Beginning
her career as a street singer in the early 1920s,
with no academic or formal training in music,
Bessie Smith rose to be known as the ‘Empress
of the Blues,’- the classic African-American
music form of the early twentieth century. As
her music, her life and even her death, bears
the characteristic enigma of a maverick, much
unusual in her days, and continues to evoke a
sense of awe and admiration in even the most liberal
avant-gardes—musical and other wise—of
today. If her blues are enthralling, her life
story is even more compelling. The paper presents
a biography of the life of the Bessie Smith and
the songs that made the singer to become known
as the Empress of a music form, and continues
to lure the hearts of millions of music lovers
to the earthy, crude and violent music of the
early 1900s.
Bessie Smith – Childhood and the Making
of ‘The Empress of the Blues’
Only little is known about the childhood of Bessie
Smith – She was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
into a poor African American family as the eighth
child. Her date of birth seemingly is not known
for certain, the different biographies give it
differently – some saying she was born in
1894, while others state 1896, 1898 and even as
1900. Bessie had a dreadful early life, as was
common with poor black children of her times,
marked by poverty and oppression. It is understood
that Bessie began singing, along with her brother,
on street corners for pennies when she was less
than 10 years old.
It was Ma Rainey, the Mother of the Blues, who discovered Bessie’s inimitable talent in music, when she happened to hear young Bessie sing while Ma’s vaudeville, the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, was passing through Chattanooga around 1912. Ma took Bessie along with her to road shows and taught her the rudiments and nuances – the styles, forms and tunes – of the blues music. [Richter, 1975] The blues a form of vocal and instrumental American roots music derived from African American work songs, was emerging during the early 1920s as Bessie started singing in Ma Rainey’s shows . Blues has been a major influence on later American popular music, finding expression in jazz, rhythm and blues, big bands, rock and roll and country music as well as conventional pop songs and even modern classical music. Bessie continued to sing for Rabbit Foot Minstrels until 1915, becoming proficient in capturing the essential quality of southern rural black life in her blues.
After leaving Ma, Bessie started running small-time roving gazebos and performed in Charles P. Bailey’s troupe, Pete Werley’s Florida Cotton Blossoms, carnivals, and other street shows. By the early 1920s she was one of the most popular Blues singers in vaudeville. Bessie’s first recording --‘Gulf Coast Blues’ and ‘Down Hearted Blues’-- took place in 1923 in Columbia, with blues pianist Clarence Williams. The record was released with little promotion during spring, yet turned an instant success selling more than two million copies by the end of the first year of release, beating the success of Mamie Smith – the then blues pioneer and the riveting voice behind ‘Crazy Blues.’[Feinstein, 1985]
With her success at ‘Down Hearted Blues’
record, she started traveling the whole of south,
performing on the best race artist vaudeville
circuits booked by the TOBA -- for Theatre Owners
Booking Association, also interpreted as Tough
On Black Artists. In the mid-twenties she toured
extensively, building her audience base in the
south and along the eastern coast and in most
of the major northern cities. She was often the
star performer, pulling crowds in huge numbers
both white and black alike. Booking at $ 1500
a week, she was the highest paid Black entertainer
in the country during the time; her records were
selling for even more. [Feinstein, 1985]
All through the 1920s, Bessie recorded with many of the great Jazz musicians of the times, including Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong Joe Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Sidney Bechet, James P. Johnson and Don Redman. Though, from an academic perspective she was musically illiterate, she regularly teamed up with her pianists to create and compose her music, [Hadlock, 1965] influencing them with her words that often reflected her life and feelings. Her performance in the short movie -‘St. Louis Blues’ -- with Louis Armstrong is considered to be one of finest recordings of the 1920s by many blues music lovers as well as critics. Her classic and alluring musical style and form influenced many great musicians of the times, as it captivated the hearts of millions of music lovers, earning her the “Empress of the Blues” title.
While Bessie Smith’s classic blues style remained in vogue during the 1920s, by 1930 –31 the blues were out of style; the record companies abandoned Bessie and her earthy music, as her career dawdled. The state of things worsened as a result of her mismanagement, compounded by her heavy drinking and muddled lifestyle. Her voice was last recorded in 1933 for Okeh, under the direction of John Hammond, considered more as a sentimental act by Hammond. [Richter, 1975] The record was released under the title – Bessie Smith accompanied by Buck and his Band. Her last New York appearance was in 1936 at the original Famous Door on 52nd Street at a Sunday afternoon session sponsored by United Hot Clubs of America. Bessie was beginning to fashion herself as a Swing musician and planning a comeback when her life met with a tragic ending in 1937.
Bessie Smith – The Enigmatic Personae
Bessie ’s life story is compelling
and awe inspiring -- for the magical rise of a
poor black street singer to become the highest
paid Black entertainer and the empress of the
blues musical tradition, influencing the great
musicians of the times and alluring millions of
music lovers during the times and even to this
day. More fascinating is the person that Bessie
Smith was – a maverick of sorts, she lived
an outright unconventional life. Her story will
not be complete nor will it be true, with out
knowing the personae of Bessie Smith. In fact,
the enigmatic charm of her music derives greatly
from the arcane life, traits and character of
the singer.
