Bessie Smith
American singerWikipedia
56
MENTIONS
26
EPISODES
23
PODCASTS
Search complete. 56 mentions across 26 episodes found for "Bessie Smith".
Sep 17, 2026
Kid LHOST
like if you look at if you ask them one of my favorite bands growing up was Led Zeppelin mine too and I figured out they stole like almost all their music from like artists and poets and stuff and I was like damn I don't know if I stole
Jessica Care MooreGUEST
influenced by ask the Rolling Stones ask Mick Jagger who they love you know what I mean they love they love they love us yeah and um Like they made lovers out of Tharp and Bessie Smith and, you know, come on, Tina Turner and, you know, Grace Jones.
Jessica Care MooreGUEST
And I mean, the list goes on and on.
Jessica Care MooreGUEST
But I can't say even King.
Ronald Smokey StevensGUEST
She and her husband, Pa Rainey, were the creators of the rabbit foot minstrels circa 1880s.
Ronald Smokey StevensGUEST
Ma Rainey even discovered Bessie Smith, who traveled with Ma Rainey in the early days.
Ronald Smokey StevensGUEST
They went on to create Paul Rainey's minstrels, and in 1915, Rainey and Rainey, the Assassinators of the Blues, another first of black entertainment entrepreneurship.
Ronald Smokey StevensGUEST
Black Patty's Troubadours was an important minstrel show and outfit organized in 1895.
Gaye AdegbalolaGUEST
All Black women in the mid-'60s were into Nina Simone.
Gaye AdegbalolaGUEST
She started off Sugar in My Bowl, and she whispered over the intro, "Bessie Smith, y'all." Well, when I looked up Bessie, I found Ma, and I found Ida Cox, and Victoria Spivey, and Alberta Hunter, and I knew that this was what I was gonna be when I grew up.
Gaye AdegbalolaGUEST
So, uh, but Ma spoke to me most closely because my voice is akin to Ma's voice, and Ma didn't try to cross over.
Gaye AdegbalolaGUEST
Ma was authentic.
Nate WilcoxHOST
Yeah, Yiddish music, et cetera, et cetera.
Nate WilcoxHOST
But most immediately what Mamie Smith's Crazy Blues hit triggered was a wave of other blues singers, almost all of whom were also named Smith, most famously Bessie Smith.
Ed WardGUEST
Right, but there were also many others.
Ed WardGUEST
Um, yeah, I mean, they were actually blues singers.
13 MINS LATER
Ed WardGUEST
Oh, yeah
Nate WilcoxHOST
...
Nate WilcoxHOST
Bessie Smith written up as a jazz singer, and that whole tradition, you know, Billie Holiday, uh, uh, Sarah Vaughan, et cetera, comes in large part from Bessie Smith and others, Ma Rainey.
Nate WilcoxHOST
Um, but-
Dawn BrodyHOST
So I don't know the next episode.
Dawn BrodyHOST
It could be Bessie Smith.
Dawn BrodyHOST
The 20s vocal phenomenon and infamous lady lover.
Dawn BrodyHOST
It could be the draft riots.
Libby HolmanSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
But I tell stories in songs, so that every song that I do is a dramatic vignette, whether it's a comedy number or a tragic number.
Karina LongworthHOST
Her favorite performers were the contemporary Black singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters.
Karina LongworthHOST
When Waters starred in the all-Black musical Africana, Libby went at the invitation of Carl Van Vechten, a white bisexual who frequented Harlem and popularized its charms to a white audience in his 1926 novel titled, and yes, this is entirely real, N-word Heaven.
Karina LongworthHOST
Anyway, Libby fell in love with Waters' performance and could frequently be seen in the front row of the midnight show throughout the run.
Sarah Jane MorrisGUEST
I then had to see it as the passing of the torch from a generation to a generation.
Sarah Jane MorrisGUEST
So it started with the founding sister, Bessie Smith, and it finished with Kate Bush, who's one year older than me, and in my head she passed the torch to me.
Nuala McGovernHOST
Mm.
Sarah Jane MorrisGUEST
And that we launched, um, at the Alexandra Palace Theatre on International Women's Day.
Nuala McGovernHOST
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Jane MorrisGUEST
But, um, the fact that she used all of the money that was, fro- from, from Whitney Houston covering her song, she used all of that money to invest in, she bought an entire Buffalo Path and, and regenerated it.
Sarah Jane MorrisGUEST
But it was in a Black quarter, so she felt that because Whitney, being her Black sister, had raised this money, that was what she was going to do.
Nuala McGovernHOST
It's, um, it's obviously term, it's interesting, feminist.
John ClarkHOST
We're gonna hear the next set, uh, of his performances, five different tunes.
John ClarkHOST
The Gulf Coast Blues, uh, Clarence Williams' tune, well-known from its Bessie Smith recording, which he did around the same time, 1923, uh, for QRS.
John ClarkHOST
He did this one in New York, and the next one as well, Low Down Papa.
John ClarkHOST
And, uh, those are good examples of his playing.
David PonceHOST
And here are those options.
David PonceHOST
A, Sophie Tucker, B, Ethel Waters, C, Fanny Bryce, or D, Bessie Smith.
David PonceHOST
Again, A, Sophie Tucker, B, Ethel Waters, C, Fanny Bryce, or D, Bessie Smith.
Eric BakerHOST
Ooh, this is hard.
Eric BakerHOST
I'm pretty sure Bessie Smith did record this.
Eric BakerHOST
She
David PonceHOST
did record it.
Matt the CatHOST
And before Louie was in his teens, he would accompany his father on summer tours with the minstrels.
Matt the CatHOST
Now the Rabbit Foot Minstrels also launched the careers of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
Matt the CatHOST
After high school, Louie entered Arkansas Baptist College, where he played in the college band as well as on the baseball team.
Matt the CatHOST
He was a shortstop and loved baseball, and actually thought about going into it full time, but couldn't stay out of the limelight.
16 more episodes mention Bessie Smith.
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