"a comedian, and was living in Baltimore. Her most notable number, ""Don't You Leave Me Here"", was made more famous in a version recorded by Jelly Roll Morton some ten years later. Smith died of long-term effects of hypertension in February 1932 in Los Angeles. All her available recordings have been released on CD by Document Records (see below). She was unrelated to the singers Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith and Trixie Smith. She is also not to be confused with the Canadian folk singer-songwriter Laura Smith. Laura Smith (blues singer) Laura Smith (March 1882 – February 1932) was"
"Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers. The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. The 1910 census gives her age as 16, and a birth date of April 15, 1894 appears on subsequent documents and was observed as"
"improvements in the sound quality of Smith's performances. Some critics believe that the American Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R. T. Davies for Frog Records. Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers. The 1900 census indicates that her family"
"were typically labeled as ""race records"" to distinguish them from records sold to white audiences. Nonetheless, the recordings of some of the classic female blues singers were purchased by white buyers as well. Marion Harris became one of the first white female singers to record the blues. The most popular of the classic blues singers was Tennessee-born Bessie Smith (no relation to Mamie Smith), who first recorded in 1923 and became known as the ""Empress of the Blues"". She signed with Columbia and became the highest-paid black artist of the 1920s, recording over 160 songs. Other classic blues singers who"
"Ida Cox Ida Cox (born Ida M. Prather, February 26, 1888 or 1896 – November 10, 1967) was an American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as ""The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues"". Cox was born Ida M. Prather, the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather in Toccoa, then Habersham County, Georgia, and grew up in Cedartown, Polk County, Georgia. Many sources give her birth date as February 26, 1896, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc have suggested she was born in 1888 and noted other evidence suggesting"
"Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as ""the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s"". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of ""Queen of the Blues"". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Ruth Lee Jones was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama"
"of blues music popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues songs performed by female vocalists were accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles, and were the first blues to be recorded. The classic female blues singers were pioneers in the record industry, as they were among the first black singers and blues artists who were recorded. They were also instrumental in popularizing the 12-bar blues throughout the US. Gertrude ""Ma"" Rainey (1886–1939), known as the ""Mother of the Blues"", is credited as the"
"Marion James Marion Agness James (October 8, 1934 – December 31, 2015) was an American blues singer and songwriter. She was considered Nashville's ""Queen of the Blues."" Her career spanned sixty years, where she wrote a hit song, ""That's My Man"". A flamboyant character, James was known to sign her name adding ""The Blues Queen"" and often wore a tiara at her live performances. James was born into a musical family in Nashville, Tennessee. Her mother was the pianist at her local church, her sister sang with the Clara Ward Singers, and some of her cousins were professional musicians. James"
"Denise LaSalle Ora Denise Allen (July 16, 1939 – January 8, 2018), known by the stage name Denise LaSalle, was an American blues, R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer who, since the death of Koko Taylor, had been recognized as the ""Queen of the Blues"". Her best known songs were ""Trapped by a Thing Called Love"" and ""Down Home Blues"". LaSalle was born near Sidon, Mississippi, as the youngest of eight children, to Nathaniel A. Allen Sr. and Nancy Cooper. Her family worked as sharecroppers, and she had to pick cotton and take up other paid labor to"
"Michigan. A tribute concert was given by her niece, singer Lily Delois Adams, in Detroit in July 2016. Allmusic has called her ""the personification of the Detroit blues scene,"" stating that ""the undisputed, unrivaled, peerless Detroit Queen of the Blues is Alberta Adams."" Mostly a self-taught vocalist, Adams mentioned the blues shouter Big Joe Turner and the singer-songwriters Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and LaVern Baker as some of her earliest musical influences. Alberta Adams Alberta Adams (July 26, 1917 – December 25, 2014) was an American Detroit blues, jump blues, and Chicago blues singer. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, she began"
"in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Etta James Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins; January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012) was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as ""The Wallflower"", ""At Last"", ""Tell Mama"", ""Something's Got a Hold on Me"", and ""I'd Rather Go Blind"". She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album"
"the only British female jazz musician to be awarded the freedom of the City of New Orleans. She remained active into the 1990s, playing with the Metropolitan Jazz Band, Digby Fairweather, Nat Gonella and her own Blue Boys. She made her last recording with Gonella in 1998, shortly before her death. Bryden died in London on 14 July 1998. Beryl Bryden Beryl Audley Bryden (11 May 1920 – 14 July 1998) was an English jazz singer, who played with Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan. Ella Fitzgerald once said of Bryden that she was ""Britain's queen of the blues"". Bryden was"
"Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called ""The Queen of the Blues"", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals. Born on a farm near Memphis, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Tennessee for Chicago in 1952 with her husband, Robert ""Pops"" Taylor, a truck driver. In the late 1950s, she began singing in blues clubs in Chicago. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led"
"Beryl Bryden Beryl Audley Bryden (11 May 1920 – 14 July 1998) was an English jazz singer, who played with Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan. Ella Fitzgerald once said of Bryden that she was ""Britain's queen of the blues"". Bryden was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England on 11 May 1920. An ardent jazz fan she established a Nat Gonella fan club in her teens, before taking up the washboard and singing. Her vocal style was influenced by Bessie Smith but she avoided affectation of an American accent. She was a friend of Black Anna Hannant who ran the Jolly Butchers"
"1935 for heart disease, of which she died. Clara Smith Clara Smith (c. 1894 – February 2, 1935) was an American classic female blues singer. She was billed as the ""Queen of the Moaners"", even though she had a lighter and sweeter voice than many of her contemporaries. She was not related to the singers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith. Smith was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. In 1910 she began working on African-American theater circuits and in tent shows and vaudeville. By the late 1918 she was appearing as a headliner at the Lyric Theater in New Orleans,"
"Elkie Brooks Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder, 25 February 1945) is an English singer, a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s and has been nominated twice for Brit Awards. She is known for her powerful husky bluesy voice and hit singles such as ""Pearl's a Singer"", ""Lilac Wine"", ""Don't Cry Out Loud"", ""Fool (If You Think It's Over)"", and ""No More the Fool"", and top-selling album ""Pearls"". She is generally referred to as the ""British Queen of Blues"". By April 2012, Brooks"
"Victoria Spivey Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in vaudeville and clubs, sometimes with her sister Addie ""Sweet Peas"" (or ""Sweet Pease"") Spivey (1910–1943), also known as the Za Zu Girl. Among her compositions are ""Black Snake Blues"" (1926), ""Dope Head Blues"" (1927), and ""Organ Grinder Blues"" (1928). In 1962 she co-founded"
"Maggie Jones (blues musician) Maggie Jones (born March 1894; date of death unknown) was an American blues singer and pianist who recorded thirty-eight songs between 1923 and 1926. She was billed as ""The Texas Nightingale"". Among her best-remembered songs are ""Single Woman's Blues"", ""Undertaker's Blues"", and ""Northbound Blues"". Jones was born in Hillsboro, Texas. Her birth name is sometimes given as Fae Barnes, and her year of birth as 1900, but the researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc state that she was born in 1894 and that ""Fae Barnes"" was a stage name. She relocated to New York in 1922,"
"exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum entitled ""Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945–1970"". James died on December 31, 2015, at the age of 81, in her hometown, from the effects of a stroke. Marion James Marion Agness James (October 8, 1934 – December 31, 2015) was an American blues singer and songwriter. She was considered Nashville's ""Queen of the Blues."" Her career spanned sixty years, where she wrote a hit song, ""That's My Man"". A flamboyant character, James was known to sign her name adding ""The Blues Queen"" and often wore a"
"Goosby, except as indicated otherwise. Fannie May Goosby Fannie May Goosby (born 1902, died after 1934) also known as Fannie Mae Goosby was an American classic female blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Ten of her recordings were released between 1923 and 1928, one of which, ""Grievous Blues"", she recorded twice. Goosby was one of the first female blues musicians to record her own material. She also was one of the first two blues singers to be recorded in the Deep South, the other being the dirty blues singer Lucille Bogan. Details of her life outside the recording studio are minimal."
"Clara Smith Clara Smith (c. 1894 – February 2, 1935) was an American classic female blues singer. She was billed as the ""Queen of the Moaners"", even though she had a lighter and sweeter voice than many of her contemporaries. She was not related to the singers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith. Smith was born in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. In 1910 she began working on African-American theater circuits and in tent shows and vaudeville. By the late 1918 she was appearing as a headliner at the Lyric Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana and on the Theater Owners Bookers Association"
"Ma Rainey ""Ma"" Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett, September 1882 or April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest African-American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of blues singers to record. She was billed as the ""Mother of the Blues"". She began performing as a young teenager and became known as Ma Rainey after her marriage to Will Rainey, in 1904. They toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group, Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Her first recording was made in 1923. In the next five years, she"
"about 1900. Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886–1939), known as ""The Mother of the Blues”, is credited as the first to perform the blues on stage as popular entertainment when she began incorporating blues into her act of show songs and comedy around 1902. Rainey had heard a woman singing about the man she had lost, learned the song, and began using it as her closing number, calling it “the blues"". Rainey's example was followed by other young women who followed her path in the tent show circuit, one of the few venues available to black performers. Most toured through a circuit"
