The thing about Bessie Smith is how strong her voice was! Listen to how booming her voice sounds here. Now consider the quality of technology. I can't imagine how much more powerful her voice must have been in person.
This was very early sound film. Trying out an orchestra and singer in scene. Also fixed 🎥. Sound was new & novelty: movie musicals became even more popular during the depression: sparkling cheerful entertainment....
@Cindy Roll check out Blind Willie McTell, Robert Johnson and also the old Alan Lomax recordings that were made in the deep south at the prison work camps.... some real and true unfiltered blues from them, as well as from Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, Sonny Terry & Brownie Maghee, etc.
When I look those videos and hear those songs, I cant help my self and always feel sadness and peace in same time. How those people lived their life, and how they are in history, everyone of them with own dreams and desires, some of them achieved great things and left their marks in history, others just vanished without anyone remember them, or know about their existence right now. Just sad and mesmerizing what life is. Enjoy it while it last folks.
Years ago, I was changing channels and happened to catch this. And then it disappeared back down the rabbit hole. And now, thanks to the internet, I can play it whenever I want. Life is good.
There is one room microphone (you get a glance at about 2 minutes). So, Bessie's voice is mixed with a choir- maybe 20 voices, and good ones- and she rules the day. The Queen, then and now.
L'immense representante du veritable art si original du peuple noir americain. Une voix a la fois puissante, emouvante et d'une pulsation devastatrice. La seule cantatrice qui a chaque fois m'arrache des larmes... depuis 60 ans. Peut-etre parce qu'on l'a laissee mourir en lui refusant l'acces a un hopital apres un grave accident de la route. Mais sa voix fortifiera mes derniers jours et resplendira dans l'eternite.
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler, St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, Queens, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, the pianist James P. Johnson and a string section-a musical environment radically different from that of any of her recordings.
Pure awesomeness that James P Johnson was the piano player, which explains why the sound of the piano intro reminded me so much of his style of playing. He was a hell of a blues and stride pianist in his own right and composed alot of songs that became standards to other blues and jazz artists, especially Caralolina Shout and a few others, but also was a major influence on Fats Waller, Jimmy Yancey and a few others.
The only film of this most magical singer performing. Almost certainly recorded live and as a single track, the effortless ease of her performance is astonishing - she doesn't look like she's even trying very hard ! She was a truly wonderful vocalist and I will never tire of listening to her.
Probably .. respectfully I am not a fan of Janis Joplin. She just copied black women's voices and screamed and got a wide white audience for it. Note that she attracted all white audiences.
You don't Sing like that unless You have felt the pain,,,, it is a fascinating Film too , Thank you so much for posting , And Thank you for the Music , without This , and the Later Soul movement , There would NEVER be a Mod Culture . 200Kid.
Bessie Smith was incredibly beautiful 😻 and had a very raw contralto singing voice. She’s tall, she got the looks and she can sing. She left this world way too soon. RIP Bessie.
Bessie sang the blues bared raw to the bone and with a dark undertone that no one else could match. She could make you feel it in your soul. An incredible talent.
As a kid, when I heard it for the first time on the Encarta encyclopedia right around the 1:05 mark, I lost my mind. That raw blues voice was everything to me.
@@TheDepriecebradford that's not what the phrase means. The op comment made it sound like they were saying Bessie is not singin, i was just wondering if that's what they meant. It could also be that they mean she Really proving it don't mean a thing
@@odawgdakingi didnt the best explanation of the phrase. If you knew the meaning already, its obvious the commenter was saying bessie was a great singer/entertainer and didnt need the "swing" in her music to be amazing.
It's hard to imagine that my grandparents were once toddlers, during this time. Anyway, I had the pleasure of singing this in high school with my female ensemble. It was always one of my favorite songs to perform
I never heard anything like this, I got goose pumps from the beginning to the end and i still have them just thinking about the song. if they called it the blues this is the real deal, it is like getting on a roller-coaster. just unbelievable the way she sings, the choir, the melody , everything..
Bessie é um alívio para minha dor. Sempre que estou triste escuto ela, é como que se eu ganhasse força através da força dela. Bessie, você foi uma mulher tão forte! Que bom que tua arte vive nesse mundo ♡
I have listening the blues for about 60+ years - that does make me an expert, far from it. But in my world there is Miss Bessie at the top and everyone else ain't even close. I mean she is in another blues solar system.
Thank God I stumble back across Jill Scott, which reminded me of sweet bessie smith. God bless her soul and let her music be discovered until the Lord returns
