"Known for her prodigious musical talent, her timeless blues narratives about personal and socioeconomic problems, her tough persona, and her innate ability to enrapture audiences with her raw voice, Bessie Smith--the Empress of the Blues--receives a unique biographical treatment in this special life narrative captured by one of Scotland's finest poets. By masterfully blending research, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and her own experiences in listening...

Bessie Smith's transformation from a struggling young singer into 'The Empress of the Blues', who became one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s and is an enduring icon today.

From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at...

Profiles the life and career of jazz vocalist Bessie Smith.

Through historic performances and recordings, captures the spirit of such pioneering blues women as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, and others.

"Nicknamed the Queen of the Blues, Bessie Smith rose up from poverty in the American South to become one of the most famous and respected recording artists of her generation. Smith was at the forefront of transitioning blues music from a rural novelty to a legitimate art form that critics and audiences took seriously. Behind the scenes of her success, though, Bessie navigated a story family and personal life. She had adult sisters who depended on...