For this evening's concert Jesse Cloninger and the Festival Hot Seven, fronted by Clairdee, Marisa Frantz, and Siri Vik offer a tribute to three of the exceptional 1920s Columbia Records vocalist whose individual styles well-reflect the jazz- and blues-tinged spirit of their age: the versatile actress and multi-genre vocal stylist Ethel Waters, the classic vaudeville blues singer Bessie Smith, and the unusually gifted popular singer Annette Hanshaw.
The three had significantly different career paths and approaches: Styled "Empress of the Blues", Bessie Smith was classic vaudeville blues singer to the core and as such was always on one of Columbia's specialized ethnic series; her fortunes soared and fell as the blues craze came and went. Ethel Waters began her career as a vaudeville blues singer as well, but found her way into cabaret, the theatre and popular song. Signing with Columbia in 1923, the same year Smith signed with the label, she was listed in its mainstream popular catalog and thus enjoyed a more even market. Annette Hanshaw went straight to recording, first with a successful run at Pathé Records, and after 1928 with Columbia, developing as well a successful presence on radio as "The Personality Girl".
There were, of course, many other female vocalist from the period remarkable for their connections in one way or another to classic blues, of whom Clairdee, Marisa and Siri will also pay tribute to Ida Cox, Mamie Smith, Marion Harris, Lee Wiley, Lee Morse, Libby Holman, and Blanche Calloway.