Bessie Smith

American blues singer born in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Bessie Smith

Today on Ecléctico you're listening to Bessie Smith, a legend and pioneer of the blues. Her influence on modern blues, jazz, and rock 'n' roll is major and foundational. That's remarkable considering her golden era was the 1920s and 1930s. You'll go much deeper with a couple of paragraphs from a book by Jackie Kay, Bessie Smith: A Poet’s Biography of a Blues Legend, excerpted on Literary Hub.