Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith (April 15th 1894 with Chattanooga in the Tennessee - September 26th 1937) is a American Chanteuse and one of the most famous artists of recording of the Années 1920. She was called the '' Imperatrice of the Blues ''.

Biography

Its life

Raised in an extreme poverty, it very early starts to earn its living while singing in the streets of Chattanooga with her Andrew brother. Become an young woman, it joined the travelling spectacle of William and Gertrude Rainey, known under the name of “My and Pa” (mom and dad).

In 1923, Smith makes his beginnings of recording at Columbia Records with its first song, “Downhearted Blues” (shot down Blues). She will record finally 123 songs for Columbia during the course of her musical career. Smith was also one of the artists Afro-Americans among best paid years 1920, by gaining some $2000 per week. However, its career undergoes a deceleration with the beginning of the Grande Depression of the Années 1930.

Its death and its legend

The evening of September 26th, 1937, Smith is killed in an accident of car while crossing Clarksdale in the the Mississippi with his friend Richard Morgan (uncle of the musician of jazz Lionel Hampton).

During the decades which followed its death, of the rumors ran according to which she would have died because of a lack of care within a medical system racist. That was later proven not to be the case. In 1937, a black patient in the south of the United States would have been allowed directly with a Hôpital Afro-American.

Smith had an important musical influence on singers like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and Norah Jones. Its powerful voice and its style of song is an important contribution to the history of the popular Musique.

Discography

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