The Collection
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (25 October, 1990)
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Editorial Review

Backed by a rotating roster of jazz stars, Smith's potent delivery made her a peerless star of classic female blues, combining a fiercely independent, almost defiant approach with subtly effective tinges of vulnerability. Early cuts such as "Downhearted Blues," which supposedly saved Columbia records from extinction in 1923, and "T'aint Nobody's Bizness If I Do" feature only Clarence Williams's piano behind her, but it's her work with Louis Armstrong that truly stands out-Satchmo majestically bobs and weaves his cornet around Smith's lines on "St. Louis Blues," "Reckless Blues," "I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle," and the ragtime chestnut "You've Been a Good Old Wagon." Unfortunately, Columbia offers buyers only two options: this cursory 16-song introduction or an exhaustive five-volume double-CD series. --Marc Greilsamer ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The Collection - Bessie Smith
For the purist. Not digitally remastered so it does not have the same sound quality that we are used to hearing today. For that reason the lyrics will often be unclear and sound like they are being sung from very far off. And they are - the distant past.

A GREAT addition to any quality music collection
This is a great disc. It is my first disc of old blues crooners and I plan to continue exploring the genre. She has so much SOUL!! The old analog sound gives character to the disc but is not too disracting from the music. You can feel the history in the recording but can easily feel and relate to the emotions that Betty is tellin.

Excellent CD
The sound quality is excellent. Bessie Smith the singer is excellent. I've listened to the CD three times and enjoy it more each time I hear it. First rate. I'd give it 6 stars if there were that many available. She has a good voice for blues and she never sings off key. The piano backing is nice too. I look forward to listening to this CD again and again. ... Read more

Asin: B0000026N0

The Essential Bessie Smith
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (23 September, 1997)
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Editorial Review

Bessie Smith was crowned the Empress of the Blues, and, while this moniker was well deserved, she was much more. A prolific recording artist, Smith was quite an eclectic performer. In fact, she may have been one of the first true crossover artists. This neat two-disc set gives the listener a good sampling of her wide repertoire. Smith is backed up by some of the best jazz musicians of her era. Her rendition of "St Louis Blues" for example, features the horn work of a young Louis Armstrong. Smith was not above doing such suggestive material as "Kitchen Man" or "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and could breath new life into a pop chestnut like "Alexander's Ragtime Band." And when Smith sang "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," she knew what she was talking about. The title of this album says it all. --Lars Gandil ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Overrated singer
Bessie Smith is victim of a great deal of overheated praise by a small circle of devoted fans. When enough people yell, "Fire!" I want to check it out to see if I am missing out on some great music. Well, I have listened to these recordings and was unmoved. I find the blues musically repetitious - three chords, a seventh chord here and there, the same structure over and over and over. This pattern becomes easy to mock because every blues song sounds like every other blues song. The complex innovations and inventiveness of Jazz and better rock melody composers (Lennon/McCartney, etc) are totally missing here. Bessie could sing loudly but I don't think that she could sing well. Her brassiness and vulgarity might be appropriate in a brothel but I am not interested in hearing a woman singing how she wants a "hot dog in her roll." Keep your urges in the bedroom, Ms. Smith, if you please. Sex is the absolute lowest common denominator in humanity and unless you can present it in a refreshingly witty and elegant way (Hello, Cole Porter), I don't want to hear or see you in heat. I can watch my dog act the same way for free.
Monotonic, dreary, wailing and screeching: welcome to Bessie Smith.

A TRUE EMPRESS
This album is a good foundation for anyone who is falling under the "Bessie Smith" spell. All of the songs display a different aspect of her true style. From spiritual, to coy, to soulfull... Bessie is a true Diva!!!

powerful
i agree that she &Mahalia Jackson aren't that far apart.Gospel&blues are family like all other styles of music.i was floored by Bessie Smith and her on point style.in fact many rappers could&should be able to relate to her words.they are very honest.also country artists should vibe as well.the real ones in both fields not the studio phonys.her subject matter was very wide.her talent and storytelling is pure genius.very powerful. ... Read more

Asin: B000002ADO

Bessie Smith: The Complete Recordings, Vol. 5 -The Final Chapter
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (06 February, 1996)
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Editorial Review

The last two-CD set in this five-volume collection contains a lot of curiosities, and several pieces of required listening as well: "Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl," "Do Your Duty," and "Gimme a Pigfoot" are all here. For curiosities, there's the St. Louis Blues soundtrack, from a film short that contains the only footage of Smith. The second CD consists entirely of interviews with Smith's niece, Ruby Smith, which, while of secondary interest to the music, make for fascinating listening. In a gradual, rambling way, Ruby constructs an image of her famous aunt that reveals additional facets of the Empress of the Blues. --Genevieve Williams ... Read more

