Nineteen twenty-three was also the year Bessie moved to Philadelphia and married a man named Jack Gee. Bessie met Jack when he worked as a security guard at a nightclub where she performed. Bessie liked to drink and often had affairs with other people. The two divorced in Bessie was the highest-paid Black performing artist in the country.
Her recordings were so popular that more theaters and clubs wanted to book her. Her shows often sold out, and theaters requested additional nights to accommodate more ticket sales. In the summer, she traveled to more remote areas and performed in tents. Although Bessie was wildly famous, she still maintained some aspects of her life back home. She preferred homemade liquor and home cooking to fancy speakeasies and restaurants.
She sent money back to her siblings to help support them. She hired her brother Clarence as her touring manager. The blues was declining in popularity, and record companies were eager to cater to white audiences who preferred jazz. Although Bessie recorded more popular jazz songs, her Southern style was not as attractive anymore. Bessie cut back on her touring show to reflect the times. Her costumes were less elaborate and her songs less bluesy. Sometimes she was booked as the second artist in a show and had to work as a cigarette salesgirl in the audience between acts.
By the mids, Bessie tried finding more consistent work in New York City. She also occasionally toured theaters in the South. While she continued to find work, it was nothing compared to her popularity in the s.
On September 26, , Bessie was in a terrible car accident in Coahoma, Mississippi. Her long-time companion Richard Morgan was driving and lost control when he did not see a truck on the road. Bessie suffered severe injuries when she was thrown from the car. She died at the hospital shortly after. Bessie Smith was still very much in her prime in , the point where this collection begins.
She was still just 35 but, considering how famous she was and how powerful she still sang, it is surprising how little time she had left. The Empress Of The Blues had been at the top of the black music world for nearly fifteen years.
Born on 15 April in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she became an orphan by the time she was ten. To fight poverty, she sang on street corners, accompanied by her brother on guitar. Things began to look up in when Bessie started working as a dancer with the Moses Stokes troupe, a revue whose star was Ma Rainey, the first famous blues singer. Learning from Rainey's example on how to sell a song to an audience, within a couple of years Bessie was a major attraction in the South.
Her singing was remarkably passionate and sensuous, practically hypnotizing audiences. By she was headlining her own travelling shows in the South. After Mamie Smith had a major success in late with her recording of "Crazy Blues", nearly every black female singer possessing some talent was rushed into the recording studios in hopes of duplicating her success.
It is surprising that it took until February before Bessie Smith was finally recorded, but she made up for lost time. Her first recording, Alberta Hunter's "Down Hearted Blues", was a big seller and she recorded regularly for the rest of the decade. The blues craze had largely faded by , but Smith was such a passionate and popular singer that she outlasted most of her competitors. Articles Features Interviews Lists.
Streams Videos All Posts. My Profile. Advanced Search. Artist Biography by Scott Yanow. Born April 15, in Chattanooga, TN. Died September 26, in Clarksdale, MS. Genre Blues Jazz. Also Known As Elizabeth Smith. Hammond has since admitted his article was based on hearsay. Bessie was in fact treated by a white doctor, Dr. Hugh Smith, at the G.
In Mrs. Ratliff turned what was the hospital on Sunflower Avenue into The Riverside, a rooming house. The room in which Bessie died, of her internal injuries, has been kept, always un-let, as a shrine to her memory. Bessie Smith was much more than just a blues singer.
She was an icon for her race.
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