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Apr 10, 2024 · Bessie Smith (born April 15, 1894?, Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.—died September 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Mississippi) was an American singer and one of the greatest blues vocalists. Smith grew up in poverty and obscurity. She may have made a first public appearance at the age of eight or nine at the Ivory Theatre in her hometown.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Who was Bessie Smith?Bessie Smith was one of the greatest blues vocalists ever. She made 160 recordings in all, in many of which she was accompanied by some of the grea...
- What is Bessie Smith remembered for?Known in her lifetime as the “Empress of the Blues,” Smith was a bold, supremely confident artist who often disdained the use of a microphone and w...
- How did Bessie Smith become famous?About 1913 Smith toured with Ma Rainey, one of the first of the great blues singers, and afterward traveled through the South singing in tent shows...
- Who Was Bessie Smith?
- Early Life
- 'Downhearted Blues'
- 'Backwater Blues'
- Collaboration with Louis Armstrong
- 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out'
- Decline and Revival
- Death
- Legacy and Accomplishments
- Personal Life
Bessie Smith began to sing at a young age and in 1923 signed a contract with Columbia Records. Soon she was among the highest-paid Black performers of her time with hits like "Downhearted Blues." By the end of the 1920s, however, her popularity had lessened, though she continued to perform and made new recordings at the start of the Swing Era. Her ...
Smith was born on April 15, 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was one of seven children. Her father, a Baptist minister, died soon after her birth, leaving her mother to raise her and her siblings. Around 1906 her mother and two of her brothers died and Smith and her remaining siblings were raised by their aunt. It was around this time that Smit...
By the early 1920s, Smith had settled down and was living in Philadelphia, and in 1923 she met and married a man named Jack Gee. That same year, she was discovered by a representative from Columbia Records, with whom she signed a contract and made her first song recordings. Among them was a track titled "Downhearted Blues," which was wildly popular...
In her recording career, Smith worked with many important jazz performers, such as saxophonist Sidney Bechet and pianists Fletcher Henderson and James P. Johnson. With Johnson, she recorded one of her most famous songs, "Backwater Blues."
Smith also collaborated with the legendary jazz artist Louis Armstrongon several tunes, including "Cold in Hand Blues" and "I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle," and "St. Louis Blues." By the end of the 1920s, Smith was the highest-paid Black performer of her day, and had earned herself the title "Empress of the Blues."
Perhaps Smith's most popular song was her 1929 hit "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," written by Jimmy Cox six years earlier. Smith's version of the song, released in September 1929, was eerily prescient in that the stock market crashed just two weeks later. The song would later become the basis of a short film by the same name.
However, at the height of her success, Smith’s career began to flounder, due in part to the financial ravages of the Great Depression and a change in cultural mores. In 1929, she and Gee permanently separated, and by the end of 1931 Smith had stopped working with Columbia altogether. However, ever the dedicated performer, Smith adapted her repertoi...
On September 26, 1937, Smith was en route to a show in Memphis, Tennessee with her companion of many years, Richard Morgan, when he sideswiped a truck and lost control of their car. Smith was thrown from the vehicle and badly injured. She died of her wounds in a Clarkdale, Mississippi hospital. She was 43. Smith’s funeral was held in Philadelphia a...
Since her death, Smith’s music continues to win over new fans, and collections of her songs have continued to sell extremely well over the years. She has been a primary influence for countless female vocalists — including Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin — and has been immortalized in numerous works. A comprehensive, acclaimed bio ...
During her marriage to Gee, Smith informally adopted a six-year-old boy and named him Jack Jr. But as her and Gee's relationship became strained, Gee would use their son as a bargaining chip, eventually kidnapping him and accusing Smith of being a neglectful, incompetent mother. A court ruling first gave custody to Smith's sister Viola, then later ...
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Okeh. Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her ...
Bessie. (film) Bessie is a 2015 HBO TV film about the American blues singer Bessie Smith, and focuses on her transformation as a struggling young singer into "The Empress of the Blues". The film is directed by Dee Rees, with a screenplay by Rees, Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois. Queen Latifah stars as Smith, and supporting roles are ...
YearAwardCategoryNominee (s)2015201520152015- Dee Rees
- Dee Rees, Horton Foote
- May 16, 2015
May 16, 2015 · Queen Latifah plays blues singer Bessie Smith in the HBO movie Bessie . Frank Masi/Courtesy of HBO. A Mississippi car accident in 1937 cut short the life of Bessie Smith. She was just 43 years old ...
Aug 5, 2019 · In 1958, the release of Dinah Washington Sings Bessie Smith and LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith indicated a continued interest in the Empress of the Blues two decades after her death. Washington ...
Bessie Smith (ca. 1895–1937) was a blues and jazz singer from the Harlem Renaissance who is remembered at as the Empress of the Blues. Elizabeth “Bessie” Smith was the youngest child of seven, born to Laura and William Smith in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father was a Baptist minister and day laborer and her mother a laundress.
