Bessie Smith

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Bessie Smith, photograph by Carl van Vechten , 1936

Bessie Smith [ ˈbɛsɪ ˈsmɪθ ] (born April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga , Tennessee ; † September 26, 1937 in Clarksdale , Mississippi ) was an American blues singer , mainly active in the 1920s, who made more than 150 records and was known as " Empress of the Blues ”was true.

Life

Bessie Smith was one of six children and grew up in utter poverty in a small, ramshackle hut. Her father, a Baptist minister, died soon after she was born, and her mother when she was nine years old. This childhood is described in her title "Washwoman Blues". To escape from misery, she joined a vaudeville theater and traveled with it through the country. At the age of 17 she joined the Moses Stokes Show , where her brother Clarence also worked, as a dancer. It was there that she met Ma Rainey for the first time , whom she took under her wing. In 1913 she appeared in Atlanta at Theater 81 , where she was noticed by the actor Leigh Whipper . She then went on tours of the Theater Owners Booking Association . In 1918 she received an engagement in Baltimore .

In the course of Prohibition , Bessie got plenty to do and had many appearances in numerous clubs, which were mostly owned by gangsters who made money from illegal drinking. The downside was that she also came into contact with the alcohol and ended up becoming alcoholic . This is also reflected in numerous songs such as "The Gin House Blues", "Me and My Gin" or "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)". In Philadelphia she met Jack Gee, a night watchman. On their first date, there was a gunfight at the restaurant in which Jack was shot and nearly succumbed to a gunshot wound. Bessie visited him often in the hospital and they eventually married in 1923.

Bessie Smith - Down Hearted Blues (released March 1923)

In 1921 she first appeared at the Standard Theater in Philadelphia ; the following year she made a guest appearance with the Charlie Johnson Orchestra in the most elegant dance hall in Atlantic City , Paradise Gardens . In February 1923 she made her first recordings, including the " Down Hearted Blues " composed by her colleague Alberta Hunter , which was to make her famous. The song was at # 1 on the Billboard charts for four weeks ; 870,000 copies were sold in seven months. In 1924 she performed for the first time in Chicago , the blues center of the time. Her next single, "Weeping Willow Blues", was created here. During this time she worked with Louis Armstrong , among others , and recorded with other musicians such as Buster Bailey , Fletcher Henderson , Jack Teagarden and Charlie Green . Bessie Smith also often sang pieces that belonged to her colleagues' repertoire, such as the "Graveyard Blues" by Ida Cox or the "Bo-weavil Blues" by Ma Rainey; “However, she knew how to transform the material used and to put the stamp of her strong personality on it,” or she used the rich folk music from the South, which she reworked with her colleagues such as James P. Johnson or Clarence Williams .

With her “passionate voice” she was “the attraction of the Harlem Frolics Show”, where she performed between 1925 and 1927. When the enthusiasm for the blues waned, Smith was forced to tour the southern states again. In March 1928 the piece "Empty Bed Blues" came out. There were many lewd remarks in it about the love arts of the lover, some of which were so direct that it can be described as pornographic . This continued in many of her songs, which were composed in the late 1920s.

Bessie Smith in “St. Louis Blues ” , 1929

On September 30, 1929, the song " Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out ", recorded in May of that year, was released , which was to be her last chart success (15th place). In the same year more pieces were recorded; she also shot a music film for RKO Pictures ("St. Louis Blues"; directed by Dudley Murphy), in which, among others, James P. Johnson , members of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and the Hall Johnson Choir participated. In 1931, however, Columbia Records canceled the contract with her. Of their last recordings between 1930 and 1933, only a few hundred copies were produced; on November 24, 1933, she took on more songs under the direction of John Hammond , in which she stylistically approached jazz ("Gimme a Pigfoot"). In 1935 she received an engagement in the Apollo Theater show "Stars over Broadway" .

