Mamie Smith

Mamie Smith earned a lasting position in American music history as the first black woman to commit a vocal blues performance to disc, although her approach never aligned strictly with blues conventions. The historic release, “Crazy Blues,” was captured on August 10, 1920; within six months it had moved a million copies, revealing to record companies the untapped commercial scale of the “race records” market and clearing a path for Bessie Smith—no relation—and the wave of blues and jazz artists who followed. An entertainer whose powerful, penetrating feminine delivery carried the emphatic projection of vaudeville rather than blues phrasing, Smith danced with Tutt-Whitney’s Smart Set Company while still in her early teens and later sang in Harlem nightspots before World War I. The landmark session itself proved accidental—she had stepped in for Sophie Tucker—yet the record’s runaway success brought her substantial wealth.

Thereafter she toured and recorded with the Jazz Hounds, whose lineup included Coleman Hawkins, Bubber Miley, Johnny Dunn, and additional jazz figures; during the 1930s she also traveled with the bands of Andy Kirk and Fats Pichon. Film appearances came late, among them Paradise in Harlem in 1939. At the height of her popularity she cut numerous sides for OKeh; an unissued take of “My Sportin’ Man” later surfaced on Columbia’s Roots N’ Blues Retrospective 1925-1950 box set. In the 1980s the Document label, an import, reissued her complete recorded output on LP.