Bessie Smith Sings The Blues Vol 1

Album Review

Bessie Smith had her own traveling variety show, complete with canvas tent and roustabouts. During the mid-'20s she toured with her troupe throughout the southeastern United States, working her way across North Carolina and much of the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. Some of the material she performed in front of live audiences was vaudeville-oriented, and a few titles were right out of the jazz book. In 1993 the Jazz Archives label assembled a fine collection drawing upon Smith's most theatrical, popular, and jazz-oriented recordings. Backed at times by members of Fletcher Henderson's rapidly rising jazz orchestra, the singer calmly tackles each song as if it had been composed with her in mind. The bluesy numbers, often brimming with sexual energy, seem to have been included as tokens of the stage-show aspect of her repertoire. There are five selections from the Clarence Williams catalog, most notably Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me." The Empress interacts marvelously with Louis Armstrong on W.C. Handy's "Careless Love." "Oh! Daddy Blues" was first popularized in 1921 by Ethel Waters and revisited in 1927 by Ma Rainey as "Oh Papa Blues." Bessie Smith's 1923 recording of this tune was probably a direct challenge to Waters, who Smith liked to dismiss as "one of them Northern bitches." "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Cake Walkin' Babies (From Home)," and especially "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" are thrilling examples of what Smith could do with a pop/jazz tune. This excellent collection bristles with great jazz players — Coleman Hawkins, Buster Bailey, James P. Johnson, and Eddie Lang — in addition to Armstrong. While not at all chronological, it closes with two of her last recordings, waxed in November 1933 with a band led by pianist Buck Washington. With a front line of Frankie Newton, Jack Teagarden, and Chu Berry, this was a real jazz ensemble. It is a pity that the producers didn't include the other two titles from this session, as "Gimme a Pigfoot" and "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" would have rounded off the Bessie Smith jazz book to perfection.