Bessie Smith #1507

Caption from poster__       Bessie Smith's  Jail House Blues" starts with what seems like a basic opening line: Thirty days in jail with my back turned to the wall She turns it into blues poetry, centering her force upon a few words, each of which she catches, elongates, drags upward or downward (the repeat of "turned to the wall," for instance, Smith uses to fill out the two bars where normally a trumpet or piano would've come in--- she stretches the phrase into a long moan). So it actually should read: Thirty DAYS in JAIL with my BACK TURNED to the WALL TURRRRNED to the WALLLLL   Smith, Bessie, 1894–1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protegee of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. After working in traveling shows she went to New York City, where she made (1923–28) recordings, accompanied by such outstanding artists as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson. She quickly became the favorite singer of