This document of Smith's first year in the studio reveals a blues giant in full command of her talents. And while later dates - especially the epochal 1925 sessions with Louis Armstrong - offer more in the way of the era's horn-blowing royalty, these early sides nicely showcase Smith in the unadorned company of a variety of top pianists like Clarence Williams and Fletcher Henderson. The Empress of the Blues flexes her vocal muscle throughout, ranging from Broadway fare like "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" to the dark-hued rumblings of "Graveyard Dream Blues." She also revels in the provocative ambiguities of "Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll" and puts her stamp on the future blues warhorse "'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do…
Bessie Jones, John Davis, and the Georgia Sea Island Singers gained wide renown during the 1960s and ‘70s for their powerful performances of traditional songs from the African American Gullah Geechee community on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Most in the group were born and raised on St. Simons, and could trace their ancestry to the enslaved West and Central Africans who worked on the island’s cotton plantations. Throughout the ‘60s, the Georgia Sea Island Singers were prominent voices in the civil rights movement, bringing hundreds of years of Black musical tradition to bear on a pivotal time in American history. This previously unheard recording captures their complete Friends of Old Time Music concert of April 1965, at which they were joined by legendary bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell, cane fife player Ed Young, and folklorist Alan Lomax, who acted as emcee.
In the 1970s, Bessie Smith's recordings were reissued on five double LPs. Her CD reissue series also has five volumes (the first four are double-CD sets) with the main difference being that the final volume includes all of her rare alternate takes (which were bypassed on LP). The first set (which, as with all of the CD volumes, is housed in an oversize box that includes an informative booklet) contains her first 38 recordings. During this early era, Bessie Smith had no competitors on record and she was one of the few vocalists who could overcome the primitive recording techniques; her power really comes through.
Today Acclaimed U.S electronic musician, producer and activist Moby shares a self-directed video for sultry track “sweet moon” ft. Choklate, plus Jung remix. He has also shared news of a 3rd street DJ Mix, due out August 15, 2024, that will feature new and unreleased remixes of music from his new album, always centered at night, mixed together by Moby.
"Honey" is a song by American electronic musician Moby. It was released as the lead single from his fifth studio album Play on August 24, 1998. The song samples the 1960 recording "Sometimes" by American blues singer Bessie Jones. Moby first heard "Sometimes" on a box set collection of folk music compiled by Alan Lomax, and subsequently composed "Honey" around vocal samples from the Jones song. "Honey" was well received by music critics, many of whom cited it as a highlight of Play in reviews of the album. Upon release as a single, "Honey" charted in several countries in Europe, despite receiving little airplay on European radio.