Known as “the Empress of the Blues.” Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. By
1902 both of her parents were dead, and shortly thereafter the young girl was singing on
the streets. Even then she reportedly possessed a fine voice; in 1903, at age nine, she
made her professional debut at Chattanooga’s Ivory Theater. A few years later, she met
Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, an important blues recording artist of the 1920s and eight years
Smith’s senior. Smith toured with Rainey in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, in which the older
singer was given star billing. Because of this connection, Rainey is often called Smith’s
teacher, but it is more accurate to cite Rainey as simply an important influence on Smith.
Smidi’s first recordings came in 1921, but these sides, made for the Emerson label,
were never released. Her first issued sides, “Downhearted Blues”/“Gulf Coast Blues,”
were cut for Columbia on February 16, 1921, and sold approximately 800,000 copies.
The sales figure was phenomenal, since “Downhearted Blues” had been a previous year’s
hit for Alberta Hunter, and Smith’s recording included uninspired accompaniment.
Smith’s achievement established her as a star, and over the next ten years she recorded
more than 150 sides, mostly for Columbia.
Bessie Smith lived only four years after her final recordings, and her last days were
unhappy. She continued singing in nightclubs and theaters, but her work was usually
limited to renditions of popular songs such as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” Audiences
occasionally demanded blues, but most people considered her earlier work old-fashioned.
In fact, Smith might have passed out of public view altogether except for a controversy
about her death. On September 26, 1937, she died of injuries suffered in an auto accident
at Coahoma, Mississippi. An account first printed in a Downbeat article, later popularized
by Edward Albee in his play The Death of Bessie Smith, said that she had bled to death
after being refused admittance to a hospital because of her race. Another report claims
that she died of exposure while awaiting attention in a hospital waiting room. The most
likely account is that she was taken to the Black hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi,
where she died of her injuries. A week later, she was buried in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania,
but her grave remained unmarked until 1970 when a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter
conducted a successful fund-raising campaign to buy a stone.
A majority of Smith’s 160 issued sides are of very high quality, and they include many
definitive versions of blues songs. Her repertoire ranged from traditional songs like
“Careless Love” to double-entendre numbers like “I’m Wild about That Thing,” to
ragtime pieces like “Cake Walking Babies,” to original compositions like “Poor Man’s
Blues.” Her songs spoke of privation, bad luck, bad women, and both good and bad men,
but it was Smith’s voice that ultimately made each piece distinctive. Her rich contralto
was a subtly controlled instrument. By skillfully using timing and phrasing, she gave
fresh value to almost every song, providing nuances of feeling that the casual listener
could miss. Her habit of holding over a word or a syllable into the next bar was widely
copied. Highly influential, both in her own time and later, Smith’s recordings still sell
well.
Smith’s performance style is often called “classic blues,” but is perhaps more
accurately labeled “city blues” or “jazz blues.” It is distinguished by a jazz
accompaniment, often consisting of instrumental responses and an orchestral, or “stride,”
style of piano in which a single instrument may fill the function of an entire band. The
pianist makes rich harmonies with the right hand, while the left hand supplies a powerful
bass line and emphasizes the strong beats with low-register octaves or tenths and the
weak beats with mid-keyboard chords. The style also has a formulaic structure,
standardized beginnings and endings, and a notable absence of any string instruments.
W.K.McNeil
References
Albertson, Chris. 1970. Bessie. New York: Stein and Day.
Steward-Baxter, Derrick. 1970. Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues Singers.