Details
Track Listing
1. Good Man Is Hard to Find, A
2. I Ain't Goin' to Play No Second Fiddle
3. Me and My Gin
4. Muddy Water (A Mississippi Moan)
5. St. Louis Blues
6. 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
7. Careless Love
8. Yellow Dog Blues, The
9. Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl
10. Down Hearted Blues
11. Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
12. On Revival Day (A Rhythmic Spiritual)
13. Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
14. Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer
15. Back Water Blues
Album Notes
Personnel includes: Bessie Smith (vocals); Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Chu Berry (tenor saxophone); Louis Armstrong (cornet); Charlie Green, Jack Teagarden (trombone); Benny Goodman (clarinet); Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Clarence Williams (piano).
Recorded between 1923 & 1933. Includes liner notes by Martin Scorsese and Tom Piazza.
Personnel: Bessie Smith (vocals); Lincoln M. Conaway, Bobby Johnson (guitar); Charlie Dixon (banjo); Coleman Hawkins (clarinet, tenor saxophone); Benny Goodman, Buster Bailey (clarinet); Garvin Bushell (alto saxophone); Chu Berry, Greely Walton (tenor saxophone); Frank Newton (trumpet); Ed Allen, Louis Armstrong, Joe Smith (cornet); Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Harrison, Joe Williams, Charlie Green (trombone); Cyrus St. Clair, Bob Escudero (tuba); Fletcher Henderson (piano, reed organ); Clarence Williams, Fred Longshaw, James P. Johnson, Porter Grainger, Buck Washington (piano); Billy Taylor (double bass).
Recording information: New York, New York (1923 - 1930).
While many hardcore blues fans don't need film director Martin Scorsese to introduce them to Bessie Smith, that fact does not detract from the strength of this compilation. As executive producer for the PBS series THE BLUES, Scorsese selected outstanding representative tracks from the genre's best performers, and the Smith installation in the series is no exception. At 15 tracks, this collection spans Smith's career, and features some of her greatest performances, including "'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do," "Downhearted Blues," and the slinky ode to fickle friends "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out."
Smith's technical facility as a singer is matched by her raw sexuality and charisma (a combination informed as much by vaudeville and theater as musical training). With the help of some of the era's top jazz musicians, including cornetist Louis Armstrong, clarinetist Benny Goodman, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and pianist Fletcher Henderson, Smith sang songs that were memorable, passionate, bold, and powerful. Though not a definitive overview (the two-disc THE ESSENTIAL BESSIE SMITH serves that function), this provides an excellent introduction to one of the most iconic figures of the blues.
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