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 ...

The hangings parted and a great brown woman emerged—she was the size of Fay Templeton in her Weber & Fields days, and she was even garbed similarly, in a rose satin dress, spangled ...

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 ...

"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 ...

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 ...

Here’s the way the blues, one of two original American music forms along with jazz, really works. First you get started trying to do something, maybe even something you like. Then comes the time when ...

Tika Sumpter plays Bessie Smith’s lover, Lucille, in the Queen Latifah-led HBO biopic premiering this weekend. Days after it was announced she would be playing First Lady Michelle Obama in another ...

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 ...

HBO’s biopic of blues singer Bessie Smith was an over 20-years-in-the-making project. It wasn’t until Pariah writer-director Dee Rees reworked the Bessie script and eventually landed the helming gig ...

Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith in the HBO biopic (left). Right: The real Bessie Smith in New York City circa 1925. Frank Masi/HBO; Edward Elcha/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Here’s a sneak-peek at ...

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" — ...