Tribute To Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was born around 1895 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the time African-Americans were looked upon as not being worthy of birth records so her exact birth date is uncertain. All that is known of her early years is that she grew up in extreme poverty. Singing in the streets for change at the age of ten, she joined a travelling show featuring "Ma" Rainey, an experienced Blues singer that knew all of the ropes. Bessie played "on the road" for eleven years before making her first acoustic horn (non-electrical) recording in 1923. Her first record sold 780,000 copies, but only made her $125. Dubbed "The Empress of the Blues," her singing embodied the Blues while her songs, drawn from her world be damned lifestyle, rang true with rural and urban audiences alike. Eventually she purchased a private railroad car so she could have eating and sleeping facilities on the move as well as privacy during segregated times. Her lyrics belt out stories of reefer and gin and the pain of love and bad men that did her wrong and left her down and out. Bessie's music inspired many 20th Century artists including Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin. Tragically killed in a 1937 car crash in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Bessie Smith continues to sing in 2009 through her recordings.

Bessie's final resting place remained unmarked until 1970 when Janis Joplin in tandem with Columbia Records paid for her tombstone.

Photo by Edward Elcha, 1923.