Browsing: Bessie Smith

To conjure, one of the African cultural survivals very early noted in the New World, was mystical and required religious rituals. Discover it’s meaning in the blues!

‘Paint the Roses’ documents a collaborative, streamed concert by the two artistic groups in December, 2020 at Miami’s North Beach Bandshell

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician…

Maybe you’ve heard ‘bout Bessie Smith. Empress of the Blues. Powerhouse in music history. One of the greatest voices of all time. But she wasn’t the only Smith out there. The blues as we know it started with a Smith. And it wasn’t Bessie…

This is the latest installment of our weekly series The Language of the Blues, in which author and rock musician…

A mean temper, with a mouth like a sailor, a penchant for whiskey, and a taste for both men and women, Bessie Smith lived a life that would drop the jaws of even the baddest rock star.

This Week in Blues Past: “Father of the British Blues”, “Godmother of the Chicago Blues”, “Empress of the Blues” and more…

The first trailer of Queen Latifah playing Bessie Smith has just been released, and the short scenes show the actress & Grammy Award-winning

There was no shortage of controversy surrounding Bessie Smith’s interaction with her record label. Find the fascinating, hidden decades-long fight over the Empress of the Blues’ music, some of the most powerful in blues history.

It stretches for almost two miles, rising right up out of the Mississippi River. Beale Street. It’s where gamblers lived and died, hookers hooked and killers got away with it. For the first half of the 20thcentury, there was nowhere else you’d rather be….