. . . was born on this date in 1894.
Bessie Smith earned the title of “Empress of the Blues” by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery and command of the genre. Her singing displayed a soulfully phrased, boldly delivered and nearly definitive grasp of the blues. In addition, she was an all-around entertainer who danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company. She was the highest-paid black performer of her day and arguably reached a level of success greater than that of any African-American entertainer before her.
. . .Some of her better-known sides from the Twenties include “Backwater Blues,” “Taint Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” “St. Louis Blues” (recorded with Louis Armstrong), and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” The Depression dealt her career a blow, but Smith changed with the times by adapting a more up-to-date look and revised repertoire that incorporated Tin Pan Alley tunes like “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” On the verge of the Swing Era, Smith died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident outside Clarksdale, Mississippi, in September 1937. She left behind a rich, influential legacy of 160 recordings cut between 1923 and 1933. Some of the great vocal divas who owe a debt to Smith include Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. In Joplin’s own words of tribute, “She showed me the air and taught me how to fill it.”
Broadway, nightclub, recording star, Jean DuShon, has portrayed a Bessie Smith-based character on Broadway in “Blues in the Night” and acted as her in “Little Dreamer – A Nite in the Life of Bessie Smith” in a critically acclaimed Chicago production for over a year during the 1980s.
In “Blues,” she brought the house down nightly singing Bessie’s tragic, “Wasted Life Blues.” DuShon received rave reviews from the New York critics for her performance and co-starred with Leslie Uggams in the show, which was nominated for the Tony Award as “best musical” but lost to “Cats.”
Check Miss DuShon’s Yahoo Group for more information.
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/jeandushon