

6. Why was her impact on the USA
1920s?
★ Bessie Smith was the honor as the greatest classic blues singer of
the 1920’s
★ Bessie remained very popular in the South and continued to draw large
crowds although the money was not as good as it was in the 1920’s
★ Throughout the 1920’s, Bessie recorded with many of the great Jazz
musicians of that era, including Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson,
Coleman Hawkins, Don Redmond and Louis Armstrong. Her rendition
of “St. Louis blues” with Armstrong is considered by most critics to be
one of the finest recordings of the 1920’s.

7. Hope you like it!