Bessie Smith Empty Bed Blues (Asv Living Era) CD - Import

Bessie Smith was enormously popular, selling millions of records as one of the leading "classic blues" singers, a diva-featuring genre that drew from early 20th-Century vaudeville, jazz and popular music. Anyone who associates the blues primarily with guitar slingers might not recognize these recordings as blues per se, but they will find some familiar repertoire--Ms. Smith recorded "Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" a good forty years before David Bromberg or Mr. Clapton got their hands on such material. Smith did record twelve-bar blues, including raunchier songs like "Kitchen Man." Other songs, like Handy's "St. Louis Blues," were built like tin pan alley tunes but were given the blues-like accompaniment of piano and one horn. The sideman credits reveal the degree of Smith's stardom in the '20s; on these recordings, which cover a decade of her work, she's accompanied by the cream of the era's jazz musicians, from Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden to James P. Johnson, Eddie Lang and a small group led by Fletcher Henderson.

her 23 greatest tracks from 1923-33 feat. Louis Armstrong, Buster Baily, Chu Berry, Benny Goodman, Charlie Green, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, Tommy Ladnier, Eddie Lang +

Recorded between 1923 & 1933. Includes liner notes by Vic Bellerby.

Personnel: Bessie Smith (vocals); Bobby Johnson (guitar); Charlie Dixon (banjo); Benny Goodman, Buster Bailey (clarinet); Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Greely Walton (tenor saxophone); Frankie Newton, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Ladnier (trumpet); Ed Allen (cornet); Jack Teagarden, Charlie Green (trombone); Cyrus St. Clair, June Cole, Ralph Escudero (tuba); Fred Longshaw (piano, organ); Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Porter Grainger, Buck Washington (piano).

Recording information: New York, NY (04/26/1923-11/24/1933).

Personnel includes: Bessie Smith (vocals); Eddie Lang (guitar); Buster Bailey, Benny Goodman (clarinet); Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry (tenor saxophone); Louis Armstrong, Tommy Ladnier (trumpet); Joe Smith (cornet); Charlie Green, Jack Teagarden (trombone); Fred Longshaw (piano, organ); Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Porter Grainger (piano).

Rolling Stone (6/24/71, p.48) - "...Time is the best critic of all and the Bessie Smith records have stood that test superbly..."