Jazz and Blues Singer. Known primarily in Europe, she shall be remembered for her career as a gospel, jazz, and blues performer and for her participation in the long running Broadway musical review "Black and Blue". Raised in Newark, New Jersey, from an early age, she learned to sing in church, left school in the 8th. grade, had one brief marriage to a local character known only as 'Swindler Joe', and supported herself with a variety of jobs including announcer at the Newark train station. Smith gradually built a local reputation and in 1957 appeared with the Greater Harvest Baptist Church's 'Back Home Choir' at the Newport Jazz Festival; she gave a 1961 solo recital at Town Hall then in the late 1960s began playing to a wider audience when she teamed with the Big Tiny Little ensemble. Though she earned praise for a 1974 Carnegie Hall tribute to Louis Armstrong most of her remaining time before the public was spent in Europe where she had a large following and where she released around a dozen albums begining with the 1976 "Confessin' the Blues". Smith returned home in the late 1980s to appear in "Black and Blue" which ran for 829 performances on the Great White Way between 1989 and 1991 and in which she sang "Big Butter and Egg Man" and "I've Gotta Right to Sing the Blues". She appeared at Avery Fisher Hall in 1992, cut her final record, "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues", in 2002, lived out her days in the Lillian Booth Actors Home, and died of cancer. At her death a portion of her recorded legacy remained in print; once she became well-known Smith gave her birthday as August 25, 1941, but records confirm the date listed above.
Jazz and Blues Singer. Known primarily in Europe, she shall be remembered for her career as a gospel, jazz, and blues performer and for her participation in the long running Broadway musical review "Black and Blue". Raised in Newark, New Jersey, from an early age, she learned to sing in church, left school in the 8th. grade, had one brief marriage to a local character known only as 'Swindler Joe', and supported herself with a variety of jobs including announcer at the Newark train station. Smith gradually built a local reputation and in 1957 appeared with the Greater Harvest Baptist Church's 'Back Home Choir' at the Newport Jazz Festival; she gave a 1961 solo recital at Town Hall then in the late 1960s began playing to a wider audience when she teamed with the Big Tiny Little ensemble. Though she earned praise for a 1974 Carnegie Hall tribute to Louis Armstrong most of her remaining time before the public was spent in Europe where she had a large following and where she released around a dozen albums begining with the 1976 "Confessin' the Blues". Smith returned home in the late 1980s to appear in "Black and Blue" which ran for 829 performances on the Great White Way between 1989 and 1991 and in which she sang "Big Butter and Egg Man" and "I've Gotta Right to Sing the Blues". She appeared at Avery Fisher Hall in 1992, cut her final record, "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues", in 2002, lived out her days in the Lillian Booth Actors Home, and died of cancer. At her death a portion of her recorded legacy remained in print; once she became well-known Smith gave her birthday as August 25, 1941, but records confirm the date listed above.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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