Bessie Smith: ‘Down Hearted Blues’ and ‘Gulf Coast Blues’ revisited

Abstract

A re-examination of Bessie Smith's first two released blues recordings – ‘Down Hearted Blues’ and ‘Gulf Coast Blues’ – demonstrates that her interpretative originality and expressive individuality were evident from the start of her recording career in 1923. The micro-components of Bessie's early vocal tendencies are revealed through full transcriptions of her vocal line on each of these recordings combined with detailed description and analysis of the pitch content, the main rhythmic and melodic characteristics, and the melodic-harmonic and text-music relationships. The method demonstrates that, although Bessie's phrases display some similarities with each other, they constantly vary in imaginative ways, matching her with true jazz improvisers.