Smith, Clara (1894–1935)

African-American blues singer, known as the Queen of the Moaners. Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1894; died on February 21, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan; married Charles Wesley (a baseball manager), in 1926.

Like those of many blues singers, Clara Smith's early years are obscure. She was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1894, and endured poverty and discrimination. Smith began her singing career in Southern vaudeville and eventually became a popular performer on the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA) circuit. By 1923, she was in Harlem and a year later had her own club, the Clara Smith Theatrical Club. From 1925 to 1928, she recorded mostly for Columbia. Her throbbing, moaning voice was backed by such prominent jazz artists as Louis Armstrong on the cornet, Coleman Hawkins on the sax, Don Redman on the clarinet, and James P. Johnson on the piano. Clara, who recorded two duets with Bessie Smith , preferred suffering, tragic heroines for her subject, such as the ones featured in "Every Woman's Blues" and "Awful Moaning Blues." She recorded over 125 songs in her career, with her last recording session in 1932. Three years later, she died of a heart attack at age 41 in Detroit, Michigan. Among early female blues singers, notes Roger Kinkle, she was "probably only surpassed by Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey ."

sources:

Herzhaft, Gérard. Encyclopedia of the Blues. Translated by Brigitte Debord. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 1992.

Kinkle, Roger D. The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz: 1900–1950. Vol III. Arlington House, 1974.

Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia. NY: Penguin, 1993.

Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992.

John Haag , Athens, Georgia