From Queen to Empress: The Rise of Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer who earned the nickname The Queen of the Blues—later upgraded to The Empress.
She is widely regarded as one of the greatest vocalists of her era (the 1920s and ’30s) and, alongside Louis Armstrong, was a major influence on generations of jazz vocalists who followed.
Smith has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame.
Notable Bessie Smith tunes include The St. Louis Blues, Downhearted Blues, Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, and T’ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do.
If you want to be a songwriter who starts from scratch, you should study these early jazz-blues tunes—this is where it all began, and nobody sang them better than Bessie.
Aspiring improvisers should also dive into these songs, as the chord progressions they’re built on form the very foundation of jazz.
Bessie Smith Tunes | Related Pages
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home | Chords + TAB
Learn how to play Baby Won’t You Please Come Home by Bessie Smith using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 |
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home (Bessie Smith) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Bessie Smith on the web
