New Orleans trumpeter still playing gigs at 97 Jul 19, 2008
Ferbos also recalled performing with blues singer Mamie Smith, who would sit in a chair before shows, knitting or crocheting to pass the time. Then shed hit the stage like a teenager, he said. (MSNBC -- Music)
Public radio Sep 1, 2007
Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds. Mamie Smith was the first African-American to not only make a recording of blues music, but was also the first to have a hit record in 1920. (Montana Standard, MT)
Loin-lovin' lyrics May 9, 2007
Sequined dames Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sara Martin, Alberta Hunter, Mamie Smith and Ma Rainey were ribald yet classy, and backed by the top jazz musicians of the day. In honour of those women, Maria Muldaur recorded Naughty, Bawdy & Blue, a collection of sassy ragtime and old-time jazz-blues, including Sippie Wallace's Separation Blues, a duet with Bonnie Raitt. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
'Wild' show is solid blues primer Feb 26, 2007
In fact, reading from a "memory book," Craig details birth dates and origins of long ago, groundbreaking blues queens such as Ida Cox, Mamie Smith, Billie Holiday, Big Mama Thornton, Alberta Hunter, Sippie Wallace, Empress Bessie and others, pointing out their pictures on the wall, saying "I love her" after each one and then launching into a signature song: the play's title tune by Cox, Wallace's "Hop Scotch Blues," Bessie's "Downhearted Blues," Hunter's raucous "Hardhearted Hannah," Thornton's... (Buffalo News -- Entertainment)
