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Though technically not a blues performer, Mamie Smith notched her place in American music as the first black female singer to record a vocal blues. That record was "Crazy Blues" (recorded August 10, 1920), which sold a million copies in its first six months and made record labels aware of the huge potential market for "race records"; thus paving the way for <a href="spotify:artist:5ESobCkc6JI4tIMxQttqeg">Bessie Smith</a> (no relation) and other blues and jazz performers. An entertainer who sported a powerful, penetrating, feminine voice with belting vaudeville qualities, as opposed to blues inflections, Smith toured as a dancer with Tutt-Whitney's Smart Set Company in her early teens, and sang in Harlem clubs before World War I. Apparently, Smith's pioneering recording session was an accident, since she was filling in for <a href="spotify:artist:58nEgrqod6YO5ZATASjIQ8">Sophie Tucker</a>, but the success of the record made her wealthy.
Soon thereafter, Smith began touring and recording with a band called the Jazz Hounds, which featured such jazz notables as <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Coleman Hawkins</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5HDCdQ8Z534fUX4gZI5IzT">Bubber Miley</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1Duy8DS1ceSi2ufJXxOwJg">Johnny Dunn</a>, and more, and she toured with the bands of <a href="spotify:artist:6lDzuLTyt5ewY3FLfX1smg">Andy Kirk</a> and Fats Pichon in the 1930s. She also appeared in several films, including Paradise in Harlem late in her life (1939). She recorded several sides for OKeh during her heyday; one unissued take of "My Sportin' Man" is included on Columbia's Roots N' Blues Retrospective 1925-1950 box set. In the 1980s, all of her recordings were reissued on LP by the imported Document label. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi
Soon thereafter, Smith began touring and recording with a band called the Jazz Hounds, which featured such jazz notables as <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Coleman Hawkins</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5HDCdQ8Z534fUX4gZI5IzT">Bubber Miley</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1Duy8DS1ceSi2ufJXxOwJg">Johnny Dunn</a>, and more, and she toured with the bands of <a href="spotify:artist:6lDzuLTyt5ewY3FLfX1smg">Andy Kirk</a> and Fats Pichon in the 1930s. She also appeared in several films, including Paradise in Harlem late in her life (1939). She recorded several sides for OKeh during her heyday; one unissued take of "My Sportin' Man" is included on Columbia's Roots N' Blues Retrospective 1925-1950 box set. In the 1980s, all of her recordings were reissued on LP by the imported Document label. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi
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