Bessie Smith died in Clarksville, Mississippi, in 1937, and it is said that 10,000 adoring fans attended her funeral. Amazing in view that as stated as fact, she was buried in an unmarked grave, and only got a tombstone later, many decades afterward from Janis Joplin, who was influenced so greatly by Bessie. The fact that she was buried with no tombstone after recording 160 songs, sounds so unfair to me. Bessie in a sense lives on in her music ,still inspiring many singers of the blues and artist of other genres as well. Bessie Smith truly was born into the blues and died in the blues. She is truly the Empress of the blues, who lived the blues from start to finish.
Toshiko
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Toshiko Akiyoshi - Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi, 1954 Cover art by David Stone
Martin
1 day ago
3 comments:
Hey brother! I love the music of Bessie Smith. I wrote a poem about her that is featured in my book of Blues-Inspired poetry. It's the longest poem in there. Thanks for sharing this.
Buried without a headstone?! That is something so wrong I'm stunned. I've been looking for someone who can sing Bessie Smith tunes the way they need to be sung, but so far my search still runs dry, so I'm still solo.
I'd be interested in reading the poetry - is it published and if so what is the title or ISBN?
Best of luck finding a singer.
Thanks for the comments guys!
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