Among the first black singers to record the blues as a soloist, she was highly successful and lived extravagantly.
b. May 26, 1883 in Cincinnati, OH, d. October 30, 1946 in New York City, NY. Despite beginning her showbusiness career as a dancer, before the outbreak of World War I, Smith was established as a singer. Although she was essentially a vaudeville singer, in 1920 she recorded 'Crazy Blues', thus becoming the first black singer to record the blues as a soloist. The enormous success of this and her subsequent recordings established her reputation and thereafter she was always in great demand. Her accompanying musicians, on record and on tour, included Willie 'The Lion' Smith, Joe Smith, Johnny Dunn, Bubber Miley and Coleman Hawkins. She lived extravagantly, squandering the enormous amount of money she earned, and when she died in 1946 after a long illness, she was bankrupt.
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By Richard S. Ginell
Though technically not a blues performer, Mamie Smith notched her place in American music as the first black female singer to record a vocal blues. That record was "Crazy Blues" (recorded August 10, 1920), which sold a million copies in its first six months and made record labels aware of the huge potential market for "race records"; thus paving the way for Bessie Smith (no relation) and other blues and jazz performers. An entertainer who sported a powerful, penetrating, feminine voice with belting vaudeville qualities, as opposed to blues inflections, Smith toured as a dancer with Tutt-Whitney's Smart Set Company in her early teens, and sang in Harlem clubs before World War I. Apparently, Smith's pioneering recording session was an accident, since she was filling in for Sophie Tucker, but the success of the record made her wealthy.
Soon thereafter, Smith began touring and recording with a band called the Jazz Hounds, which featured such jazz notables as Coleman Hawkins, Bubber Miley, Johnny Dunn, and more, and she toured with the bands of Andy Kirk and Fats Pichon in the 1930s. She also appeared in several films, including Paradise in Harlem late in her life (1939). She recorded several sides for OKeh during her heyday; one unissued take of "My Sportin' Man" is included on Columbia's Roots N' Blues Retrospective 1925-1950 box set. In the 1980s, all of her recordings were reissued on LP by the imported Document label.