Customer Reviews

Bessie Smith 1923

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Bessie Smith was a powerful vocalist with a big clear alto timbre and excellent English diction.
She had a great sense of humour, invoking both urban and rural observations.
In her song-art she expresses facets of her strong personality: a justified indignation over the Jim Crow abuse of Negros in the United States; a certain fatalism concerning her own life under such conditions; and a raw sexual vitality.
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This 1994 issue from the great Chronological Classics series from France features Smith's first recorded tracks. (She had only about a decade of record productivity: 1923-33.)
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On the first eight sides Bessie is accompanied by the great Clarence Williams whose measured pianism is extremely attractive, making "Down-Hearted Blues" and other songs sound more like a duo for alto and piano, rather than mere background for a vocalist.
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"Aggravatin' Papa" includes a skilled banjoist and a goosey clarinettest which, combined with the humorous lyrics, make for a very fun-filled song.
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"Baby Won't You Please Come Home Blues" (with the flip-side of "Oh, Daddy Blues") are some of Smith and Williams' most catchy tunes--not to mention the famous "'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (later redone by Billie Holiday).
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"'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" in fact sums up Bessie Smith's ethos and life most succinctly: rough, sad, but independent and defiant.
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Reissued on: 1923.
Seek too:
1923-1924
1924-1925 (reissued) 1924-1925
1925-1927 (reissued) 1925-1927
1928-1929 (reissued) 1928-1929
1929-1933 (reissued) 1929-1933
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