1972 Columbia CG 31093 double album vinyl reissue of 1925 to 1927 tracks. Vinyl plays very good plus; does not skip. Gatefold jacket is whole; ringwear; color fade; no bar code.

Portions of this page Copyright 1948 - 2015 Muze Inc. All rights reserved.

Album Features Artist: Bessie SmithFormat: AlbumRelease Year: 1972Record Label: ColumbiaGenre: Blues Vocals, Classic Jazz, Jazz InstrumentNumber Of Discs: 2

Track Listing
Side 1

1. Careless Love Blues
2. J.C. Holmes Blues
3. I Ain't Goin' To Play No Second Fiddle
4. He's Gone Blues
5. Nobody's Blues But Mine
6. I Ain't Got Nobody
7. My Man Blues (Clara Smith duet)
8. New Gulf Coast Blues

Side 2

9. Florida Bound Blues
10. At The Christmas Ball
11. I've Been Mistreated And I Don't Like It
12. Red Mountain Blues
13. Golden Rule Blues
14. Lonesome Desert Blues
15. Them "Has Been" Blues
16. Squeeze Me

Side 3

1. What's the Matter Now?
2. I Want Every Bit of It
3. Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town
4. The Gin House Blues
5. Money Blues
6. Baby Doll
7. Hard Driving Papa
8. Lost Your Head Blues

Side 4

9. Hard Time Blues
10. Honey Man Blues
11. One and Two Blues
12. Young Woman's Blues
13. Preachin' the Blues
14. Back Water Blues
15. After You've Gone
16. Alexander's Ragtime Band

DetailsProducer: John Hammond, Chris AlbertsonContributing Artists: Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Clarence WilliamsDistributor: ColumbiaRecording Type: StudioRecording Mode: Mono

Album Notes
Personnel includes: Bessie Smith, Clara Smith (vocals); Charlie Dixon, Elmer Snowden (banjo); Don Redman, Bob Fuller (clarinet, alto saxophone); Buster Bailey, Coleman Hawkins (clarinet); Louis Armstrong, Shelton Hemphill, Joe Smith (cornet); Fletcher Henderson, Clarence Williams, James P. Johnson (piano); Charlie Green .Recorded between 1925 and 1927.Liner notes by Chris Albertson

Volume 5 of Columbia's five (10 albums) vinyl set, actually covers the middle years 1925 to 1927 and finds Bessie Smith at the height of her career as a touring artist, recording consistently with high-caliber pianists like Fletcher Henderson and stride king James P. Johnson. While she was billed as "Empress of the Blues," Smith's accompanists handled her material in the small-group jazz style of the day, and her repertoire drew as much from tin pan alley, novelty and the vaudeville stage as it did from hokum and twelve-bar sources. There are many blues tunes here, but often the word was used as a marketing device rather than to connote a specific rhyme scheme or chord structure. On some of the later sides, the ensemble is expanded to include two horns--usually Joe Smith on cornet, with Jimmy Harrison or Charlie Green on trombone--and for one session, clarinet (a young Coleman Hawkins on "Alexander's Ragtime Band") and banjo. Chris Albertson's detailed history of Smith's life and career is continued in the liner notes.