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The Essential Bessie
Smith
Bessie's the Bomb!, October 2, 2006
BESSIE SMITH is undoubtedly the Great Godmother of Blues and was a
legend in her own time. Her influence was seen in many singers who followed,
including Janis Joplin her often referred to Bessie as being her primary
inspiration. Supposedly Bessie was the inspiration for the character "Shug
Avery" in one of America's most important films, The Color Purple. Bessie
Smith's original recordings were produced on so-called "Race Records,"
marketed for the segregated African-American community (they were considered
too sexual for the likes of lily white listeners.) Bessie made a few early
rather regrettable "videos" of her songs; her attempts at a
breakthrough into movies were equally unfortunate. She had no dramatic training
and the studios only saw her cast as the perennial docile or happy-go-lucky
black maid--and Bessie wasn't having any of that.
The selected anthology is expertly remastered. It features `Taint Nobody's
Bizness If I do; St. Louis Blues; and the politically incorrect Send Me to the
`Lectric Chair. It looses 1 Star only because it should have included two or
three selections found elsewhere to make the highest rating “essential”.
Queen
of the Blues Volume 1
Salutes
Bessie Smith
Best
of the Empress of the Blues
The
Ultimate Collection
Whales
& Nightingales
In
My Life
Judith
Who
Knows Where the Time Goes
Judy
Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy
Forever:
An Anthology
Review: JEFarrow
Updated 11/07