Listen to a professor give a lecture in a Music History class.
To continue our study of jazz, today we will focus on the blues and listen to some recordings by Bessie Smith who is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. The blues developed in the southern United States from the music of black people who were brought from Africa and forced to work as slaves on southern plantations. The earliest form of the blues were work songs and field howlers that was musical form of communication among slaves. The name blues comes from the loneliness and sorrow typically expressed in the song lyrics. The blues started out as strictly vocal but over time musicians began to accompany blues singers. Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Francis Andersen accompanied Bessie Smith in her recordings. The example of blues we will hear today is the reissue of some of Bessie Smith's classical recordings. These songs are from the late 1920's when she was at the peak of her career. It's no wonder she was known as the emperor of the blues. She made 160 recordings and was also a sort after live performer in New York, Boston, and Chicago as well as the larger cities in the south. Know her rich powerful contract her voice, in fact, in live performances she refused to use microphone. Bessie Smith's songs typified the earthiness and realism of the blues.