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| The Empress of the Blues. |
Tragedy bookended the life of 1920s blues legend, Bessie Smith. She lost her father, “a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher," before her memory kicked in and lost her mother (and an older brother) by the time she was 9 (or 10; I’ve read both). That threw her family onto the resources and guidance of her oldest sister, Viola, to raise what was left of a too-young family. The Smith family did some of the usual things to find income - e.g., doing other people’s laundry - but Bessie Smith and one of her remaining brothers (Clarence, I’m guessing) raised money by busking; they even had a street corner nailed down, Thirteenth and Elm Street, in front of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s White Elephant Saloon.
Clarence Smith later joined a touring troupe, one owned and operated by Moses Stokes, leaving Bessie behind and breaking up the busking team. He snuck out at night, knowing that Bessie would try to go with him. I haven’t read anything that says how she reacted to that whole thing, but, if hard feelings were present, Clarence made it up to her by finagling an audition to the same troupe for Bessie when she was 18 (old enough, basically, which was why Clarence snuck out the first time); that would have been 1912. She landed the job and joined her brother and the troupe on tour. The name of the company: The Rabbit Foot Minstrels - e.g., the same outfit that employed Ma Rainey. Rainey took Smith under her wing (there are rumors she kidnapped her, but…) and taught her how to sing the blues. Smith learned well. Very well:
“None of the others could sing with her combination of field holler and Jazz Age sophistication. None could throw her voice from the stage — without a microphone — and make a balcony seat feel like the front row. None made such an artistic impression on her contemporaries in jazz, or her disciples in rock 'n' roll.”
“Smith's version of ‘Downhearted Blues’ sold a reported 780,000 copies in 1923, a minor miracle for a song that had already hit nationwide for a variety of different artists.”
“In Smith's case, they amount to a woman whose life makes a liar out of every subsequent performer claiming to have had an original experience in the music business. She was the first bisexual, alcoholic, horsewhipped-by-segregationists, beat-out-of-songwriting-royalties, lemonade-making, dark-skinned singing-sensation whose husband cheated on her with a light-skinned ‘Becky with the good hair.’”
Clarence Smith later joined a touring troupe, one owned and operated by Moses Stokes, leaving Bessie behind and breaking up the busking team. He snuck out at night, knowing that Bessie would try to go with him. I haven’t read anything that says how she reacted to that whole thing, but, if hard feelings were present, Clarence made it up to her by finagling an audition to the same troupe for Bessie when she was 18 (old enough, basically, which was why Clarence snuck out the first time); that would have been 1912. She landed the job and joined her brother and the troupe on tour. The name of the company: The Rabbit Foot Minstrels - e.g., the same outfit that employed Ma Rainey. Rainey took Smith under her wing (there are rumors she kidnapped her, but…) and taught her how to sing the blues. Smith learned well. Very well:
“None of the others could sing with her combination of field holler and Jazz Age sophistication. None could throw her voice from the stage — without a microphone — and make a balcony seat feel like the front row. None made such an artistic impression on her contemporaries in jazz, or her disciples in rock 'n' roll.”
“Smith's version of ‘Downhearted Blues’ sold a reported 780,000 copies in 1923, a minor miracle for a song that had already hit nationwide for a variety of different artists.”
“In Smith's case, they amount to a woman whose life makes a liar out of every subsequent performer claiming to have had an original experience in the music business. She was the first bisexual, alcoholic, horsewhipped-by-segregationists, beat-out-of-songwriting-royalties, lemonade-making, dark-skinned singing-sensation whose husband cheated on her with a light-skinned ‘Becky with the good hair.’”
