By Jaclyn Breeze
Bessie Smith, born April 15th, 1894, was a singer nicknamed “The Empress of the Blues.” Bessie’s parents died when she was very young, and so she and one of her brothers, Andrew, busked on the streets to earn money for their family. She sang and danced and he played the guitar. When she was 10, another older brother, Clarence, left home to join a traveling band. He left without telling Bessie because he knew she would have wanted to come even though she was still a child. When she was 12, he came back and arranged an audition for his sister and she was hired as a dancer. She eventually left the band and started performing in chorus lines in Atlanta. At 18, she began performing independently in Atlanta, and over several years she established a reputation in the South and along the East Coast. She began recording when she was 29, becoming even more popular, and she became the highest-paid black entertainer. She liked to make music about being independent and fearless, love, and expressing that women were worthy of respect. She died when she was 43 from a car accident. While thousands came to her funeral, she had an unmarked grave until several decades later when singer Janis Joplin bought her a headstone. She has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is regarded as one of the greatest singers of her time. She was a major influence on other blues and jazz singers.
Listen to some of her work here:
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home