"Fannie May Goosby Fannie May Goosby (born 1902, died after 1934) also known as Fannie Mae Goosby was an American classic female blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Ten of her recordings were released between 1923 and 1928, one of which, ""Grievous Blues"", she recorded twice. Goosby was one of the first female blues musicians to record her own material. She also was one of the first two blues singers to be recorded in the Deep South, the other being the dirty blues singer Lucille Bogan. Details of her life outside the recording studio are minimal. According to the blues researchers"
"had to adapt to a larger, more varied audience's aesthetic. Classic female urban and vaudeville blues singers were popular in the 1920s, among them ""the big three""—Gertrude ""Ma"" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Lucille Bogan—and Victoria Spivey. Mamie Smith, more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African American to record a blues song in 1920; her second record, ""Crazy Blues"", sold 75,000 copies in its first month. Ma Rainey, the ""Mother of Blues"", and Bessie Smith each ""[sang] around center tones, perhaps in order to project her voice more easily to the back of a room"". Smith"
"such as Speckled Red (Rufus Perryman), Charlie Spand, William Ezell, and most prominently, Big Maceo Merriweather. As Detroit had no established recording scene at the time, all of these players eventually migrated to Chicago to record for various labels. Spand reminisced about his time in Detroit while playing on the 1929 Blind Blake single “Hastings Street”. During the 1920s, Detroit was also host to most of the famous singers of the Classic female blues, including “The Queen of the Blues” Mamie Smith, “The Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey, “The Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith, “The Uncrowned Queen of"
"Betsy Pecanins Elizabeth Taylor Pecanins (1954 ─ December 13, 2016) was an American-born Mexican singer, songwriter and record producer. Known in Mexico as ""Queen of the Blues"" although she played others in her career as ranchera and jazz. Betsy Pecanins was born to a Catalan mother and an American father and grew up in an art-conscious family. For example, her mother Ana María Pecanins and her aunt Teresa founded the Galería Pecanins art gallery in Mexico City and Barcelona. She spent her first years in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. In 1977 she emigrated to Mexico to pursue her artistic career,"
"of Johnson's 1920s sides were reissued on CD by Document Records. She is not to be confused with ""Countess"" Margaret Johnson (1919 – 1939), who was active primarily in bands in the 1930s. There can be further confusion in that Sara Martin made several recordings using the 'Margaret Johnson' name. Margaret Johnson Margaret Johnson was an American blues and early jazz vocalist and pianist. Johnson's primary era of recording activity as a vocalist was from 1923 to 1927. Prior to this, she had worked in vaudeville. She is best known for her recording of the song, ""Dead Drunk Blues"". Her"
"Sandra Hall Sandra L. Hall (born September 5, 1951) is an African-American blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. She has been billed as Atlanta's ""Empress of the Blues"" Hall is an Honorary Member of the Atlanta Blues Society. To date she has released five albums, including three on Ichiban Records. Hall was born in Oakland City, Atlanta, Georgia, United States. After singing from the age of four at a nearby church, Hall formed a duo with her sister, Barbara, called the Soul Sisters. She later formed the Exotics, singing and dancing particularly at the Royal Peacock Club, one of"
"Irma Thomas Irma Thomas (born February 18, 1941, Ponchatoula, Louisiana, United States) is an American singer from New Orleans. She is known as the ""Soul Queen of New Orleans"". Thomas is a contemporary of Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but never experienced their level of commercial success. In 2007, she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for ""After the Rain"", her first Grammy in a career spanning over 50 years. Born Irma Lee, as a teenager she sang with a Baptist church choir. She auditioned for Specialty Records at the age of 13. By the time she"
"[YouTube clip Bo5UdZPeOLI ""Paris Moan""] BBC TV 1976 [YouTube clip P7mz-0QEt7o ""TB Blues""] Spivey married four times; her husbands included Ruben Floyd and Billy Adams. Spivey died in New York on October 3, 1976, at the age of 69, from an internal hemorrhage. Victoria Spivey Victoria Regina Spivey (October 15, 1906 – October 3, 1976), sometimes known as Queen Victoria, was an American blues singer and songwriter. During a recording career that spanned 40 years, from 1926 to the mid-1960s, she worked with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell, Lonnie Johnson, and Bob Dylan. She also performed in"
"Ruby Wilson Ruby Wilson (February 29, 1948 – August 12, 2016) was an American blues and gospel singer and actress. She was known as ""The Queen of Beale Street"" as she sang in clubs on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee, for over 40 years. She also had a successful touring and recording career, and appeared in a number of films. Wilson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, the youngest in a family of six children. Her mother was a maid, her father was self-employed, and Wilson grew up picking and chopping cotton - work she later described as hot"
"let him find a new home,I get full of good liquor, walk the street all nightGo home and put my man out if he don't act rightWild women don't worry,Wild women don't have the blues. Ida Cox Ida Cox (born Ida M. Prather, February 26, 1888 or 1896 – November 10, 1967) was an American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as ""The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues"". Cox was born Ida M. Prather, the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight) Prather in Toccoa, then Habersham County, Georgia, and grew up"