"American Decades." enotes.com. 20 Nov 2008 .
During her lifetime the blues was regarded as a form of black expression; she performed for mostly black audiences and recorded for what were classified as race records that were not stocked in record shops catering to whites. Unlike Louis Armstrong, who reached all audiences, Smith was unknown or unavailable to most white Americans during her career. She was a black artist working with traditional black material for a black public nevertheless, Smith gave special performances for white audiences in some large cities.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
11th Annotation
Forman, Roanna. "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ MUSICIANS." Jazz.com. 20 Nov 2008 .
When Bessie's mother and father died she was left to take care of her three brothers and sisters by taking in laundry. This strong work ethic made a lasting impression on Bessie. She was determined to leave the poverty and inequality of Blue Goose Hollow, and show business was her ticket. She started street corner singing and dancing with her brother Andrew to boost the family’s income. She did an audition Stokes and later hired Bessie as a dancer, since he already had a singer Ma Rainey. During this time, she developed a reputation as a performer at black theaters across the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. Bessie was decidedly an original, and a natural singer. Bessie Smith is a soprano with a more urban, polished style. In any case Bessie undoubtedly learned how to handle herself on stage from Rainey, even though their styles were different. Things began to change after the 1920s, in 1923, Smith, then living in Philadelphia, auditioned successfully for a recording contract with Columbia and that's where her success begun.
When Bessie's mother and father died she was left to take care of her three brothers and sisters by taking in laundry. This strong work ethic made a lasting impression on Bessie. She was determined to leave the poverty and inequality of Blue Goose Hollow, and show business was her ticket. She started street corner singing and dancing with her brother Andrew to boost the family’s income. She did an audition Stokes and later hired Bessie as a dancer, since he already had a singer Ma Rainey. During this time, she developed a reputation as a performer at black theaters across the South and along the Eastern Seaboard. Bessie was decidedly an original, and a natural singer. Bessie Smith is a soprano with a more urban, polished style. In any case Bessie undoubtedly learned how to handle herself on stage from Rainey, even though their styles were different. Things began to change after the 1920s, in 1923, Smith, then living in Philadelphia, auditioned successfully for a recording contract with Columbia and that's where her success begun.
Friday, November 14, 2008
10th Annotation
Noble, Barnes. "Bessie Smith ." Sparknotes. 2008. 14 Nov 2008 .
This website i have to say was the important of them all it tells me about Bessie Smiths Beginning, becoming the empress, the blues diva, wild women , love on the road, her death and the controversy afterwards. As stated " Jack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. Gee refused to buy his ex-wife a headstone, and her family, for unknown reasons, did too. In 1948, Smith's friends held a Bessie Smith Memorial Concert in New York to raise funds for the headstone. The concert was a success, but Gee pocketed the proceeds and disappeared."
This website i have to say was the important of them all it tells me about Bessie Smiths Beginning, becoming the empress, the blues diva, wild women , love on the road, her death and the controversy afterwards. As stated " Jack Gee collected all the money that was due to Smith for the sales of her records. Gee refused to buy his ex-wife a headstone, and her family, for unknown reasons, did too. In 1948, Smith's friends held a Bessie Smith Memorial Concert in New York to raise funds for the headstone. The concert was a success, but Gee pocketed the proceeds and disappeared."
9th Annotation
Snow, Joel. "Bessie Smith ." Bessie Smith. October 7, 1997. 14 Nov 2008 .
This website came to be somewhat useful, take for instance when it stated, " Bessie started working small-time traveling tent shows, such as Charles P. Bailey's troupe and Pete Werley's Florida Cotton Blossoms, carnivals, and hony-tonks. Her first recording, Down Hearted Blues, was released in the spring of 1923. Though released without special promotion, it was an immediate success, and had sold over two million copies by the end of the first year of release, an immense number for that time." Out of all the websites I have visit this was the only website that gave me this particular information.
This website came to be somewhat useful, take for instance when it stated, " Bessie started working small-time traveling tent shows, such as Charles P. Bailey's troupe and Pete Werley's Florida Cotton Blossoms, carnivals, and hony-tonks. Her first recording, Down Hearted Blues, was released in the spring of 1923. Though released without special promotion, it was an immediate success, and had sold over two million copies by the end of the first year of release, an immense number for that time." Out of all the websites I have visit this was the only website that gave me this particular information.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
8th Annotation
Jarvis, gail. "remembering Bessie Smith." lewrockwell.com. 26,09,2001. lewrovkwell. 13 Nov 2008 .
In the years following Bessie Smith’s death there were conflicting accounts of how she actually died. What is known is that after a late night performance somewhere in Mississippi, probably Natchez, Bessie headed for Memphis in a car driven by her boyfriend, Richard Morgan. In 1937 there were no expressways and Route 61 was a typical poorly lit, winding two-lane road. Near the outskirts of Clarksdale, in the early morning hours of that September day, their car, being driven at a high rate of speed, crashed into the back of a truck stopped on the side of the road.
Several rumors began circulating regarding the cause of her death: she was killed upon impact, she was taken to a hotel where she died; she died in an ambulance en route to a hospital, and she was taken to a white hospital that refused to treat her because she was black and so she died as the ambulance tried to locate a black hospital.
