People who don’t like the blues often complain that it’s depressing music that all sounds the same. In actuality, the blues umbrella covers distinct styles from every corner of the world. For instance, an old blues tune recorded in the Mississippi Delta won’t sound anything like a track laid down in a Chicago studio, and they’ll both be wildly different from anything emerging from the British blues boom of the 1960s. These disparate styles do share one common facet – they all owe a major debt to Mamie Smith.

Born in Cincinnati on May 26, 1883, Mamie Smith was a gifted vocalist and actress who built a strong following on New York City’s African-American cabaret scene in the WWI era. Her place in history was secured in early 1920, when singer Sophie Tucker fell ill just before a scheduled recording session with Okeh Records. Rather than lose a day of recording time, songwriter Perry Bradford convinced the label to replace Tucker with his friend Mamie Smith, who had previously starred in his stage musical “Made in Harlem.”

The two tracks Smith laid down, “Crazy Blues” and “It’s Right Here for You,” are now believed to be the first recorded blues songs by an African-American performer, and possibly the first blues recordings, period. Strong sales for the record prompted Okeh to launch a whole line of music targeted at the previously ignored African-American audience. Mamie Smith became a recording star, maintaining steady sales and appearing in a number of early movie musicals throughout the ‘20s and ‘30s. Although promoters billed her as “The Queen of the Blues,” Smith thought of herself as a stage performer first and foremost. Her touring act incorporated vaudeville elements like comedians, trapeze artists and an orchestra that featured future jazz legend Coleman Hawkins on saxophone.

It was a twist of fate that made Mamie Smith a blues singer, but it was talent, style and ambition that made her a star. Musicians from Down in the Delta to Sweet Home Chicago and beyond have her to thank.

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