Susannah McCorkle appeared internationally and recorded
seventeen albums as a cabaret singer, and she wrote previously for American Heritage about Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, and Irving Berlin. She died in May of this year.
Bessie Smith was the greatest blues singer of all time; and her influence still permeates popular music though almost no one listens to her records. An appreciation by an eminent jazz singer.
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Ethel Waters was an innovative and terrifically influential singer, and she broke through racial barriers in movies, theater, nightclubs, radio, film, and television, opening doors for everyone who came after her. She deserves to be much better remembered.
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