In the years following Bessie Smith’s death there were conflicting accounts of how she actually died. What is known is that after a late night performance somewhere in Mississippi, probably Natchez, Bessie headed for Memphis in a car driven by her boyfriend, Richard Morgan. In 1937 there were no expressways and Route 61 was a typical poorly lit, winding two-lane road. Near the outskirts of Clarksdale, in the early morning hours of that September day, their car, being driven at a high rate of speed, crashed into the back of a truck stopped on the side of the road.
Several rumors began circulating regarding the cause of her death: she was killed upon impact, she was taken to a hotel where she died; she died in an ambulance en route to a hospital, and she was taken to a white hospital that refused to treat her because she was black and so she died as the ambulance tried to locate a black hospital.
7th Annotation
"Biographies Life and times of the great ones." PBS.org. 13 Nov 2008 .
Bessie Smith was the most successful black performing artist of her time. She not only sang the blues she also did acting too. Bessie began her professional career by sing in 1912. She made almost 200 recordings, of which her remarkable duets with Armstrong are among her best. Although she excelled in the performance of slow blues, she also recorded vigorous versions of jazz standards. By the 1920s, she was a leading artist in black shows on the TOBA circuit and at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta. Her first recording, Down-Hearted Blues, established her as the most successful black performing artist of her time.
Bessie Smith was the most successful black performing artist of her time. She not only sang the blues she also did acting too. Bessie began her professional career by sing in 1912. She made almost 200 recordings, of which her remarkable duets with Armstrong are among her best. Although she excelled in the performance of slow blues, she also recorded vigorous versions of jazz standards. By the 1920s, she was a leading artist in black shows on the TOBA circuit and at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta. Her first recording, Down-Hearted Blues, established her as the most successful black performing artist of her time.
Friday, November 7, 2008
6th Annotation
Primaryaccess.org. 7 Nov 2008 .
Bessie Smith was a talented African American blues singer. She was a rough, crude, violent woman. She was also the greatest of the classic Blues singers of the 1920s. But during her career she had her ups and downs. She was turned down by three record companies because they felt she wasn't commercial enough, but Columbia Records soon signed Bessie. Her first record "Down Hearted Blues" sold more then 2 million copies within a year. At her peak in the 1920's she earned $2,000 a week, making her the highest paid black entertainer in the country. In 1930 her career had begun to fall due to the public’s change musical taste. By 1931 the Classic Blues style of Bessie Smith was out of style. The Depression, radio, and sound movies had all damaged the record companies' ability to sell records so Columbia dropped Smith from its roster.
Bessie Smith was a talented African American blues singer. She was a rough, crude, violent woman. She was also the greatest of the classic Blues singers of the 1920s. But during her career she had her ups and downs. She was turned down by three record companies because they felt she wasn't commercial enough, but Columbia Records soon signed Bessie. Her first record "Down Hearted Blues" sold more then 2 million copies within a year. At her peak in the 1920's she earned $2,000 a week, making her the highest paid black entertainer in the country. In 1930 her career had begun to fall due to the public’s change musical taste. By 1931 the Classic Blues style of Bessie Smith was out of style. The Depression, radio, and sound movies had all damaged the record companies' ability to sell records so Columbia dropped Smith from its roster.
5th Annotation
Sanders, Madelyn. "Bessie Smith." Women in History. 1/25/2008. 7 Nov 2008 .
This website was very useful, for example it told me about how Bessie Smith was born into a poverty stricken black family in the segregated south. It also stated " Bessie Smith was in the process of a comeback at the time of her tragic death at age forty-three. On Sept. 26, 1937, she was critically injured while on her way to a singing engagement, when the car being driven by her boyfriend Richard Morgan in which she was a passenger crashed into a truck on a road in Mississippi. According to legend segregation led to her death when a white hospital first refused her admission and by the time she arrived at a black hospital in Clarksdale, Miss., it was too late to save her and she bled to death. Although much has been said to dispute this claim, it is not implausible considering that this was the segregated south. The playwright Edward Albee dramatized the account in his 1960 play The Death of Bessie Smith ".
This website helped me a lot it told me about what type of family she was born into and how bessie smith life could have actually been saved after the tragic car crash but since it was a time during segregation the white hospital refused to take her so she bled to death.
This website was very useful, for example it told me about how Bessie Smith was born into a poverty stricken black family in the segregated south. It also stated " Bessie Smith was in the process of a comeback at the time of her tragic death at age forty-three. On Sept. 26, 1937, she was critically injured while on her way to a singing engagement, when the car being driven by her boyfriend Richard Morgan in which she was a passenger crashed into a truck on a road in Mississippi. According to legend segregation led to her death when a white hospital first refused her admission and by the time she arrived at a black hospital in Clarksdale, Miss., it was too late to save her and she bled to death. Although much has been said to dispute this claim, it is not implausible considering that this was the segregated south. The playwright Edward Albee dramatized the account in his 1960 play The Death of Bessie Smith ".
This website helped me a lot it told me about what type of family she was born into and how bessie smith life could have actually been saved after the tragic car crash but since it was a time during segregation the white hospital refused to take her so she bled to death.
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