Times (London) likes Bessie

[Christiern]

This is shameless self-promotion, a review of my Bessie Smith biography from the Times Literary Supplement (London).

• 
  Friday 7, May 2004
  
  

Biography
Chris Albertson
BESSIE
314pp. Yale University Press. £19.95
(US $29.95)
0 300 09902 9

In the epilogue to this revised and expanded edition of his biography of Bessie Smith, Chris Albertson quotes Warner Brothers' reader's report on the original edition published in 1972: "Bessie Smith was not on drugs, and this is not the five-handkerchief stuff that Lady Sings the Blues is made of”. Nevertheless, there was considerable film interest, in the wake of Diana Ross's impersonation of Billie Holiday, with Dionne Warwick, Cicely Tyson and Roberta Flack considered for separate projects, one of which got off the ground. As the proprietary guardian of the flame, Albertson seems caught between disappointment and relief, confident that his vivid account of Smith's career as a heavyweight "rambunctious diva" would make a great screen biography, but dismissive of all Hollywood's attempts to produce a jazz-related film that does its subject justice.

Seeking justice for Bessie has been a life's work for Albertson, and this reissue is greatly to be welcomed. In many ways an exemplary biography, it charts its subject's development as a artist, placing considerable emphasis on the degree to which, at the time of her death in a road accident (inaccurately mythologized by John Hammond's sensationalist report in Down Beat, 1937, and perpetuated by Edward Albee's 1960 play The Death of Bessie Smith), she was in the process of re-establishing herself as a performer and extending her repertoire well beyond the recorded legacy of the blues on which her reputation rests and which Albertson analyses with informed appreciation.

Relating the events of Bessie's wayward, often violent, private life, her experience of racism when on tour and her dealings with those who sought to get the better of her either by patronizing or by carelessly lighting her dangerously short fuse, Albertson comes up with plenty of five-handkerchief stuff--though in this case, the handkerchiefs are mainly needed to mop up the blood, much of it shed by Bessie herself. With the collaboration of interviewees, chief among whom is Ruby Walker Smith--Bessie's niece by marriage, who regularly accompanied her on tour and whose stories, by his own delighted admission, left him numb on his side of the microphone--Albertson achieves a gripping, often moving, narrative. Ruby died in 1977 and, given the amount of Bessie which is recounted in her own words, it comes as no surprise to read in the acknowledgements that without her phenomenal memory and gift for storytelling this book could not have been written.
JOHN MOLE

[Christiern]

• Empress Of The Blues Ep 1/6
  9.30-10.00pm
  BBC RADIO 2 Tuesday 1 June 2004
  
  

For over 60 years, George Melly has had an enduring love affair with
blues singer Bessie Smith and, through these six new programmes,
he reassesses her enduring contribution to modern music.

With the help of her biographer Chris Albertson, and rare archive
material, George also helps to disentangle some of the legends and
untruths that still surround Bessie’s colourful life.

Contributors include Bill Wyman; Ottilie Patterson; playwright
Edward Albee; and expert Dalton Roberts at the Bessie Smith
Memorial Hall in her birthplace, Chattanooga. There is also a full
interview with “the Rat”, the man who owns the hotel that was
once the hospital where Bessie died.

Considered one of the greatest blues singers of all time, Bessie
Smith, in many ways, was also the most tragic. Her story is one of
early phenomenal success followed by career doldrums, with a
resurgence of interest in her cut short by her death at 43.

She was killed in an automobile accident in 1937, which was
misreported and led to the myths which persist to this day: that
Bessie was taken to a white hospital, where she was refused entry,
and that the extra time it took to transport her to a black hospital
contributed to her death.

Bessie created many definitive versions of such blues and jazz
standards as St Louis Blues (accompanied by Louis Armstrong) and
the risqué Empty Bed Blues and Kitchen Man, as well as Alexander’s
Ragtime Band and After You’ve Gone.

She herself wrote many lyrics that reflected her bitter-sweet life.
Other artists have performed her material over the years and still
sing much of it today, including George, who explores its appeal.

Presenter/George Melly, Producer/Neil Rosser

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

[Dan Gould]

Shameless self-promotion or not, congrats, Chris.

[jazzbo]

Volume 8 (the final of the series) on Frog came out this Tuesday in the US (been out in Europe for a spell)! Buy the bio and collect the series!

[Christiern]

Thank you, Dan.

Thank you Lon--what an excellent suggestion

[White Lightning]

I just finished reading the Bessie bio (I planned on reading it for ages), and all I can say is - BUY THIS BOOK FOLKS! It's an excellent tome! ( )

Congrats on the review, Chris!