Sunday Morning Blues - Bessie Smith, Huey "Piano" Smith, Frankie Lee Sims

Another Sunday, another two volumes from the ABC Of The Blues. Volumes 39 and 40.

Bessie Smith
Called The Empress Of The Blues, so it's no wonder she has an entire volume dedicated just to her voice. In 1912 her brother, who had left 8 years prior with a musical troupe, got her an audition to sing - she was hired as a dancer because the troupe had Ma Rainey. From there she moved to theater productions, and started her singing career. And by 1923 had signed to record her singing. Ma Rainey had helped Bessie with stage presence, but not her singing. She made well over a hundred recordings in the 1920s for Columbia and others, with many different bands backing her. By the 1930s, with the depression causing problems, the death of vaudville to talking-movies, Bessie moved to broadway. In the 1930s she switched again, coming up in the jazz era (reports of her being in obscurity by Okeh Record's John Hammond are completely false) and again becoming popular and swinging with many of the outfits of the 1930s. She died in a car accident in 1937 - again a completely false story by John Hammond spread rumors around her death (namely that a black ambulance took her to a white hospital where she was refused service).

Bessie had a big voice. A good number of these recordings were made before they properly mic'd a singer electrically, and even then her voice soars above the music. She's pure, loud, and very early blues at it's best from a female vocalist. Even if she is one of the best blues singers it would have been nice if they had narrowed her collection down to ten instead of giving her a full disc and added another artist. Especially given the general lack of female artists. On these recordings, they are all amazingly clean and clear of pop and hiss from the old records. Which is nice given that by the 1930s she'd switched completely over to jazz and they leave many of those out - only a few tracks I believe come from her post 1920s recordings.

Huey "Piano" Smith
While there's no doubt Huey Smith was an innovative and great piano player - he just barely skirts the idea of the blues. With several R&B Hits in the 1950s, bordering on straight Rock'N'Roll. The great tragedy of Smith's life is that his record company had started to overdub his music with other singers, creating hits for them as his career sank. By 1970 his many attempts at comebacks had taken their toll and he left the music industry permanently.

I almost want to question Huey's inclusion in this collection of Blues artists. Just listening to these ten tracks you can tell he's left a lot of the blues rhythms and styles behind in favor of pure Rhythm and Rock musics. It's all amazingly good, Smith has a way with the piano. A true Rock'N'Roll piano style, without the need to pound the keys he conveys a great deal of energy and danceable rhythm.

Frankie Lee Sims
Frankie was a cousin to Lightnin' Hopkins, and another Texas Blues guitarist. He started his music career in earnest after leaving the Marines post-WW2. He recorded a scant few singles - nine in total - during his 22 year career. While his recordings were few, he was a heavy influence on the electric blues scene in Texas, specifically his home base of Dallas. Posthumously one more single and two compilations of unreleased recordings were put out, more than doubling his recorded available repertoire. Due to the general lack of popularity in the blues in the 1950s he never became a big name in the music scene outside Texas.

He can hear Texas oozing out of his singing, and the guitar work is amazing. Nicely they pulled from both his compilations and singles - A and B-Sides both - to make the collection of ten tracks here. Some of the guitar work almost feels like it belongs in the walkin' blues style, and if you remove the amp there's a thick layer of the country under it. This is classic early blues plugged in, and excellent music.

Next Week: We continue onwards into the box set with Roosevelt Sykes, the massive Son House, Sunnyland Slim, and Johnny Shines.