BESSIE SMITH ‘Downhearted Blues’

Original Recordings 1923-1924

"She made life amusing, serious, witty and devastatingly depressing and she sang, without compromise, for people who were honest enough to realise that life is like that." (Spike Hughes — Melody Maker obituary, 1937)

"Bessie’s control of her voice was without parallel; a subtle accent on one syllable could change the entire meaning of a line. Her sense of pitch was as dramatic as it was accurate." (George Avakian)

To her friends and fans Bessie became known as ‘The Queen of the Blues’ and the record companies elevated her another notch to ‘Empress’. She made the blues her speciality and under that heading she sang of love, oppression and defeat for a salary often in excess of $1500 per week and during the first year of her recording contract alone her sales exceeded two million. The archetypal raw, vaudeville blues singer, she wa