Research Paper On Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was the first female African-American blues singer. Nicknamed The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is known as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on other jazz vocalists.

According to the 1900 census, Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. However, the 1910 census showed her as age 16. April 15, 1894 has appeared on other documents and was then regarded as Bessie’s birthday. Bessie Smith was the daughter of Laura and William Smith. William Smith was a laborer and part-time Baptist minister, but he died before his daughter could remember him. By the time Bessie was nine, her mother and one

She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company also included the well-known singer, Ma Rainey. One of the numerous myths about Bessie Smith is that she was tutored (some versions claim kidnapped) by Ma Rainey, the prototype blues singer, and forced to tour with Rainey's show. Rainey didn't have her own show until after 1916, long after Smith had achieved independent success in a variety of minstrel and tent shows. Rainey and Smith did work together, however, and had established a friendship as early as 1912.Bessie eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines, and she would rise to become its biggest star after signing with Columbia

By 1920, Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. Her first session for Columbia was February 15, 1923. Her first release was “Downhearted Blues”, and one of her greatest hits, and most popular song. Twice she was instrumental in helping save Columbia Records from bankruptcy.

She was also able to benefit from the new technology of radio broadcasting, even on stations that were in the segregated south. For example, after giving a concert for a white-only audience at a local theater in Memphis, Tennessee, in October 1923, she then performed a late night concert on station WMC, where her songs were very well received by the radio audience. Bessie was one of the few black artists to perform for white audiences, she was the first black woman to be broadcast live on local radio stations in Memphis and Atlanta.

She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green. According to jazz writer Richard Hadlock, Smith was the "one woman (who contributed) significantly to the development of jazz in the