It’s time for some music history again, because today it’s 132 years since the American singer Bessie Smith was born. This lady is one of the greatest in the history blues and jazz, and an improtant name in what was to become modern popular music. Between 1923 and 1931 she made 160 recordings, and it’s estimated she sold over six million records, which is rather impressive considering it was the 1920’s.
Bessie Smith was born in 1893, and she had a hard childhood. By the age of nine she had lost both her parents and one brother. Along with another brother, she was able to make some kind of living by busking in the streets. Due to her talent, she began to gain more and more attention during the 1910’s, even getting to perform in theatres.
In the beginning of the 1920’s the record industry was blooming in the US, and in 1923 Bessie finally got her big chance. And did she take good care of it! Her first record Downhearted Blues became one of the biggest selling records in the US that year.
Bessie Smith - Downhearted Blues
For the rest of the 1920’s her popularity kept growing. And unless many others of her contempraries, especially female artists, she actually got paid well, which made her develop an almost diva-like lifestyle. She may well be one of the first pop stars in history, dubbed as “The Empress of Blues” back in the day.
Bessie Smith’s recording career more or less ended with “The Great Depression”, as the record industry sufferd badly due to the economic crash. After 1929 she only made a handful of records. However, she continued touring all the way up until her life was cut short in a car accident in 1937. She was 45 years old.
So how do one celebrate the memory of such a woman? Bessie Smith herslf may have a suggestion, with a song from her last recording session in 1933.
Bessie Smith - Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Be_er