A little background on legendary blues singer Trixie Smith, the latest musical muse of writer/director Woody Allen in his 2013 masterpiece Blue Jasmine. Trixie Smith (1895 – 1943), African-American blues singer, recording artist, vaudevilleentertainer, and actress. Born and raised in Atlanta, Smith came from a middle class-background and attended Selma University in Alabama before moving to New York in 1915 at the height of the Modernism Movement. Smith worked in minstrel shows and on the TOBAvaudeville circuit, before making her first recordings for the Black Swan label in 1922. Amongst these were My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll) (1922), written by J. Berni Barbour, which was of historic significance as the first secular recording to reference the phrase Rock and Roll. Her record inspired various lyrical elaborations, such as Rock That Thing by Lil Johnson and Rock Me Mama by Ikey Robinson. Also in 1922, Smith won first place and a silver cup in a blues singing contest with her song Trixies Blues, singing against Alice Leslie Carter, Daisy Martinand Lucille Hegamin. She is most remembered for her 1925 songs, Railroad Blues and The World Is Jazz Crazy and So Am I (1925). Both songs feature Louis Armstrong on cornet. She was a highly polished performer, accompanied by other notable artists such as James P. Johnson, and Freddie Keppard. She recorded with Fletcher Hendersons Orchestra for Paramount Records in 1924–25. As her career as a blues singer waned she sustained herself by performing in cabaret revues, and starred in musical revues such as New York Revue (1928) and Next Door Neighbors (1928) at the Lincoln Theatrein Harlem. Smith also appeared in Mae Wests short-lived 1931 Broadway effort, The Constant Sinner. Two years later, Smith was elevated to the stage of the Theatre Guild for its production of Louisiana.[8] She appeared in four movies: Gods Step Children (1938) Swing! (1938) Drums o Voodoo (1934) The Black King (1932). Trixie Smith died at 48 years of age in New York in 1943, after a brief illness. youtube/watch?v=PvzmBA91P3c&sns=tw
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:44:39 +0000