In Netflix's new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Viola Davis stars as the heavy makeup-wearing, velvety-voiced, super confident Ma Rainey. Based on August Wilson's play of the same name, most of the ...

"The Empress of the Blues" gave voice the listeners' tribulations and yearnings of the 1920s and '30s. A new 10-CD box set collects the complete... The Mythic Power Of Bessie Smith Vocalist Bessie ...

Like a perfectly timed high note in a torch song, Bessie doesn't tiptoe into queerness as filmmaker Dee Rees gives us a love letter to Black, bisexual brilliance. After all, when history forgets our ...

Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, was the first African American superstar, an artist that mingled regal dignity with sensuality. We’ll sample her recorded legacy, talk with critics and hear ...

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of. How Bessie Smith Influenced A Century Of Popular ...

Blues guitarist and vocalist Rory Block serves up an inspired portrait of and homage to Bessie Smith on A Woman's Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith. Block has recorded several "tribute" albums, ...

Smith was barnstorming the South, performing her act under a canvas tent for Black audiences or in segregated theaters. One sweltering night in July, it took her to the heart of Concord’s Black ...

"The Devil's Music" is not much of a play, but it is a socko cabaret act. Subtitled "The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith," the 90-minute entertainment is set in a Memphis "buffet flat," an after-hours ...

The Makar of Scotland, their poet laureate, from 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay discusses growing up Black and adopted in an all-white section of Glasgow. Her imaginary family included Bessie Smith. She ...

All About Jazz is celebrating Bessie Smith's birthday today! “Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues ...