Latest Release
- The Essential Bessie Smith · 1931
- The Essential Bessie Smith · 1925
- The Essential Bessie Smith · 1929
- The Best of Bessie Smith · 1925
- 100 Blues Classics & Greatest Blues Hits - The Very Best Classic Blues Collection · 1950
- The Essential Bessie Smith · 1928
- The Essential Bessie Smith · 1923
- The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 · 1991
- The Best of Bessie Smith · 1925
- The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 · 1923
Albums
Artist Playlists
- Enter the kingdom of the Empress of the Blues.
- Generations of blues and jazz singers have followed her trail.
- The Blues Empress had endless twists on classic themes.
About Bessie Smith
The original tough-mama prototype for nearly every female blues singer to come, hard-living, big-voiced Bessie Smith was also the first blues singer with a mega-hit recording career, achieved in part via collaborations with some of the most notable musicians of her era. In her prime in the 1920s and 1930s, she was the highest-paid black entertainer in the U.S., and her influence persists to this day.
- HOMETOWN
- Chattanooga, TN, United States
- BORN
- 15 April 1894
- GENRE
- Blues