Music / bessie smith
Review: The Bessie Smith Story
Thunderbolt, Thursday April 8
The Thunderbolt looked like a chapel, with rows of chairs that even had those little shelves on the back for hymn books, and indeed there was something of the memorial service about this gig. With a lectern to the side, a microphone stand in the middle and a projection screen at the back we were set up to be taken on an appreciation of blues singer Bessie Smith, one of the true legends of black music history. Small Days guitarist Dave Merrick was the master of ceremonies, reading through Bessie’s story with the help of slides, old recordings and even a clip of film from her only cinema performance, with vocalist Natalie Davies and sax player Brendan Whitmore joining him for the occasional live song.
The legend looks on …
Bessie Smith’s story really can’t fail to be entertaining – she rose from an orphan dancing on 1890s street corners for food for the family who ran away with the ‘tent shows’ and the great Ma Rainey en route to becoming one of the most successful recording artists in the world with her own customised railway carriage for touring America. That was the rags to riches bit, but of course there were also dark experiences of abuse and betrayal in her relationships and the appalling racism of early 20th century USA (including facing off the Ku Klux Klan in full regalia).
is needed now More than ever
Dave unfolded the story at a well-judged pace, with records of Bessie Smith’s evocative voice even drawing applause from the attentive audience whenever they were included. The live contribution was important, too, and Natalie wisely steered away from imitating Bessie’s full-throated contralto to emphasis the singer’s lyrics with an upbeat swing on numbers like Need A Little Sugar and Send Me To The Electric Chair. Brendan Whitmore switched between soprano and tenor sax, the former particularly eloquent on Need A Little Sugar, the latter coming to the fore on T’Aint Nobody’s Business If I Do (not actually one of Bessie’s compositions but, controversially, adapted by her to shrug off the domestic violence she was experiencing).
All in all it was a satisfying journey through blues history with one of the great women who made the music what it became. Impressively, this was its first performance – and hopefully it will be seen again. If they do repeat it maybe the live music contribution could be bigger and, given Bessie’s frequent recordings with pianists like Clarence Williams and Fletcher Henderson, perhaps recruiting a keyboard player would be a nice touch too.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
