Home > Music > S > Smith, Bessie

Born: April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, TN
Years Active: 20 's, 30 's
Died: September 26, 1937 in Clarksdale, MS
Genre: Blues

Biography:
The first major blues and jazz singer on record and one of the most powerful of all time, Bessie Smith rightly earned the title of "The Empress of the Blues." Even on her first records in 1923, her passionate voice overcame the primitive recording quality of the day and still communicates easily to today's listeners (which is not true of any other ... Continue Bio >>

Discography:
Lady Luck Blues
Jazz Classics: Great Performances 1925-1933
I'm Wild About That Thing: Blues Collection
I Ain't Got Nobody
Bessie Smith/Louis Armstrong/Cab Calloway
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Filmography:
2007 Bessie Smith: The Blues
2004 Swing Era: Sarah Vaughan
1997 Jazz Classics for Fingerstyle Guitar, Vol. 1
1993 The Blues
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Similar Artists: Hociel Thomas Ida Cox Dinah Washington Ethel Waters Clara Smith More >>

Influenced By: Ma Rainey Blind Lemon Jefferson More >> Followers: Tracy Nelson Janis Joplin LaVern Baker Rory Block Linda Hopkins More >>

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