2004
Search results
Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues . In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings.
Jan 16, 2011 · Learn about Mamie Smith, the first African American woman to record a blues song in 1920. She was a vaudeville and film star who paved the way for female blues and jazz artists.
Aug 10, 2020 · Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues” — African-American women’s breakthrough into the mainstream recording industry — with the Jazz Hounds in the summer of 1920. Donaldson Collection/Getty...
Aug 8, 2020 · 100 years ago, Mamie Smith recorded a seminal blues hit that gave voice to outrage at violence against Black Americans. Aug. 8, 2020 Sheet music cover for “Crazy Blues.”
- Sang in Harlem Clubs
- Bootleg Copies Sold Quickly
- German Fans Shipped Headstone
- Sources
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
It has been reported that Smith left home at age ten and joined the company of a touring white dance troupe, the Four Dancing Mitchells. Smith made her way to New York and acquired her professional surname when she married the singer William “Smitty” Smith in 1912—she would marry twice more later in life. That year, she also performed as a dancer w...
Copies of the record leaked out to dealers, however, and customers snapped them up—then as now a phenomenon guaranteed to attract the attention of record executives. Smith was brought into the studios of the OKeh label on February 14, 1920, to record “That Thing Called Love” again, and a new era began in the recording industry. That 78 rpm record (...
Smith’s remarkably durable career flowered anew in the late 1930s as she appeared in a series of movies. These included Paradise in Harlem (1939), also featuring bandleader Lucky Millinder, Mystery in Swing (1940), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), Sunday Sinners (1941), and Because I Love You(1943). Smith died in 1946 (the date is variously given as ...
Books
Harrison, Daphne Duval, Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s, Rutgers University Press, 1988. Notable Black American Women, Book 1, Gale Research, 1992. Sadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., Macmillan, 2000. Southern, Eileen, The Music of Black Americans, 3rd ed., Norton, 1998.
Online
All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com. —James M. Manheim
Mamie Smith was a pop and blues vocalist who made history in 1920 by becoming the first African-American woman to record a song. She influenced the development of urban concert blues and toured widely in the United States and Europe.
People also ask
Who was Mamie Smith?
Who was Mamie Robinson Smith?
How did Mamie Smith make music history?
Why did Mamie Smith create 'Crazy Blues'?
Mamie Smith was the first person of any race to make a blues recording in 1923. She was a pioneer of the blues genre and a voice of the African-American community. Learn more about her life, legacy and impact on the music industry and women's history.
Mamie Smith was a singer, dancer, and actress who made the first commercial blues record in 1920. She influenced many blues singers and performed in vaudeville, musicals, and movies.
Related searches
