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Home , Backwater Blues, Bix Beiderbecke, Okeh Records

Hall of Fame W inner : EMPRESSOF THE BLUE by dan morgenstern

A PLACEFOR Bessie Smith, "The Empress with some cute little chick." But she sang 780,000 copies. By the end of the ," in Down Beat's Hall of his request. year as a recording artist, Fame seems long overdue, but the award Bessie Smith was born into abject become a sensation. has come at a time that is historically poverty in Chattanooga, Tenn., on April The finest musicians of the appropriate. Next month-on Sept. 26- 15, 1894. (The exact year of her birth soon were accompanying her on rec the greatest of all blues singers will be is in doubt; in a 1936 interview, she gave She had the best rapport with co~ dead for 30 years. it as 1897, but it is likely that she was Joe Smith, whose pure, singing tone Her voice, however, has not been stilled. exercising her feminine prerogative .) exquisite responsorial phra ses made She left behind a legacy of 158 sides, Her early life is obscure. She claimed perfect foil for her voice. On her recorded between 1923 and 1933, and 48 to have won a state roller-skating cham­ humorous and brash pieces, Lrornb of these have been in constant circulation pionship at the age of 11, only a week Charlie Green's barrelhouse comm ( on Columbia's four-record The Bessie or so after acquiring her first pair of stood out, and when she was wor Smith Story) since the early days of the skates. When she was still in her teens, with ju.st a , James P. Johnson 12-inch LP. she had begun to sing, dance, and act, no peers. Bessie Smith' s magnificent voice, ma­ and she was already a professional en­ Though the records made and ,sp jestic phrasing, clear and unaffected tertainer when Ma Rainey's Rabbit Foot her fame, Bessie spent most of her diction, and incomparable rhythmic sure­ Minstrels passed through her home town. performing before audiences. Now ness have had a far-reaching influence on Ma Rainey, Bessie's senior by about commanded top salaries, toured with the development of jazz singing. 10 years, was the greatest of the pioneer best Negro vaudeville companies or She was an inspiration· to countless. female blues singers. She was sufficiently own shows, and no longer just singers and musicians who worked with impressed by young Bessie to find a place South. her, saw her perform, or heard her voice for her in the show, and thus began a "Bessie Smith was on some of the 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 period of travel with various road com­ watch ," Danny Barker recalled in records she sold during her peak years. panies, tent shows, and carnivals through­ Me · Talking to You. "She dominated Young has told of out the southern states. stage . You didn't turn your head running errands for the girls at a "house" When not on the road, Bessie worked she went on. You didn't read a news}II in her Baltimore neighborhood, just so in cabarets , in towns large and smalL You just watched Bessie. She just u she could hear Bessie's records on the In 1917, Frank Walker, later to become you. When she was performing, you phonograph in the parlor; throughout her recording director for Columbia, heard hear a pin drop." life, Lady Day was quick to mention her sing ·in a small dive in Selma, Ala., She had nothing but disdain for Bessie as her prime influence-along with and the memory lingered. microphone when this innovation W~ . troduced; She'd push it aside \\11th Armstrong himself, who teamed up with SIX YEARSlater, Walker asked Clarence contemptuous gesture and let the na Bessie on some of her greatest records, has Williams-composer, pianist, p11blisher, sound of her voice fill the biggest paid her high tribute: "She used to thrill talent agent, and, in today's terminology, Drumm ·ers, too, she found superJIU me at all times, the way she could phrase a&r man-to find Bessie so he could She set the beat, and kept it roc~sl a note with a certain something in her record her. Williams didn't have much Not a single record she made inclu voice no other blues singer could get. trouble locating the singer. By this time, drummer in the supporting ensemble. She had music in her soul and felt every­ she had acquired a considerable reputa­ don't want to be a slave to a drunt thing she did. Her sincerity with her tion with. Negro audiences and was living she is reported to have said. music was an inspiration." in Philadelphia . . , enraptured, thrust his Williams himself had tried, unsuccess­ BESSIE'S PEJlSONALlife was no ~d week's pay envelope on her so she would fully, to persuade to sign roses. A big, beautiful woman · ~~ continue singing after her set had ended Bess:ie two years before, when she was statuesque figure, she had appe111 at a south-side Chicago night spot. Young in New York. An audition record, with match her physique. She had ear1 Y , transfixed by his first Sidney Bechet and Bubber Miley in the quired the habit of drinking and ~ in-person encounter with Bessie's art, accompanying group, was made but re­ gin, which she could consume in 111~ timidly requ~sted Cemetery Blues, bis jected as •"too strange." sive quantities. {There are two blUf favorite among her record s. The singer, Walker, however, knew better. Bessie's ~essie dealing wit~. this aspect_ 0 he relates in his autobiography R eally first recording sess.ion, on Feb. 17, 1923, life, Me and My • GIil and The Gin 11 the Blu es, rumpled his hair, smiled , and produced Down-Hearted Blues, which, Blues .) said: "Son, what are you studying ceme­ though a "cover" for recordings made by When she began to make big ~f teries for.? You should be out in the park successful singers on other labels, sold she spent it readily, some on Jleise

22 □ DOWN BEAT hit from behind by another vehicle), and an ambulance took the injured singer to Clarksdale, where she was operated on, but died shortly after noon.

