Release Date: 09 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Jazz Legends / Naxos Jazz Legends
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943273227
Genres: Blues
Description
Bessie Smith, Vol. 5'I've Got What It Takes' Original Recordings 1929-1933Bessie Smith was still very much in her prime in 1929, the point where this collection begins. She was still just 35 but, considering how famous she was and how powerful she still sang, it is surprising how little time she had left.The Empress Of The Blues had been at the top of the black music world for nearly fifteen years. Born on 15 April 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she became an orphan by the time she was ten. To fight poverty, she sang on street corners, accompanied by her brother on guitar.Things began to look up in 1912 when Bessie started working as a dancer with the Moses Stokes troupe, a revue whose star was Ma Rainey, the first famous blues singer. Learning from Rainey's example on how to sell a song to an audience, within a couple of years Bessie was a major attraction in the South. Her singing was remarkably passionate and sensuous, practically hypnotizing audiences. By 1919 she was headlining her own travelling shows in the South.After Mamie Smith had a major success in late-1920 with her recording of "Crazy Blues", nearly every black female singer possessing some talent was rushed into the recording studios in hopes of duplicating her success. It is surprising that it took until February 1923 before Bessie Smith was finally recorded, but she made up for lost time. Her first recording, Alberta Hunter's "Down Hearted Blues", was a big seller and she recorded regularly for the rest of the decade.The blues craze had largely faded by 1926, but Smith was such a passionate and popular singer that she outlasted most of her competitors. However by 1929 she knew full well that the blues were considered passé, particularly by record company executives. She sought to alter her repertoire while still remaining based in the blues.For the recording date of 8 May 1929, Bessie Smith was joined by the premier stride pianist (James P. Johnson) and the top guitarist in jazz (Eddie Lang). The three songs that she recorded are all single-entendre songs whose lyrics make no effort to disguise the subject matter. Hokum, fuelled by the success of "It's Tight Like That", was becoming popular and, while these three songs are less subtle, the style is similar. I'm Wild About That Thing has some forceful singing from Bessie along with light-hearted playing from her two accompanists. Kitchen Man, a song revived by Alberta Hunter in the 1970s, is the most inventive and humorous of the three, featuring some outrageous lyrics. You've Got To Give Me Some has essentially the same melody and theme as I'm Wild About That Thing; both were written by Spencer Williams.A week later, the Empress recorded a pair of classics. I've Got What It Takes is a subtle nod towards the virtues of both self-reliance and prostitution. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, which in time became Bessie's greatest hit, is a perfect Depression era song but surprisingl
Tracklisting
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Hoagy Carmichael
Goodman
Davis
Various Artists
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
