Itinerary Of a Genius [Remaster] [Slipcase]

Performer: Bessie Smith
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Bessie Smith (vocals); Lincoln M. Conaway, Bobby Johnson (guitar); Charlie Dixon (banjo); William 'Buster' Bailey, Benny Goodman (clarinet); Garvin Bushell (alto saxophone); Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Greely Walton (tenor saxophone); Frankie Newton (trumpet); Joe Smith , Ed Allen, Louis Armstrong (cornet); Jack Teagarden, Jimmy Harrison, Joe Williams , Charlie Green (trombone); Cyrus St. Clair, Ralph Escudero (tuba); Clarence Williams, Porter Gringer, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Buck Washington (piano); Fred Longshaw (organ); Billy Taylor (bass instrument); Her Blue Boys, Henderson's Hot Six, The Bessemer Singers, Buck & His Band. If you considered the total recorded output of Bessie Smith and tried to condense it into a single 22-track CD, you'd be hard-pressed to do a better selection job than on this premier release. The Milan and Ryko labels have collaborated, and done well, to reissue these songs which have otherwise been available in chronological extensia (check out the Classics label) from sources via the Columbia Records family vaults, and through comprehensive and expensive boxed sets. Each title speaks volumes -- "Downhearted Blues," "St. Louis Blues," "Cakewalkin' Babies from Home," "Yellow Dog Blues," "Backwater Blues," "Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Empty Bed Blues," "Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out," "On Revival Day," "I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl," and "Gimme a Pigfoot & a Bottle of Beer," -- all definitive classics, and a good bargain to find. 'Nuff said. ~ Michael G. Nastos

The original tough-mama prototype for nearly every female blues singer to come, hard-living, big-voiced Bessie Smith was also the first blues singer with a mega-hit recording career, achieved in part via collaborations with some of the most notable musicians of her era. In her prime in the 1920s and 1930s, she was the highest-paid black entertainer in the U.S., and her influence persists to this day.

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