Bessie Smith - 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.

Track List:

Disc: 1

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

Disc: 2

1. Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town
2. Baby Doll
3. Honey Man Blues
4. One and Two Blues
5. Young Woman's Blues
6. Muddy Water
7. There'll Be a Hot Time in Old Town Tonight
8. Sweet Mistreater
9. Dyin' By the Hour
10. I Used to Be Your Sweet Mama
11. Put It Right Here
12. Standin' in the Rain Blues
13. Devil's Gonna Git You
14. Me and My Gin
15. My Kitchen Man
16. I've Got What It Takes
17. He's Got Me Goin'
18. You Don't Understand
19. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
20. Blue Spirit Blues
21. See If I Care
22. Shipwreck Blues
23. I'm Down in the Dumps
24. Take Me for a Buggy Ride