Hemsworth, Joan. "Bessie Smith Empress of the Blues." 14 Dec 1998. 4 Dec 2008
.
When Bessie was a bit younger, she was once removed from a job as chorus
girl-because her skin was too black. Years later she dealt with a similar
situation at the famous Apollo in New York by demanding that a very dark chorus
girl be kept-though she accepted a dimming of the lights. Bessie also despised
blacks that attempted to become like whites.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Preview: Taking Notes- Using a Famous Quote
Summarize what Frederick Douglass thinks about the fourth of July and then choose a quote to support your statement.
Answer: Douglass believes that the fourth of July represents nothing to the Slaves of the American ideal of liberty. He said," There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very".
Answer: Douglass believes that the fourth of July represents nothing to the Slaves of the American ideal of liberty. He said," There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very".
Thursday, November 20, 2008
12th Annotation
"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.
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.
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.
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