Trixie Smith
*The birth of Trixie Smith is celebrated on this date in 1895. She was a Black singer and musician from Atlanta, Georgia.
She studied at Selma University, moved to New York in 1915, and performed in the vaudeville circuit. She had a distinctive voice and a delightful style of her own. She recorded from 1922 through 1925 for Black Swan and Paramount records, with her best-known dates resulting in four songs in 1925 with Louis Armstrong in her backup group.
Other sidemen in her career included James P. Johnson, Phil Napoleon, and Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. Smith did not record from 1925 until 1938, when she headed an all-star jazz group, which included Sidney Bechet, Charlie Shavers, and Sammy Price. In 1939 she recorded "No Good Man" with Red Allen and Barney Bigard. One of the classic blues singers of the 1920s, Trixie Smith worked in New York's theaters as an actress-singer and stayed involved in the music business throughout her life.
She died on Sep 21, 1943, in New York, NY.
