The Women Who Made Early Jazz

Mamie Smith's 1920 'Crazy Blues' opened the race-records floodgate. The Empress, Ethel Waters, Lil Hardin and Mary Lou Williams built the music's first divas.

Playlist by @birth_of_jazz

13 tracks, shared on Audicious.

1. Bessie Smith: The Woman Who Sang The Blues — The1920sChannel
2. Against The Odds - The Story of Bessie Smith (1983) #HappyBirthdayBessieSmith — Reelblack One
3. Bessie Smith: The Tragic Death and Historical Myth of the Blues Queen — Chicago Blues Untold
4. Bessie Smith: Greatest Female Blues Singer | Mini Bio | BIO — Biography
5. Mamie Smith - Crazy Blues (1920) — Marcos
6. Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds "Crazy Blues" LYRICS (Perry Bradford song) Okeh 4169 (1920) HISTORIC — Tim Gracyk
7. Bessie Smith, the Blues, and Race Records — GBCbrad
8. LIL HARDIN (Mrs. Armstrong but more than that) Jazz History #14 — Chase Sanborn
9. MARY LOU WILLIAMS (Through muck and mud) Jazz History #24 — Chase Sanborn
10. The Business of Jazz: The Musical Artistry of Mary Lou Williams — Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning
11. Mary Lou Williams at Les Mouches, NYC, 1978 Cabaret Show, Carline Ray — Alan Eichler
12. Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas — Andrew
13. Ethel Waters "Am I Blue" from On With The Show 1929 — The American Lindy Hop Championships