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Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, was the first African American superstar, an artist that mingled regal dignity with sensuality. We’ll sample her recorded legacy, talk with critics and hear ...

Jazzanooga is celebrating National Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) with a tribute to a jazz icon each week in April during its JAM Fest. Coincidentally, the late, great Bessie Smith's birthday is also ...

The hangings parted and a great brown woman emerged—she was the size of Fay Templeton in her Weber & Fields days, and she was even garbed similarly, in a rose satin dress, spangled ...