Forever known as the ‘The Empress of the Blues’, and titled ‘the greatest blues singer in the world’ by singer Janis Joplin, Bessie Smith‘s recording career ran from 1923 to 1933. In compiling this very welcome and well-presented reminder of her towering talent, Jasmine’s Tony Rounce sought to focus on a single year (1925) of her life on disc. Given the playing time of a CD, that was impossible so the 24 tracks he has selected cover the period from May 1925 to March 1926, in date sequence, this coinciding with Columbia’s adoption of the then new electrical recording process.

Opening with the timeless ‘Cake Walkin’ Babies From Home’, with Henderson’s band alongside, her deep vocal sound and imperious command is immediately evident, the accompaniments thereafter often quite spare, with just a single horn (Green or Armstrong, say) or the piano of Henderson or Williams, momentarily enhancing what were already resolute performances. Smith could be truly mournful, then upbeat and almost raunchy, yet still carry the essential gravitas that made her such an overwhelming favourite among black audiences, especially in the South.

Her Harlem Frolics shows were hugely successful - at one time, she fronted a cast of 45 performers. The English composer Spike Hughes heard her live and said she ‘sang with pathos, humour and terrifying sincerity’ and so she did. If the 1920s were her heyday, her star waned as fashions changed only for her late 1930s comeback to be so sadly negated when she was involved in a horrendous car crash in September 1937 and later died. Seven thousand people attended her funeral.