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NameDateIntellectual Devotional Modern Culture Reading: Bessie Smith. Please use this reading on legendary blues singer Bessie Smith to answer the reading comprehension questions on the worksheet that accompanies it.When Columbia Records nicknamed Bessie Smith (c. 1894-1937) the Queen of the Blues, the music press made it clear that they disagreed. Queen wasn’t quite regal enough: the nickname that stuck for the famous singer was “the Empress of the Blues.”Bessie Smith was most popular blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s and had already achieve considerable success as a performer before she entered the recording studio. In 1912, Smith sang in a revue with the legendary blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886-1939), nicknamed the Mother of the Blues, and the older star was impressed. Rainey gave the Tennessee native some pointers—particularly on how to maintain a strong stage presence—and the pupil soon outshined her teacher.Smith had her own show in Atlantic City by 1920, and in 1923 she moved to New York City, where she was a huge hit on the vaudeville circuit. This was also the year that she signed a recording contract with Columbia and made her first albums.Columba signed Smith as the first artist for its new “race records” series, hoping to exploit the popularity of African-American blues music. Smith’s first release—“Gulf Coast Blues” (1923) and “Down Hearted Blues (1923)—were big sellers. Other hits included “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” (1923) and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (1929).Smith’s prominence began to wane as the Great Depression cut into the nation’s budget for entertainment and vaudeville gave way to “talkies.” Once motion pictures could be recorded with sound, the market for vaudeville performances nearly vanished. Smith was in peak form at the time, and still quite young. Some believe that she was ready to make a comeback in the late 1930s, but she didn’t get the chance: the Empress of the Blues died in a car accident in Mississippi on September 26, 1937.Additional FactsThe folk-rock group the Band wrote a song named after Bessie Smith in 1975.Smith’s birth date has been officially listed as sometime in July 1892 and as April 15, 1894. There is no consensus on which is the correct date, but Smith always observed April 15 as her birthday.In 1929, Smith starred in the movie St. Louis Blues, which contains the only known footage of her.Adapted from: Kidder, David S, and Noah Oppenheim. The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Converse Confidently about Society and the Arts. Emmaus PA: Modern Times, 2008. ................
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