The Oscar-nominated actress will play Bessie Smith in the upcoming HBO Film Queen Latifah is bringing back the blues. The Oscar nominee, 45, will pay tribute to Bessie Smith – the so-called Empress of ...

If Bessie Smith were alive today, she’d likely be singing the blues about North Carolina. A state advisory panel has recommended against approval of a highway historical marker for the night the blues ...

Smith was barnstorming the South, performing her act under a canvas tent for Black audiences or in segregated theaters. One sweltering night in July, it took her to the heart of Concord’s Black ...

The most popular female recording artist of the 1920s, singer Bessie Smith was nicknamed “Empress of the Blues” for good reason. Smith’s soulful contralto renditions of standards and her original ...

"The Empress of the Blues" gave voice the listeners' tribulations and yearnings of the 1920s and '30s. A new 10-CD box set collects the complete... The Mythic Power Of Bessie Smith Vocalist Bessie ...

reporting from NEW YORK — Queen Latifah was a young rapper just beginning to dabble in acting when she was first approached about the possibility of playing the lead in a film about singer Bessie ...

Queen Latifah is so convincing in the new HBO movie Bessie, that you will find yourself Googling the real Empress of Blues just to differentiate the two. The rapper turned actress mesmerizes as Bessie ...

Singer Bessie Smith's recording career lasted only 10 years, but during that time she created a body of work that helped shape the sound of the 20th century. Her first single, "Downhearted Blues" — ...

In her latest role, Queen Latifah adopts the persona of a 20th century legend. Our Mark Strassmann met up with her for some Questions-and-Answers: At 45, Queen Latifah is playing a part she was first ...

Vocalist Bessie Smith's musical career, spanning 1923-33, has been collected in a new 10-CD box set, Bessie Smith: The Complete Columbia Recordings. Recorded shortly before the 1927 floods that ...