In 1936 she moved into the limelight again when she got the chance to perform for the sick Billie Holiday at the Harlem nightclub Connie's Inn . Now the public seemed to be interested in her again, and job offers were mounting. Producer John Hammond hired her in 1937 for his new show "From Spirituals to Swing", where she was no longer to appear.

death

On September 26, 1937, she and her lover Richard Morgan were driving their car in Mississippi when they hit a truck and the car overturned. The first people at the scene of the accident were Dr. Hugh Smith, a Memphis surgeon, and his fishing buddy Henry Broughton. Chris Albertson, the biographer of Bessie Smith, conducted a detailed interview with Hugh Smith about the accident in the early 1970s. Bessie Smith's right arm and rib were badly injured. She was admitted to a hospital for blacks. Her right arm was amputated. According to the attending physician, she passed away one day after this operation without having regained consciousness.

There are other accounts of how, when and where she died:

  • In contrast to the white casualties, she was not treated at the scene of the accident and then bled to death there.
  • She died on the way to the hospital.
  • She was not admitted to the hospital for whites and bled to death, or several hospitals refused to admit the injured woman, whereupon she died on the steps of a clinic. One of these versions goes back to a newspaper interview by Down Beat magazine with producer John Hammond.

Bessie Smith was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1984; In 1989 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously .

Others

The tragic death moved Edward Albee to the one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith in 1959 , in which the variant is represented that the dying singer was forbidden from entering a clinic for whites. Bernard Malamud quotes them in "The Tenants" on the cover page of his novel: "I got to make it, I got to find the end ..."

The singer Janis Joplin , a great admirer of Bessie Smith, wanted to visit her grave in 1970 and allegedly found that her idol had been buried anonymously. Thereupon Joplin had a tombstone set for the deceased with the inscription: "The Greatest Blues Singer In The World Will Never Stop Singing - Bessie Smith - 1894-1937" ("The greatest blues singer in the world will never stop singing" ). According to other sources, Juanita Green, a Philadelphia civil rights activist and nurse, paid half the cost of the tombstone and Joplin, after being asked over the phone, paid the other half.

Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson of The Band , together with Bob Dylan , release a song called "Bessie Smith" on the LP The Basement Tapes , recorded in 1967 in the basement of the legendary Big Pink. Norah Jones covered this song at her concerts.

The life and death of Bessie Smith are the subject of the jazz opera Cosmopolitan Greetings by Allen Ginsberg (libretto), George Gruntz (jazz) and Rolf Liebermann (twelve-tone music), which premiered in Hamburg in 1988 .

The accompanying text of the album The World's Greatest Blues Singer , a compilation of their most famous songs, was awarded a Grammy in 1971 .

Voices of their colleagues

"There she is. Radiant is the only word that can describe it. Of course, she's not beautiful, but for me she is. A white shimmering evening gown, a great tall woman, and she completely rules the stage and the whole house when she sings the 'Yellow Dog Blues'. Yes, I can't express it, but it just has charisma and captivates and captivates me. There is no explanation for her singing, her voice. "

