Smith, Bessie (1894-1937), became one of the finest blues singers in the history of jazz. Smith was popularly called “the Empress of the Blues.” A series of recordings she made from 1923 to 1933 rank among the best in jazz. Smith applied the power and beauty of her voice to simple songs. Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Joe Smith, and James P. Johnson were among the jazz musicians who played on her records.
Bessie Smith was born on April 15, 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, into extreme poverty. She left home when she was a teenager to tour with a minstrel show. A recording director discovered her and brought her to New York City. The black public bought millions of her records during the years of her greatest fame from 1923 to 1928. Smith’s best-known songs include “Down-Hearted Blues” and “Taint Nobody’s Bizness If I Do” (both 1923); “St. Louis Blues” (with Louis Armstrong) and “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon” (both 1925); “Baby Doll” (1926); “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “After You’ve Gone,” and “Backwater Blues” (all 1927); “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (1929); and “Gimmie a Pigfoot” (1933). In 1929, she appeared in the film St. Louis Blues. Her work was almost unknown to white audiences until shortly before her death. Smith died on Sept. 26, 1937, of injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Mississippi. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as a performer who had an early influence on rock music.
