Wikio - Bessie Smith

Swing, Monkey, Swing (Paperholic)

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:01:49 GMT

1937. Rare Harman-Ising cartoon with a magnificent band on the soundtrack (probably Les Hite and his Orchestra) in a hot band number and a superb rendering of St. Louis Blues, with a persiflage Bessie Smith vocal. Go to the blog entry to see the video! ShareThis

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Jazz Pioneer Reitz Dies (Contactmusic Ltd)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:46:12 GMT

Jazz pioneer ROSETTA REITZ has died at age 84.Reitz passed away on 1 November (08) following cardiopulmonary problems.Best known for resurrecting the feminist movement in the music scene, she created her record label, Rosetta Records in 1979.With $10,000 (GBP6,700) she had borrowed from friends, Reitz scouted lost music and supervised the remastering of damaged recordings including works by...

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Marianne Faithfull releases ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ featuring eclectic covers and special guests (Band Weblogs)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:37:13 GMT

... by Merle Haggard , “Children of Stone” by Espers , the title track “Easy Come, Easy Go Blues” by Bessie Smith , Morrissey’s “Dear God Please Help Me” , Smokey Robinson & The Miracles “Ohh Baby Baby” , Dolly Parton’s “Down from Dover” and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s “Salvation” . ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ also includes some interesting guest vocalists; Keith Richards appears on the...

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God Bless Dolly Parton (The Revealer)

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:31:30 GMT

Sharlet: I recently met an activist and memoirist named Michael Patrick McDonald, who for his second book, Easter Rising , got the only blurb I've ever truly been jealous of. He'd been trying to contact Patti Smith to win permission to quote a line from her amazing "Gloria" -- "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" in his memoir of punk and South Boston...

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Bessie Smith: “St. Louis Blues” (1929) (Sisyphus)

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:56:00 GMT

This is Bessie Smith in her only film appearance, a 1929 two-reeler titled “ St. Louis Blues ” based on W. C. Handy ’s song by the same name. She sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson, and a string section. Bessie Smith (1892 – 1937) was an American blues singer and the most...

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Clarksdale, Mississippi: Where The Blues Had A Baby And Named It Rocket 88 (Alternatives to Valium)

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:40:00 GMT

... a moment to survey the scene. He has met my travelling companion before, so she is ushered into Bessie’s room, Room 2 – an honour, and a mixed blessing, perhaps, as it’s the room in which the great Bessie Smith died, when the Riverside was the only black hospital in Clarksdale. I get the consolation prize of John Lee Hooker’s room; a compact space with tinfoil over the...

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Mae Mercer dies at 76; blues singer also had a Hollywood career (LA Times)

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:23:00 GMT

The tall, North Carolina-born Mercer sang what bluesman Willie Dixon once described as "the real low-down blues.""I would classify her as a ," said Brown, who is making a documentary about Mercer. "She had a deep, powerful voice. Her idol was Bessie Smith, so she sang in that idiom."Mercer was already singing in Paris in 1960 when she met Maurice Girodias, the French publisher of...

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Is Marriage for Same-Sex Couples a “Civil Right”? (Poor Mojo Newswire)

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:20:26 GMT

... you are reading the words of Black Lesbians. When you listen to the life-affirming voices of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, you are hearing Black Lesbian women. When you see the plays and read the words of Lorraine Hansberry, you are reading the words of a woman who loved women deeply." Visionary writer Audre Lorde, from her essay entitled "I Am Your Sister."

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VA: Blues Down Deep: Songs of Janis Joplin (BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues))

noreply@blogger.com (JT) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Release Notes: Just as she herself was influenced by the legacy of such Blues Singers as Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton, Janis Joplin's music continues to reach out to new generations of Rock and Blues fans. On this heartfelt tribute set, Joplin contemporaries Tracy Nelson and Taj Mahal, youngbloods Lou Ann Barton and Friend 'n Fellow, R&B originals Etta James, Otis Clay and...

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blues from france #4 (nongseynyo)

noreply@blogger.com (azzul) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:04:00 GMT

combo quilombo - entr'aide (2007) In keeping with the legacy of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Leadbelly, Lonnie Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Elmore James, Ike Cosse, Josh White, JB Lenoir and Willie Dixon or closer to home, Lil Son Jackson, Gaye Adegbabola, Popa Chubby or Candye Kane, Combo Quilombo has taken up the torch of blues groups concerned with social justice. This group of...

