Smith,Bessie Bessie Smith Collection 1923-33 CD

Bessie Smith was not only the first significant female blues singer to emerge during the early electric recording era, but her influence and reputation is such that she is still rightly hailed as the most important and greatest female blues artist in the annals of the genre, rightly given the title "The Empress Of The Blues". Her recording career was compressed into the decade covered by this collection, her career being blighted by the Depression, although she was actively performing and expanding her audience when she was killed in a car crash in 1937. This excellent value 48-track 2-CD set is selected from the 160 recordings she made for Columbia, and does not duplicate any titles which appear on the Fabulous label's existing Bessie Smith 2-CD set "Bessie Smith Greatest Hits" (FADCD2004), and so the two together will give collectors around half of her entire recorded output, including some lesser known material alongside the famous classics. During her career, she recorded with eminent musicians of the day accompanying her and most of them are featured in this collection, including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Clarence Williams, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden and Don Redman.

1. Beale Street Mama 2. Keeps on A-Rainin (Papa He Can't Make No Time) 3. Outside of That 4. Midnight Blues 5. Nobody in Town Can Bake a Jelly Roll Like My Man 6. Whoa, Tillie, Take Your Time 7. I'm Going Back to My Used to Be 8. Mistreatin' Daddy 9. Frosty Mornin' Blues 10. Eavesdropper Blues 11. Sorrowful Blues 12. House Rent Blues 13. Weeping Willow Blues 14. Dying Gambler's Blues 15. Reckless Blues 16. Sobbin' Hearted Blues 17. Cold in Hand Blues 18. St Louis Blues 19. Cake Walkin' Babies 20. J.C. Holmes Blues 21. My Man Blues 22. Nobody's Blues But Mine 23. I've Been Mistreated and I Don't Like It 24. I Want Every Bit of It 25. Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town 26. Baby Doll 27. Honey Man Blues 28. One and Two Blues 29. Young Woman's Blues 30. Muddy Water 31. There'll Be a Hot Time in Old Town Tonight 32. Sweet Mistreater 33. Dyin' By the Hour 34. I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama 35. Put It Right Here 36. Standin' in the Rain Blues 37. Devil's Gonna Git You 38. Me and My Gin 39. My Kitchen Man 40. I've Got What It Takes 41. He's Got Me Goin' 42. You Don't Understand 43. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues 44. Blue Spirit Blues 45. See If I Care 46. Shipwreck Blues 47. I'm Down in the Dumps 48. Take Me for a Buggy Ride