Performance · Other credits

Bessie Smith

Tennessee blues singer

Chattanooga, United States · 1894-04-15 – 1937-09-26

Bessie Smith is credited on 824 releases across 249 albums tracked on Gatefold, active 1951–2023 — the collector-built map of who actually made the music.

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824

Credits

249

Albums

Decades active

113

In collections

Biography

source

Bessie Smith (born April 14, 1894, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA – died September 26, 1937, in a car accident near Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA) was an American blues singer.
Nicknamed the "Empress of the Blues", she was considered by many to be the greatest blues singer of all time. She was also a successful vaudeville entertainer who became the highest paid African-American performer of the roaring twenties. Bessie died from injuries sustained in a car crash. Her arm which was probably hanging out the car window was almost severed at the elbow. Her grave was unmarked for 33 years until Janis Joplin paid for her headstone in 1970. Half-sister.
Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 (Early Influence).
On June 7, 1923, she married Jack Gee thus becoming aunt-in-law of Ruby Smith (Jack's niece).

Bio from Discogs