Burns, Ken. "Bessie Smith." Biographies. October 2008. PBS.org. 20 Oct 2008 .
This website was very helpful. It gives certain details about Bessie Smith. Bessie Smith began her professional career in 1912 by singing in the same show as Ma Rainey, and subsequently performed in various touring minstrel shows and cabarets. By the 1920s, she was a leading artist in black shows on the TOBA circuit and at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta. After further tours she was sought out by Clarence Williams to record in New York. Her first recording, Down-Hearted Blues, established her as the most successful black performing artist of her time. She recorded regularly until 1928 with important early jazz instrumentalists such as Williams, James P. Johnson, and various members of Fletcher Henderson's band, including Louis Armstrong, Charlie Green, Joe Smith, and Tommy Ladnier. I think this will help us understand how Bessie Smith started her career as a blues singer.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Forth Anotation
Primaryaccess.org. 24 Oct 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.
Third Anotation
Sanders, Madelyn. "Bessie Smith." Women in History. 1/25/2008. 23 Oct 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.
Bessie Smith (Introduction)
Bessie Smith was a beautiful, well known, and respectful woman. Bessie Smith was an exquisite blues singer and her voice caught people’s ears. In 1912 during the Harlem Renaissance Bessie Smith broke into the singing world. A lot of people could relate to Bessie because of her hard life and struggles she had trying to become a Blues singer. From her being a black female in the music industry it was hard on her so she use alcohol and drugs to get away from her pain. Since she started to use drugs and alcohol her life became drugs and alcohol and singing, which were first in her, life slowly became nothing to her and she fell out the industry.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Second Anotation
jarvis, gail. "remembering Bessie Smith." lewrockwell.com. 26,09,2001. lewrovkwell. 24 Oct 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.
First Anotation
hernsworh, joan. "empress of the blues (bessie smith)." http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/bsmith.html. 14,12,1998. true women, new women: women in new york city. 24 Oct 2008 .
Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues" as she was called at the time, was a powerful, strong-willed woman who made her mark in history through singing the blues in the 1920’s and 30’s. The road that took her to that title was not an easy one, no romantic " rags to riches" story such as Horatio Alger made popular in her youth for white boys. For a young black woman from the South, a far different approach was needed, or a different person, and she most certainly was that. This was a woman who fought for what she believed in, and for what (and whoever) was hers, and backed down before nobody. She had determination which at times became a fiery temper, and no one was exempt from her wrath, which could turn violent; at six feet in height and above 200 pounds in weight, that wrath could be devastating. Yet the same experiences and temperament could show as great loyalty to those around her. And the whole range, with all its passsion, were expressed in her songs, and the way she sang them.
Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues" as she was called at the time, was a powerful, strong-willed woman who made her mark in history through singing the blues in the 1920’s and 30’s. The road that took her to that title was not an easy one, no romantic " rags to riches" story such as Horatio Alger made popular in her youth for white boys. For a young black woman from the South, a far different approach was needed, or a different person, and she most certainly was that. This was a woman who fought for what she believed in, and for what (and whoever) was hers, and backed down before nobody. She had determination which at times became a fiery temper, and no one was exempt from her wrath, which could turn violent; at six feet in height and above 200 pounds in weight, that wrath could be devastating. Yet the same experiences and temperament could show as great loyalty to those around her. And the whole range, with all its passsion, were expressed in her songs, and the way she sang them.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
My thesis statement
Even though Harlem Renaissance - · Refers to the proliferation of art and music in New York's African-American community in the 1920's. During this time, Harlem became the undisputed intellectual and artistic center of African-American society. The 1920s in Harlem produced writers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and Claude McKay, and photographers like Roy De Carava and James Van Der Zee.,Bessie Smih influence many people with her blues singing because civil rights movement and harlem renaissance .
Thursday, October 16, 2008
TOPIC SELECTION
I choose Bessie Smith for my N.H.D Project because I am interested in the music she made and the struggles she had to take
to get there.
Bessie Smith is an important to history because without her
efforts being the first African American woman who was
rich because of her blues singing, she inspired a lot of people with
her voices.
For this week’s research paper, I found an article at http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html at this website it talks
about her life and fame. I will read and summarize it for next week.
to get there.
Bessie Smith is an important to history because without her
efforts being the first African American woman who was
rich because of her blues singing, she inspired a lot of people with
her voices.
For this week’s research paper, I found an article at http://www.redhotjazz.com/bessie.html at this website it talks
about her life and fame. I will read and summarize it for next week.
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