St. Louis Blues - Bessie Smith (songs)

Our listening today is the 1925 version of St. Louis Blues as sung by Bessie Smith.  My research on the Wiki tells me that the song's composer, W. C. Handy wrote this song after an encounter with a woman on the street who was bemoaning the absence of her husband in 1914.  The song was performed a bajillion times by such greats as Glen Miller, Django Reinhardt, Louis Prima, Judy Garland - shit, even Stevie Wonder and George Thorogood and the Destroyers (of Bad to the Bone fame).  This version featuring the genius trumpet stylings of Louis Armstrong is sung by Bessie Smith.  It sounds like Bessie was a big deal back in the day, having been a big name in blues and gospel singing and influencing future greats like Billie Holiday.  Bessie's life was cut short by a car accident and her grave was left unmarked until 1970 when Janis Joplin (of all people) bought her a proper headstone.  Thoughts! :

Holly:

Very sparse in kind of a cool way. Louis Armstrong is so freaking cool on trumpet all the time. He has such a good sense of how much to play or not to play, and his tone is so recognizable. Harmonium is so weird. I had a hard time listening to Bessie Smith and focussing on her, because I was preoccupied by the weirdness of the harmonium, and the coolness of Louis Armstrong, but I like her voice very much. I hope she shows up again on this list. 4/5

Kelly:

It was a total pleasant surprise that Louis Armstrong was on this track, and I agree, it's hard to focus on poor ol' Bessie when Louis is so damn cool.   Even if you didn't see Louis' name in the liner notes you would know it was him playing.  Anyway, I like the track and I think her singing is really dirty and raunchy and bluesy- it's what I think the blues should sound like.  I would love to hear what she would sound like with better recording quality.  4/5

Listen up:
St. Louis Blues - Bessie Smith