In Netflix's new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Viola Davis stars as the heavy makeup-wearing, velvety-voiced, super confident Ma Rainey. Based on August Wilson's play of the same name, most of the ...

In Netflix's new film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Viola Davis stars as the heavy makeup-wearing, velvety-voiced, super confident Ma Rainey. Based on August Wilson's play of the same name, most of the ...

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today. SHAPIRO: Or does rock 'n' roll owe a ...

All About Jazz is celebrating Bessie Smith's birthday today! “Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. If Bessie Smith were alive today, she'd likely be singing the blues about North Carolina. A state advisory panel has recommended ...

Vocalist Bessie Smith was hailed “The Empress Of The Blues” despite an all-too-short career that spanned the early 1920s to her untimely death in 1937. In recognition of Women’s History Month, this ...

“Down Hearted Blues” by Bessie Smith is a classic blues song that embodies the sorrow and pain of lost love. Released in 1923, this track was a major hit and helped establish Smith as the Empress of ...

All About Jazz is celebrating Bessie Smith's birthday today! “Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues ...

"The Devil's Music" is not much of a play, but it is a socko cabaret act. Subtitled "The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith," the 90-minute entertainment is set in a Memphis "buffet flat," an after-hours ...

The Makar of Scotland, their poet laureate, from 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay discusses growing up Black and adopted in an all-white section of Glasgow. Her imaginary family included Bessie Smith. She ...

Bessie Smith, known as the “Empress of the Blues,” was a trailblazer in the world of blues music. Born in 1894 in Tennessee, Bessie began her career as a street performer before rising to fame in the ...