Bessie (2015) Original Soundtrack

When some four decades earlier the soundtrack of "Lady sings the Blues" became best-seller, there were many who complained that Diana Ross doesn't sound like Lady Day at all. On the other hand, the soundtrack served quite nicely as reminder about legendary Jazz singer and revived her cult status in media so in my opinion it was a good thing after all, because it inspired listeners to check out original 1940s recordings. It was, after all, artistic impression of that music and if I remember correctly, somewhere at the start of that movie, you could hear kind-like down & dirty Bessie Smith impersonator as this was what young Billie heard around whorehouses that she cleaned in Baltimore. Personally I never found any fault with that soundtrack, except that I always preferred original sources.

Same for this soundtrack that now finally brings Empress of the Blues to movie screens: it is a (very careful) impression of once popular music from almost a century ago. It is surely very far removed from what we hear as popular music nowadays, for one thing early 1920s Blues was very slow, sassy and had its own rules - once you hear original recordings of not just Bessie but all her contemporaries, you notice that music was very much alike, it was hypnotising, seductive, sexy and full of attitude but it definitely followed certain rules. Personally I must admit that I love these ancient recordings very much and at certain point of my life had collected quite a lot of it, because I always found them magical and timeless. The old, muddy sound of primitive recordings never bothered me, in fact it gave them even more stardust because they were time capsule of a world long gone. 

Soundtrack of "Bessie" will definitely work for audience new to the phenomenon and story of this majestic singer - the music was carefully re-created and every now and than we are treated with original, remastered sound of 1920s artists like Louis Armstrong, Sippie Wallace and Fats Waller. (Dirty song by Lucille Bogan was heard in the movie but is not included here). Several artists are also heard singing new versions of these old Blues classics and without exception they are all more convincing than Queen Latifah: she did great acting job and suggest right spirit, attitude and Amazon-like spirit but vocally she can't even touch that massive power that real Bessie once had and we can't really blame her for that - after all, even in her time Bessie Smith towered above competition and in all history of recorded music only Gospel queen Mahalia Jackson came close to that sound (which in itself is curiosity that suggest the link between sin and religion, similar source that fuelled deep roots of universal human emotions). I admire Latifah's bravery for attempting this heroic task, but when you hear electronic duet between herself and the original ("Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer") you clearly hear the difference between artistic impression and the real thing. New listeners might be intrigued, however I have lived with original music for decades and they will always be my first choice.