Artist:Bessie Smith
Song:Baby Won't You Please Come Home
Album:The Essential Bessie Smith
Thanks to veteran Columbia record producer John Hammond, Bessie Smith was the first major jazz and blues artist to record. And though Baby Won't You Please Come Home was recorded in 1923, the undeniable power of her voice still comes through today. Some of her songs are pretty raunchy too. She worked with a lot of the top musicians of her day including Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins & Benny Goodman but the great pianist & arranger Fletcher Henderson was the primary arranger of her recordings. This 2CD comp is worth getting but there are plenty of others available too. Bessie Smith's career petered out by the late 20s and The Empress Of The Blues died tragically at age 43 on Sept. 26, 1937 in Clarksdale, MS when she was in an auto accident and no hospital would accept her because she was black.
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