Discographic notes

Recording dates Pieces Accompanist
1923: February 17th Down Hearted Blues Clarence Williams (piano)
1923: April 7th Ticket Agent Ease Your Window Down Robert Robbins (violin); Irving Johns (piano)
1923: September 21 Jailhouse blues Irving Johns (piano)
1924: April 4th Sorrowful blues John Griffin (guitar); Robert Robbins (violin)
1924: July 23 House Rent Blues Charlie Green (trombone); Fletcher Henderson (piano)
1924: September 26th Weeping Willow Blues Joe Smith (cornet); Charlie Green (trombone); Fred Longshaw (piano)
1924: December 6th Follow the Deal On Down Buster Bailey and Don Redman (clarinets); Fred Longshaw (piano)
1925: January 24th St. Louis Blues ; Reckless Blues; You've Been a Good Ole Wagon; Sobbin 'Hearted Blues; Cold In and Blues Louis Armstrong (cornet); Fred Longshaw (harmonium in the first two pieces; piano in the other three pieces)
1925: May 5th Cake walking babies; The Yellow Dog Blues Joe Smith (trumpet); Charlie Green (trombone); Buster Bailey (clarinet); Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone); Fletcher Henderson (piano); Charlie Dixon (banjo); Bob Escudero (tuba); Kaiser Marshall (drums)
1925: May 26th Careless Love Blues ; Nashville Woman's Blues
1925: May 27th I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle; JC Holmes Blues Louis Armstrong (cornet); Fred Longshaw (piano); Charlie Green (trombone)
1925: November 18th At the Christmas Ball Joe Smith (trumpet); Charlie Green (trombone); Fletcher Henderson (piano)
1926: March 18th Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town; The Gin House Blues Fletcher Henderson (piano); Buster Bailey (clarinet)
1926: May 4th Baby doll; Money blues; Lost Your Head Blues Joe Smith (trumpet); Fletcher Henderson (piano)
1926: October 10th One and two blues; Young Woman's Blues Joe Smith (trumpet); Buster Bailey (clarinet); Fletcher Henderson (piano)
1927: March 2nd Alexander's Ragtime Band; Muddy water; After you've gone ; There'll Be a Hot Time In the Old Town Tonight Joe Smith (trumpet); Fletcher Henderson (piano); Charlie Dixon (banjo); Jimmy Harrison (trombone); Coleman Hawkins plays the clarinet on the first two pieces; Buster Bailey plays the clarinet on the last three pieces.
1927: March 3rd Trombone Cholly Joe Smith (cornet); Charlie Green (trombone); Fletcher Henderson (piano)
1927: September 27th Mean Old Bedbug Blues; A Good Man Is Hard to Find Porter Grainger (piano); Lincoln Conoway (guitar)
1928: March 20th Empty Bed Blues Charlie Green (trombone); Porter Grainger (piano)
1928: August 24th Poor Man's Blues Joe Williams (trombone); Ernest “Sticky” Elliot, Bob Fuller (saxophone); Porter Grainger (piano)
1928: August 25th Me and My Gin Joe Williams (trombone); Porter Grainger (piano)
1929: May 8th Kitchen Man Clarence Williams (piano); Eddie Lang (guitar)
1929: May 29th Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out Ed Allen (cornet); Clarence Williams (piano); Cyrus St. Clair (tuba)
1930: March 27th New Orleans Hop Scop Blues Louis Bacon (trumpet); Charlie Green (trombone); Garvin Bushell (clarinet); Clarence Williams (piano)
1930: July 22nd Black Mountain Blues Trumpet and piano unknown (possibly Deamus Dean or Ed Allen with Clarence Williams)
1931: November 20th I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl Fred Langshaw or Clarence Williams (piano)
1933: November 24th Gimme a Pigfoot; Take Me for a Buggy Ride; Do Your Duty; I'm down in the dumps Frankie Newton (trumpet); Jack Teagarden (trombone); Chu Berry (tenor saxophone); Buck Washington (piano); Bobby Johnson (guitar); Billy Taylor (bass) ; Benny Goodman is also involved in Gimme a Pigfoot .

literature

Web links

Commons : Bessie Smith  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. After Carlo Bohländer et al. a. Reclams Jazzführer (1989), Wolf Kampmann Reclams Jazzlexikon (2003) as well as PanAfricanNews and FindAGrave ; the Jazz Rough Guide (1999) gives (like the tombstone itself) 1895, while Studs Terkel gives 1892 as the year of birth. A birth certificate of Bessie Smith allegedly does not exist.
  2. ^ A b Gwen Thompkins: Forebears: Bessie Smith, The Empress of the Blues. National Public Radio , January 5, 2018, accessed December 16, 2019 .
  3. a b Steve Hawtin et al. The World's Music Charts The World's Music Charts : Bessie Smith .
  4. Quoted from Arrigo Polillo : Jazz. History and Personality of Afro-American Music . Beltz, Weinheim 2005, p. 299.
  5. ^ W. Kampmann Reclams Jazzlexikon Stuttgart 2003
  6. It was Smith's 14th and penultimate chart placement; the piece reached number 20 on the Billboard Top 30 and only stayed on the charts for a week. See Steve Hawtin et al. The World's Music Charts: Bessie Smith
  7. Blues Legend Bessie Smith Dead 50 Years , Schenectady Gazette. September 26, 1987. Retrieved August 4, 2013. 
  8. ^ Photograph of the grave and short biography in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  9. Myra Friedman: The Story of Janis Joplin. 1992, p. 268
  10. ^ Art Hodes' quotation in March 1947 in Jazz Record , quoted in at Polillo, SS 196