Trixie Smith
Trixie Smith | |
---|---|
Also known as | Trixie Muse |
Born | c.1885–1895 Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
Died | September 21, 1943 (age 47–58) New York City, United States |
Genres | Blues |
Occupation(s) | Vocalist, actress |
Years active | 1920s – 1930s |
Labels | Black Swan Paramount Decca |
Trixie Smith (c.1885/1895 – September 21, 1943), was an American blues singer and film actress. She made four dozen recordings and appeared in five films.
Biography
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Smith came from a middle-class background.[1] Various years are given for her birth including 1885,[1] 1888,[2] and 1895.[3] She attended Selma University, in Alabama, before moving to New York City at the age of twenty around 1915.[4] Soon after, she began working in a number of different cafés and theaters in Harlem and Philadelphia.[5]
She began her career as a vaudeville and minstrel entertainer who performed as a comedian, dancer, actress, and singer in traveling shows. Between 1916 and the early 1920s, she worked in minstrel shows and toured as a featured singer. She performed on Broadway using the name Bessie Lee and recorded for
Also in 1922, billed as the "southern nightingale," Smith won first place and a silver cup in a blues singing contest in which she sang her own composition, "Trixie's Blues",
Smith was a polished performer, and her records include several outstanding examples of the blues, on which she is accompanied by artists such as James P. Johnson, and Freddie Keppard.[12] She recorded with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for Paramount Records in 1924 and 1925. By the late 1930s her formerly girlish voice became more full-bodied, and her performance style more direct and sexual. Later rhythm-and-blues and soul singers would adopt this approach.[6]
As her career as a blues singer waned, she sustained herself mostly by performing in cabaret revues and starring in musical revues such as New York Revue (1928) and Next Door Neighbors (1928) at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem.[13] She also appeared in Mae West's short-lived 1931 Broadway show, The Constant Sinner. Two years later, Smith was elevated to the stage of the Theatre Guild for its production of Louisiana.[14]
She appeared in five movies: Birthright (1938),
Known in later life as Trixie Muse, she died in New York in 1943,[2] after a brief illness, at the age of 48.
In 2017, her song "Jack I'm Mellow" was featured as the theme song for the TV comedy sitcom, Disjointed.
Discography
Year | Title | Genre | Label |
---|---|---|---|
1924 | Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 1: 1922–1924 | Blues | Document |
1939 | Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, vol. 2: 1925–1939 | Blues | Document |
References
- ^ ISBN 1-57958-458-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0313344237.
- ^ AllMusic. Retrieved 16 April 2012.
- ISBN 0-14-015939-8.
- ISBN 9781579584580.
- ^ a b c Kernfeld, Barry (1988). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. London: Macmillan. p. 620.
- ^ ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- ^ "Teaching the Journal of American History". Journalofamericanhistory.org. Archived from the original on August 30, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
- ISBN 0-19-513943-7.
- ISBN 9780313292415.
moanin'%20blues%20trixie%20smith.
- ISBN 1-55553-354-X.
- ISBN 1-56159-176-9.
- ISBN 0-313-26657-3.
- ISBN 0-415-93853-8.
- IMDb
External links
- Trixie Smith in the Red Hot Jazz Archive with audio of some of her vintage recordings