Her ability to use \"blue notes\" and other vocal embellishments, along with a loose melodic phrasing, became hallmarks of jazz and blues inflection that other musicians (singers and instrumentalists) emulated. Datenschutzbestimmungen. She earned her title by displaying her powerful voice to the public for everyone to hear. hasContentIssue false. Bessie Smith - Songs, Death & Facts It was covered by Brother John Sellers, Toni Lynn Washington, Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns, The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band and other artists. Though theres no singular definition of the blues that fully encompasses the history and culture of the people from whom the blues are derived, I do think there are some notes to consider. It was originally composed by Joe "King" Oliver and is largely performed as an instrumental, although lyrics were . Smith describes how down she is about her life and how she knows there is nothing she can do about it. There were reports that officials behaved in a discriminatory fashion. Following her death, Smiths legacy continued on as she inspired new artists to display who they truly were. Listening Guide to Backwater Blues by Bessie Smith - YouTube A modified 12 bar blues. Her powerful voice stands out so much in this song that the instrumental background may not even be needed as supplementation. According to the Theorytab database, it is the 5th most popular key among Major keys and the 5th most popular among all keys. Bessie actually wrote Backwater Blues for the Cumberland River flood that hit Nashville on Christmas morning 1926. Louis Blues featuring Louis Armstrong, Backwater Blues, and Nobody Knows You When Youre Down and Out. As the Swing era was emerging, Bessie Smith was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1937 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The piece has a homophonic texture due to the supplementation of the instruments to the vocalization of Smith. The piece uses syncopation to allow variation between the instruments and the vocals. The blues poems remind us that the American poetic tradition can be traced to African American oral tradition; that great art, great poems come from deep suffering that is personal, historical, and political and could be read on the page as well as sung out loud. Johnson was instrumental in the development of the piano style that emerged from Harlem in the 1920s known as \"stride.\" \r\rIn the age before sound amplification and microphones, a successful singer needed to be able to project. The best song poems, I believe, can live on the pages as well as in the ear. Bessie Smith (1894-1937) began her professional career as a blues singer in cabarets in 1912. "When it rains five days, and the skies turn dark as night (x2) There's trouble taking place in the lowland that night." Harmonically, what is the piece based on? They relocated the white folks in an expedient manner but corralled the black folks into abysmal camps. She performed in various minstrel and black vaudeville shows, and as her reputation and fame grew, she performed with many of the other leading early jazz musicians of her time: Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson, just to name a few. Post 4- Blues Music: Bessie Smith | by Alexis Allen | Medium Cause my house fell down and I can't live there no more. Kevin Young was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. "Backwater Blues" (1927) . Harmonically, what is the piece based on? What is the structure of the lyrics? Smith, Bessie. Carl Van Vechten Estate/Library of Congress, Washington D.C., photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1936, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith. [Verse 5] And I went . The first two verses are unique and do not have any repetition. Bessie Smith. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bessie-smith. Furthermore, Baraka notes that Africanisms (retentions of African culture throughout the African diaspora) were not limited to US Black people but that the culture of the Americas contains and is itself influenced by Africanisms. The backwater blues caused me. Performance: Backwater Blues by Big Bill Broonzy | SecondHandSongs Render date: 2023-05-02T09:42:40.381Z Most of us dont remember the great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, but when I read this poem a few years ago during a gathering on the behalf of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the same issues resoundedneighborhoods destroyed, slow government response, the African American neighborhoods were hit the hardest. ). Smith continued on to become very successful with hits like St. Another way of reading classic blues lyric structure is as weighted-sonic couplets. Bessie Smith, "Backwater blues", 1927 - YouTube My name is Lex and I am a rising senior at the University of Georgia. Theres this rich toughness in her voice that tells us this girl and her people are going to get through this calamity. Lets look at this poem closely. El disco e. print music publishers. Smith did not cut any corners in her songs- she told everyone how the world really was and how she felt about it. She manages to escape her flooding home, only to look back and see that she will never be able to go back to it. She began recording regularly in the 1920s, distinguishing herself as the most successful African American artist of her time with her recording Down Hearted Blues in 1923. Hooktheory requires WebAudio and this browser doesn't support it. Bessie Smith - Back-Water Blues Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Backwater Blues Chris Fisher-Lochhead The narrator, who presents himself as a victim describes how . Mmm, I cant move no more. Mmm, I can't move no more. Thank you. Bessie Smith- Back Water Blues. Youtube, uploaded by TravelerIntoTheBlue, 9 Oct 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gXShOJVwaM. Almost half a million homes were destroyed. There is one integral line throughout the stanza. Bessie Smith, commonly referred to as the Empress of the Blues, was born in 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Backwater Blues does not sound as much like the blues as Down Hearted Blues to me, but it is still distinguishable as the blues due to the sad content of the song. Hi! This personal depression by extension is about the depression of an entire people, marginalized in the back waters, stricken with poverty, homelessness, suffering social injustice, discrimination, and now hit with this catastrophic natural disaster. Jazz- Review Questions. Following her death, Smith received numerous awards and honors for her achievements, including: Bessie Smith- American Singer. Encyclopedia Britannica, written by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Feb 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bessie-Smith. We were grounded by Amiri Barakas claim in Blues People, in which he conveyed that in the context of Black American culture, music explains history as history explains music. Backwater Blues - Wikipedia
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