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Studs Terkel, Giant (Rifftides)

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:53:23 GMT

... on Louis Armstrong is sandwiched between the one about King Oliver (who mentored young Louis) and Bessie Smith (who was affected by the sound of Louis' horn); Smith's bio mentions the moment Bix Beiderbecke heard her sing, a moment that left him in awe -- and which figures into his own chapter, the next one. These links build a chain throughout the book -- mashing up with...

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So long Studs (Lynn Sweet)

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:39:21 GMT

... and said, "I heard this voice. Oh no, it wasn't (opera contralto) Marian Anderson. It wasn't Bessie Smith. It's all of them! "So I started to play all her records, 'In the Upper Room,' 'Joshua FIt the Battle of Jericho.' Bit by bit, she's known. And she'd give me credit for white America knowing her. That's how we got to be friends." Jackson's gospel found its way onto...

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Roz White on Pearl Bailey...By Request (Bellaonline.com)

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:05:50 GMT

From a thesis production actress Rosalind "Roz" White wrote while a graduate student at Howard University, the smash hit musical was born. Her production was originally titled The Woman I Am, and it highlighted the lives of White's primary musical influences. In the end, White selected Pearl Bailey as one six influences—-from a list including legends by the likes of Sarah Vaughn, Ma Rainey, and...

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Blues Show 5 playlist (Thumbrella - Words To A Void)

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Layla Zoe - Someday Gary Moore - Bad For You Baby - album of the week "Bad for You Baby" Paul Asbell - Parker's Mood Bessie Smith - Muddy Water Muddy Waters - Smokestack Lightnin' Duster Bennett - Bright Lights Big City Gary Moore - Someday Baby Dr. Feelgood - Down At The Doctors Gary Moore - Preacher Man Blues Josh Charles - The Answer Apex - The Other Half Of Woman Is A Man Fred...

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Leroy Carr Saturday (Crooked Timber)

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:35:20 GMT

... Crosby’s pop crooning, and for similar reasons. Previous blues stars, whether vaudevillians like Bessie Smith or street singers like Blind Lemon Jefferson, had needed huge voices to project their music, but with the help of new microphone and recording technologies, Carr sounded like a cool city dude carrying on a conversation with a few close friends. Carr’s lyrics were...

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CD/DOWNLOAD/ALBUM: "to be Free: The Nina Simone Story", Deluxe 3-CD+DVD Box Set (All About Jazz)

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:02:03 GMT

... In the grand hierarchy of the greatest African-American female vocalists of the 20th century - Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, and Aretha Franklin, among them - Nina Simone (1933-2003) holds a special position of honor for the fearless role she played as an uncompromising ambassador of cultural pride at the height of the Civil...

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BESSIE SMITH - The Collection (BLUES TOWN (The City Of Blues))

noreply@blogger.com (Nagiants40) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:01:00 GMT

Bessie Smith was the greatest and most influential classic blues singer of the 1920s. Her full-bodied blues delivery coupled with a remarkable self-assuredness that worked its way in and around most every note she sang, plus her sharp sense of phrasing, enabled her to influence virtually every female blues singer who followed. During her heyday, she sold hundreds of thousands of...

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CD/DOWNLOAD/ALBUM: Nurse with Wound:huffin' Rag Blues (All About Jazz)

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:00:34 GMT

Bessie Smith never sang this one but that doesn't diminish the otherworldly, warped 78 rpm-ness of 's latest. Ostensibly the brainchild of Brit Steven Stapleton, NWW is impossible to stuff into any ordinary descriptive language. There's something of advanced intellectual music experiments (a la John Cage) but also gothic tinges, bits of Ornette and Eno, all out industrial noise, things...

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St. Louis Woman (Anderson@Large)

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:34:24 GMT

In "St. Louis Blues," blues great Bessie Smith sang:I hate to see the evening sun go down I hate to see the evening sun go down It makes me think I’m on my last go-round Sarah Palin was on her last go-round last night. With growing skepticism about her readiness to be Vice President, Palin had to deliver a solid performance. From the moment Palin walked out on stage at Washington...

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Old 78s: Bessie Smith (Everybody Cares, Everybody Understa)

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:43:00 GMT

"The most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and '30s, Bessie Smith is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists." ( Wikipedia ) "He Treats Me Like a Dog" - Bessie Mae Smith (1930)

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