Results for "Bessie Smith"
About Bessie Smith
Instrument: Voice / vocals
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Bessie Smith
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“Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues singers on how it should be done. Bessie Smith, born on Apr. 15, 1894, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was one of ten children. Her parents died by her eighth birthday, and she was raised by her older sister Viola. She was taught to sing and dance by her older brother Clarence, who later arranged an audition for Smith with the traveling Moses Stokes Show where she was hired as a dancer in 1912. She became friends with Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, a blues singer, who became her mentor
Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12
by Mark Corroto
Wadada Leo Smith's seven CD boxset String Quartets Nos. 1-12 summons two words, epic and ineffable. The 5½ hours of music chronicle three of his four periods writing for string quartets from 1965 until 2019. The remaining work, “String Quartets Nos. 13, 14, and 15" inspired by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US ...
New Releases Plus Birthday Celebrations for Charles Mingus, Bessie Smith and More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast presents a burst of new releases from saxophonists Jessy J and Bill Kirchner (a 2013 live concert featuring Carol Fredette), vocalists Deanne Matley (her tribute to Oscar Peterson), Mark Winkler and a single from Robin McKelle, pianist Lynne Arriale and the USAF Airmen of Note featuring Diane Schuur, with birthday shoutouts to Charles Mingus, ...
A Conversation with Amiri Baraka
by Lazaro Vega
From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in November 1999. All About Jazz: I'm just really happy to see that in the last year or so you've become a much more public figure outside of academia through the recording with Hugh Ragin, Afternoon in Harlem on Justin-time, that When ...
Birthday Celebrations for Bessie Smith and Herbie Hancock Plus New Releases From Rosalyn McClore and Yulia Musayelyan
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast features new releases from vocalist Rosalyn McClore and flutist Yulia Musayelyan with birthday shoutouts to Bessie Smith, Wendy Kirkland, Tia Fuller, Judy Wexler, Vanessa Perica, Herbie Hancock, Haruna Fukazawa, Pete Malinverni and Michelle Lordi, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of ...
Margie Evans, Iconic And Sophisticated Queen Of The Blues, Dies At 81
Margie Evans, a legendary, international Blues and Gospel entertainer, songwriter, music producer, actress, music historian, community activist and motivational spokeswoman, who broke barriers for African American female Blues performers with poise, dignity and sophistication, died on March 19, 2021. In addition to her musicianship, Evans is noted as an activist for parity in music education as ...
Billie
by Ian Patterson
Billie New Black Films 96 minutes 2020 A victim of her own self-destructive excesses is a common trope when assessing Billie Holiday. Yet James Erskine's handsome documentary Billie makes a convincing case for Holiday—arguably the greatest of all jazz singers—as more a victim of poverty, racism, manipulation and brutal misogyny. ...
Marty Elkins: 'Tis Autumn
by C. Michael Bailey
There exists a group of jazz musicians dedicated to pre-bebop jazz who have traditionally populated the catalogs of the Nagel-Heyer and Arbors record labels. These musicians include Herb Pomeroy, Max Kaminsky, Randy Sandke, Harry Allen, and Dave McKenna. Central to this group is vocalist Marty Elkins who, while in college, discovered the recordings of Ella Fitzgerald, ...
Ron Miles: Rainbow Sign Of The Times
by Ian Patterson
The title of Ron Miles' Rainbow Sign (Blue Note Records, 2020) carries great personal meaning for the Denver cornetist/composer and educator. The initial influence was The Carter Family song “God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign," with its line 'No more water but the fire next time," which in turn gave James Baldwin the title for his ...
Ada Bird Wolfe, Jamieson Trotter: He & Me
by C. Michael Bailey
Ada Bird Wolfe's 2018 debut CD, Birdie (Self Produced), was one of the best recordings released that year. For Wolfe, music has been a lifetime love, even while in school and after, working in business, and writing full time. Wolfe has sojourned from the East to the West Coast, where she finally landed, set down roots ...
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