Bessie Smith

The biography of Bessie Smith by Claude Carrière and Christian Bonnet , illustrated by Aude Samama and accompanied by 2 compact discs.

A powerful contralto voice, a song of incredible dramatic depth, a power of persuasion which touches the deepest depths of each person, such appears Bessie Smith , “ the Empress of the Blues ” , whose life is the story of a prodigious rise of a poor girl from the South who reaches the heights of glory then inexorably plummets, head and voice held high, to a tragic death. A true diva in her time, Bessie Smith , who has been claimed by the greatest singers, Mahalia Jackson , Billie Holiday , Dinah Washington , Aretha Franklin , Janis Joplin ... remains for eternity the greatest singer in the history of the blues .