Features

• Box set

Reviews (1)

Bessie, the queen of blues, lives on in this fabulous box se
Bessie, the Queen of blues lives on in this box set. The complete recordings is indeed a must have for any true fan of early blues or jazz. She is the icon of a music lost to the ears of many contemporary music lovers. The entire bos set is a thrill to own, and I recommomend it. ... Read more

Asin: B0000029DJ

Bessie Smith: The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (27 October, 1992)
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Editorial Review

Listening to this collection, recorded from 1925 to 1928 as Bessie Smith's popularity grew, one only wishes that the recording technology of the day were a match for Smith's incredible voice. Naturally, this two-disc set contains many of her classic recordings, including "Back Water Blues," "Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair," "Lock and Key," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," and "After You've Gone." This collection's also worth hearing for the backing musicians, who include Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, and other luminaries of the day. To listen to Bessie Smith is to hear the blues unadulterated, and to understand what inspired so many contemporaries and later singers, from Billie Holiday to Janis Joplin. --Genevieve Williams ... Read more

Features

• Box set

Reviews (1)

The best set in the "complete" series
Bessie Smith, "Empress of the Blues," is largely known today because alcoholic blues-screamer Janis Joplin based her style on her. As a result, Bessie went from the province of the specialty collector to being a mainstream "blues" artist with almost as many imitators as the Beatles. (Elvis is a whole different galaxy.) In the year 2003, then, Bessie Smith - not Enrico Caruso - is the most-listened-to early recording artist. In a way this is good, since we went from a recreative artist to a very creative one; but this has also skewed our perspective on the blues-singing era.

Bessie had a huge, bronze voice of enormous expressivity and power. On some of these records, just listening to her delivery will send goosebumps down your spine. But truthfully, she only had one good octave in the voice, a deficiency she hid quite well by pitching her songs a certain way and then "playing around" with the notes so she didn't have to go too low (or, in some cases, too high). This is why other artists during this era were more highly prized by others. Bix Beiderbecke once threw $50 at his idol, Ethel Waters; Connee Boswell based her style on Mamie Smith (no relation); Alan Ginsburg preferred Bessie's mentor, Ma Rainey; and other singers and musicians like Ida Cox, Clara Smith and Victoria Spivey better. Bessie was a huge star and could hypnotize an audience, but she was NOT as universally admired as we now believe.

This compilation covers her best years, 1926-28, and has the highest percentage of excellent recordings. The sad thing is that no one- or two-disc compilation covers her best recordings. One can usually spot the "great" Bessie Smith records not just by how well her voice recorded but also by the fire and commitment of her delivery, and sometimes that happened in pop or show songs like "Squeeze Me," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town" (written by the Gershwin brothers and DuBose Heyward, NOT by "G. Brooks" as listed on the CD label!) or "At the Christmas Ball." Too many Bessie recordings (like too many female blues recordings in general) fall into the "my-man-done-beat-me-and-treat-me-like-dirt-but-I-love-him-anyway" category.

The shame of it is, Bessie's best recordings can be boiled down to three CDs, but no one has done this so far. Columbia's repackaging is both wasteful and expensive, allowing only 18 or 19 tracks per CD when they could have allowed 24 and done the whole project in 7 CDs instead of 10. The booklets are lavish, however, and include rare photos of some of Bessie's best accompanists, including the great cornetist Joe Smith and the elusive pianist Fred Longshaw. ... Read more

Asin: B0000027LB

These recordings reaching from the height of Bessie Smith's fame into her decline in popularity are required listening, covering the years 1928 through 1931. Not only was her voice stronger than ever, but her control over the material was topnotch; she balanced on the fine line between seductive charm and overt sexuality with apparent ease. Some of her best material ever appears on volume 4 of this 5-volume set, including "Standin' in the Rain Blues," "Empty Bed Blues" (speaking of overtness...), "Devil's Gonna Git You," "I'm Wild About That Thing," "Blue Spirit Blues"... but it's useless to even try to list favorites. Smith's voice is so rich and expressive despite the primitive recording technology of the day, one can only imagine what it must have been like to hear her live. And trombonist Charlie Green and pianist James P. Johnson are featured prominently here as well. --Genevieve Williams ... Read more

Features

• Box set

Asin: B0000028QC