BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS: (Singing) We're gonna rock around the clock tonight. We're gonna rock, rock, rock till broad daylight. SHAPIRO: Or does rock 'n' roll owe a debt to lesser-known musical ...

On this day, 100 years ago, Columbia Records held a recording session with a singer named Bessie Smith. The country at large didn't know her then, but soon found out because she was launching a career ...

There’s a reason Bessie Smith was known as the Empress of the Blues. Her heartfelt songs and gritty glamour introduced the sounds of African American music to large audiences in the 1920s and 30s. She ...

The hangings parted and a great brown woman emerged—she was the size of Fay Templeton in her Weber & Fields days, and she was even garbed similarly, in a rose satin dress, spangled with sequins, which ...

Miche Braden stars as Bessie Smith, the legendary “Empress of the Blues,” who blazed the trail for a century of performers from Aretha Franklin to Adele. Mixing classics like “Need a Little Sugar In ...

Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, was the first African American superstar, an artist that mingled regal dignity with sensuality. We’ll sample her recorded legacy, talk with critics and hear ...

Jazzanooga is celebrating National Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) with a tribute to a jazz icon each week in April during its JAM Fest. Coincidentally, the late, great Bessie Smith's birthday is also ...

A cinematic tribute to the late blues singer Bessie Smith, with Bessie Smith as she appeared in the 1929 film St. Louis Blues and songs sung by her as well as a commentary read by Joseph Marzano.

Bessie Smith's songs are tales of liberated women who are not afraid to speak openly about what they want, what they need and what they are tired of. How Bessie Smith Influenced A Century Of Popular ...