RETROSPECTIVE : Early Bessie Smith, Vintage Cole Porter
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*****
BESSIE SMITH
“The Complete Recordings
Vol. 1”
Columbia
In these, her earliest recordings, Smith was inhibited by primitive, pre-electric technology. She actually had to aim her voice at an acoustic horn. Smith was also bogged down by pedestrian accompanists--such as Clarence Williams, a shrewd businessman but a dismal pianist, and bandleader Fletcher Henderson, who wasn’t as skilled in 1923 as he would be in later years.
Yet Smith’s commanding, hypnotic, preaching blues contralto retained its impact. A few songs are non-blues--”My Sweetie Went Away” and “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home.” Two are duets with Clara Smith--no relation, and no match for Bessie. But the lyrics throughout mirror the blues subjects of the times--hard times and heartache. Among the titles: “Cemetery Blues,” “Boweavil Blues,” “Jail-House Blues,” “Mistreating Daddy.”
These 38 tunes, available in two-CD or two-cassette sets, are the first step in a series of albums that will cover Smith’s entire 160-song output, a body of work that runs through 1933.
Albums are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to five (a classic).
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