Listening to this collection, recorded from 1925 to 1928 as Bessie Smith's popularity grew, one only wishes that the recording technology of the day were a match for Smith's incredible voice. Naturally, this two-disc set contains many of her classic recordings, including "Back Water Blues," "Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair," "Lock and Key," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," and "After You've Gone." This collection's also worth hearing for the backing musicians, who include Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, and other luminaries of the day. To listen to Bessie Smith is to hear the blues unadulterated, and to understand what inspired so many contemporaries and later singers, from Billie Holiday to Janis Joplin.
by Genevieve Williams
1. Red Mountain Blues 3:13
2. Golden Rule Blues 3:05
3. Lonesome Desert Blues 3:26
4. Them "Has Been" Blues 03:33
6. What's The Matter Now? 2:46
7. I Want Every Bit Of It 2:38
8. Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town 3:21
9. The Gin House Blues 3:14
12. Hard Driving Papa 2:59
13. Lost Your Head Blues 2:56
16. One And Two Blues 02:55
17. Young Woman's Blues 3:09
18. Preachin' The Blues 2:52
19. Back Water Blues 3:19
20. After You've Gone 2:57
21. Alexander's Ragtime Band 2:58
Personnel includes: Bessie Smith (vocals);
Lincoln M. Conaway (guitar);
Charlie Dixon (banjo);
Don Redman (clarinet, alto saxophone);
Buster Bailey, Coleman Hawkins (clarinet);
Shelton Hemphill, Joe Smith (cornet);
Fletcher Henderson, Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson, Porter Grainger (piano).
Recorded between 1925 and 1928.This is part of Legacy's Roots N' Blues series.Volume 3 of Columbia's five-box, ten-CD set finds Bessie Smith at the height of her career as a touring artist, recording consistently with high-caliber pianists like Fletcher Henderson and stride king James P. Johnson. While she was billed as "Empress of the Blues," Smith's accompanists handled her material in the small-group jazz style of the day, and her repertoire drew as much from tin pan alley, novelty and the vaudeville stage as it did from hokum and twelve-bar sources. There are many blues tunes here, but often the word was used as a marketing device rather than to connote a specific rhyme scheme or chord structure. On some of the later sides in Volume 3, the ensemble is expanded to include two horns--usually Joe Smith on cornet, with Jimmy Harrison or Charlie Green on trombone--and for one session, clarinet (a young Coleman Hawkins on "Alexander's Ragtime Band") and banjo. Chris Albertson's detailed history of Smith's life and career is continued in the accompanying booklet, which features numerous photographs of Smith and her colleagues and reproductions of various advertisements, studio logs, and 78 labels.
Tracklist 2:
1. Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan) 3:08
2. There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight 3:20
4. Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair 3:23
5. Them's Graveyard Words 2:59
9. Mean Old Bedbug Blues 3:14
10. A Good Man Is Hard To Find 3:02
12. Looking For My Man Blues 2:50
13. Dyin' By The Hour 3:00
14. Foolish Man Blues 2:55
16. Pickpocket Blues 2:44
17. I Used To Be Your Sweet Mama 2:51
18. I'd Rather Be Dead And Buried In My Grave 2:57
