CD 1
1. Beale Street Mama
2. Keeps on A-Rainin [sic] (Papa He Can’t Make No Time)
3. Outside of That
4. Midnight Blues
5. Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll like My Man
6. Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time
7. I’m Going Back to My Used to Be
8. Mistreatin’ Daddy
9. Frosty Mornin [sic] Blues
10. Eavesdropper Blues
11. Sorrowful Blues
12. House Rent Blues
13. Weeping Willow Blues
14. Dying Gambler’s Blues
15. Reckless Blues
16. Sobbin’ Hearted Blues
17. Cold in Hand Blues
18. St Louis Blues
19. Cake Walkin’ Babies
20. J. C. Holmes Blues;
21. My Man Blues
22. Nobody’s Blues but Mine
23. I’ve Been Mistreated and I Don’t Like It
24. I Want Every Bit of It
CD 2
1. Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town
2. Baby Doll
3. Honey Man Blues
4. One and Two Blues
5. Young Woman’s Blues
6. Muddy Water
7. There’ll Be a Hot Time in Old Town Tonight
8. Sweet Mistreater
9. Dyin’ by the Hour
10. I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama
11. Put It Right Here
12. Standin’ in the Rain Blues
13. Devil’s Gonna Git You
14. Me and My Gin
15. My Kitchen Man
16. I’ve Got What It Takes
17. He’s Got Me Goin’
18. You Don’t Understand
19. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
20. Blue Spirit Blues
21. See If I Care
22. Shipwreck Blues
23. I’m Down in the Dumps
24.
Take Me for a Buggy Ride
Collective Accompanists:
These are too many to list here, but they include Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, James P. Johnson, Eddie Lang, Clarence Williams, Jack
Teagarden, and Coleman Hawkins.
Of the female blues singers of the early twentieth century, the two giants are Ma Rainey (the “Mother of the Blues”) and Bessie Smith (the “Empress of the
Blues”). Ma Rainey was the older of the two, and interestingly they once worked in a show together, Rainey being the show’s singer and Smith a dancer.
Nothing, however, indicates the older woman gave the younger much in the way of singing lessons. Rainey made about one hundred recordings before she “went
out of style,” according to Paramount in 1928. Smith eventually put out over a hundred and sixty records and would undoubtedly have produced more had she
lived beyond her forty-third year.
This double CD set provides a fairly generous selection of some forty-eight tracks. The title wisely makes no claim that these are her “best,” period, but
they are certainly representative. Despite the often stellar accompaniment she gets on some of these tracks, I tend to prefer those where she is backed
only by piano as it is easier to focus on her voice, rather than being somewhat distracted by the accompaniment, often quite brilliant in its own
right—witness the superb obbligatos from Louis Armstrong on St. Louis Blues or Reckless Blues, or the solid group backing on Cake Walkin’ Babies from Home or I’m down in the Dumps. And what a voice it is—rich, powerful, vibrant—almost any adjective of praise one
can muster. And what a superbly controlled vibrato! In her emotional outpouring she personifies the blues, expressing feelings that come from actually
living, not just observing, what she is singing about—unrequited love, physical abuse, betrayal, abandonment, ostracism—all subjects of many blues.
Another remarkable thing about her voice is that it overcame the shortcomings of acoustical recording. Columbia did not stop recording Bessie Smith
acoustically until mid 1926 or thereabouts, so a good portion of her output consisted of acoustic recordings, and in this collection all of tracks on disc
1 and the first couple on disc 2 are acoustic. But on the acoustic recordings one can hear right away that her robust, big voice is not much diminished by
the cone into which she sang (her accompanists do not always fare quite so well); out it came almost as warm and convincing as it did later when caught by
a microphone on the electric recordings, which comprise the rest of CD 2.
She not only sang the blues, she also turned her hand to composing blues numbers—and with some success. Several of her compositions are to be found in this
compilation, and at least two of them, Reckless Blues and Young Woman’s Blues, can stand beside those of any other composer.
The tragedy of her death in an automobile accident in 1937 at such a young age lies not only in her relative youth but also in the many recordings which
were never to be made. On the headstone which Janis Joplin (along with one of Smith’s friends) had commissioned for Smith’s otherwise unmarked grave, is
the inscription: “The Greatest Blues Singer in the World Will Never Stop Singing.” There may be some debate about “Greatest,” but to date the
latter part of the inscription holds true as Bessie Smith’s recordings are still being issued and played today. And this double CD set makes clear why that
is the case.
Bert Thompson
CD Reviews
Acrobat FADCD2040
