BESSIE SMITH

(Born April 15, 1894; Died September 26, 1937)

Bessie Smith was the greatest and most influential classic blues singer of the 1920’s. Her huge, traffic stopping voice and her full-bodied delivery and her amazing self –assure attitude worked its way into every note she sang.

She was born poor in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her parents died when she was little, and she was raised by her sister, Viola. She performed in vaudeville with her brother, Clarence, and she sang and danced on Chattanooga street corners for pennies from passers by. By the time she moved to Philadelphia in 1921, she was already a star among black audiences in the south. She did her first recording with Columbia records in 1923, and until 1937, when she died, Bessie Smith was a blues super-star.

To many people, Bessie was more than just singer. She lived an on-the-edge-lifestyle with much drinking, many wild boyfriends and girlfriends, frequent fistfights, and little tolerance of people aimed to misuse or abuse her. To many, her success stood for a triumph over white-domination in the entertainment business.