LEGEND HAS IT that Bessie Smith need not have died; that precious time was lost because she was refused treatment at a white hospital. Research has revealed, however, that this is not true. Bessie's life and death were tragic enough without this added touch perpetuated in Edward Albee's play, The Death of Bessie Smith. Ironically, at the time of her death Bessie's art had begun to be rediscovered by the small growirig number of jazz and folk music enthusiasts. John Hammond, who had arranged for and supervised her last recording session in November, 1933, had been about to bring Bessie to New York to record again. Bessie Smith's genius was the product of American Negro culture, and during her lifetime, it was appreciated, with few id exceptions, only by her own people, Since ~t, then, however, her fame has spread throughout the world. 1S As recently as 1958, a rash of Bessie Smith tributes appeared on record. Singers Dinah Washington, Juanita Hall, Lavern Baker, and Ronnie Gilbert (of the Weavers) all made albums of the songs she had made famous; in some cases accompanied by musicians who had worked with Bessie herself. Periodically, announcements are made of plans for a Bessie Smith film biography ( the latest of these names Della Reese as the star). None has materialized, and while the story material has great poten­ tial, it is difficult to imagine any singer capable of filling the role. The only comparable voice to appear since Bessie's death is that of Mahalia Jackson (who readily admits to having been inspired by Bessie). But the great gospel singer's religious convictions pre­ clude her taking on such a role. Bessie Smith's voice lives on. Among husband-manager, but more on her wiped out; the record industry in general, the recordings currently available are some lly, Even while she had been eking out and "race" records in particular were of her most beautiful (Reckless Blues, livingin traveling carnivals, Bessie had badly hit. And there was no place for Cold in Hand, St. Louis Blues, Baby Doll, O sending money home to her three Bessie in the growing radio field. On Revival Day, Backwater Blues, Poor rs and three brothers. But though the big time was over, Man's Blues, Young Woman's Blues, and Whenthe good times began, Miss Smith Bessie was nothing if not a trouper, and scores of other masterpieces). Currently, for her relatives and set them up in she continued to work. Her declining years Columbia is preparing a complete reissue deil;)hia.She opened a restaurant for have been pictured as a kind of lower project, to consist of 10 albums carefully oldest sister, which soon went under. depth, but the facts do not bear this out. remastered. Was generous to a fault with friends Singer , who knew Bessie Though she was the greatest of blues co-workers. well, has said she wasn't badly off during singers, she was by no means only that. 1J!eYear 1929 began as a good one for the last years preceding her death, though Such songs as Baby, Have Pity on Me; ie, She starred in her own traveling it is true that she had to return to the Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl; and , a y• M!dnight Steppers; she made her grind of traveling shows on the southern Do Your Duty are not blues, and she i. k~;it1°n picture appearance, in a re­ circuit, between somewhat better engage­ sings them superbly. It would be more U~ e ,short, St. Louis Blues-this 10- ments in the North. accurate to say that she was the greatest l'ernllhmpse of her demonstrates what It was on such a southern tour, with female jazz singer the art has produced. ~rkabJe actress she was and what a show called Broadway Rastus, one Sun­ And maybe more. John Hammond :ight have achieved in a different day morning, that the car in which Bessie summed it up shortly after Bessie's un­ tis-and made one of her greatest was riding plowed into a panel truck in timely death: 'Nobody Knows You When You're the village of Coahoma, Miss. "To my way of thinking, Bessie Smith 1101 1~ Out. She was badly injured-one arm almost was the greatest artist American jazz ever at~ing ,vas prophetic. In October, torn from its socket, bruises on head produced; in fact, I'm not sure her art !si mar.ket crashed, and the great and face, and serious internal injuries. did not reach beyond the limits of the 011 Was under way . .Among its first The nearest hospital was in Clarksdale. term 'jazz'. She was one of those rare QJ';of course, were the poor, and A doctor provided on-the-spot first aid beings-a completely integrated artist cap­ 00~ ~ose who provided their entei,­ (he had been about to transport Bessie able of projecting her whole personality • ogro show business was nearly to the hospital in his car when it was into music." ~