RETROSPECTIVE : Early Bessie Smith, Vintage Cole Porter

*****

BESSIE SMITH

“The Complete Recordings

Vol. 1”

Columbia

In these, her earliest recordings, Smith was inhibited by primitive, pre-electric technology. She actually had to aim her voice at an acoustic horn. Smith was also bogged down by pedestrian accompanists--such as Clarence Williams, a shrewd businessman but a dismal pianist, and bandleader Fletcher Henderson, who wasn’t as skilled in 1923 as he would be in later years.

Yet Smith’s commanding, hypnotic, preaching blues contralto retained its impact. A few songs are non-blues--”My Sweetie Went Away” and “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home.” Two are duets with Clara Smith--no relation, and no match for Bessie. But the lyrics throughout mirror the blues subjects of the times--hard times and heartache. Among the titles: “Cemetery Blues,” “Boweavil Blues,” “Jail-House Blues,” “Mistreating Daddy.”

These 38 tunes, available in two-CD or two-cassette sets, are the first step in a series of albums that will cover Smith’s entire 160-song output, a body of work that runs through 1933.

Albums are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to five (a classic).