Bessie Smith was a singer of immense charm on the stage floor. A striking stage-presence with an imposing physique – about six feet tall, weighing about two hundred pounds – her powerful, yet sweeping voice, forcibly delivered even the finest notes to large audiences, without the slightest distortion, with full audibility. Her charismatic physique and style is understood to have contributed greatly in securing her the Empress title among the blues singers of the time. Richard Hadlock in his review Jazz Masters of the Twenties, she could project a song more forcibly to large audiences than any other blues singer in the days before microphones and audio amplification. [Hadlock, 1965]
Much like her powerful, earthy music, with its soft undercurrents, Bessie Smith was a rough, crude and, violent woman, with a very sensitive heart. A strong and independent African-American woman, Bessie held great pride in her culture, which often characterized and singled out her performance style from the other blues singer. Her overindulgences with the earthy pleasures of the black culture developed in her an inveterate taste for alcohol and sensual pleasures – her fondness for gin and her sexual appetite, are exemplified in her songs such as Gin House Blues, Me and My Gin, and Young Woman's Blues.
While she was admired by many –both blacks
and whites -- for her tremendous talent and resolve,
she held an inexplicable hatred towards the white
as well as the submissive conformists from her
own community. Though not many experiences of
racial discrimination were recorded to be experienced
by her, Bessie was quite resentful of white America’s
blatant disregard of blacks and she disliked Caucasians
on the whole. [Albertson, 1972]
Seemly she exercised restraint on her scorn for
the white supremacy, at least so in her songs
for obvious reasons, however she was more blunt
with the conformists of her own community. Her
Dirty No-Gooder's Blues is a straight
incisive whipping on the black submissiveness:
“There's nineteen men livin' in my neighborhood,
There's nineteen men livin' in my neighborhood;
Eighteen of them are fools and the one ain't no doggone good.”
[Smith, 1989]
Bessie had a failed marriage with Jack Gee; both getting violent at each other over extra-marital affairs that lagged their individual lives. While Bessie herself pursued sexual relationships of all sorts with her colleagues and chorus members, Jack’s affair with one of the chorus girls in her troupe antagonized Bessie as she battered and threw her off the halted train and fired at Jack with his own handgun. [Oliver, 1959] In 1927, a little before her separation from Jack, she composed Please Help Me Get Him Off My Mind, which resonates the brutal experience she had at her marriage, and the inner core of tenderness that remained shrouded by the veil of power, resolve and curtness.
“It's all about a man who always kicks and dogs me around
It's all about a man who always kicks and dogs me aroun';
And when I try to kill him, that's when my love for him come down.”
[Smith, 1989]
Bessie was a nonconformist and an outright individualist. A physically strong and sturdy woman of high resolve, she often resorted to muscle power in settling disputes and displayed a violent temper with little consideration for her opponent's race and gender. She pursued alcoholism and sex to such extremes that itproved costly many a time, particularly during the fag end of her career in early 1930s. Yet, she remained resolute in pursuing her passions --no wonder she could add such depth and force to Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do, the
There ain't nothin' I can do or nothin' I can say,
That folks don't criticize me;
But I'm going to do just as I want to anyway,
and don't care if they all despise me.
[Smith, 1989]
The Alluring Blues of Bessie Smith Bessie Smith has over 160 recordings, which stands to credit her alluring, powerful and sweeping voice rendering strength and power to the feelings of the oppressed as well as the tenderness that swathes human emotions of love and affection. Her naturally resounding voice could capture the essence of the southern rural black life and the feelings of the deprived. Bessie’s music continues to resonate in the hearts of millions of music lovers for the depth and breadth of emotions, conveyed by her sweeping and resounding voice. She could express the entire meaning of a line by a slight accent on a syllable, She had mastery over the notes – she precisely rendered a note, or swept it appropriately to express her feelings. Hadlock observes that Bessie gained a skill from Ma Rainey in creating new melodies as well as modify existing ones, by centering on or around pitches that lay in the loudest portion of her range. [Hadlock, 1965]
The deep and haunting notes emphasized by the resonating soft and tender links touches the inner depths of one’s being and leaves a hypnotic effect on the listener. This is the magic that makes Bessie Smith’s music alluring to its listeners even after decades of its rendering. Downhearted Blues, Poor Man's Blues, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (autobiographical review) Young Woman's Blues, Graveyard Dream Blues, Hard Time Blues Lonesome Desert Blues, My Man Blues, Please Help Me Get Him Off My Mind, Wasted Life Blues [Smith, 1989] are classic blues by Bessie Smith that continue to enchant music lovers across the world.
The Tragic Ending of Bessie Smith
On September 27, 1937, Bessie Smith met with the fatal automobile accident at Clarksdale, Mississippi on the main road to Memphis, while she was driving with her lover Richard Morgan, when their car rear-ended a slow moving truck and rolled over crushing Smith’s arms and ribs. Bessie died from loss of blood, on the way to the hospital. However, there has been a controversial version to Bessie’s death – In a 1937 down beat magazine article, John Hammond reported that Bessie Smith died as she was turned away by a White hospital because of her skin color. Though Hammond himself has admitted that his report was based on hearsay, and many later investigations have proved the case to be otherwise, many music lovers still believe that Bessie Smith’s life could have been saved, if she were not a Black. It is understood that John Hammond was planning to go Mississippi to bring Bessie back to New York to start recording again, when providence took her back. |