Ma Bessie and Her Blues Troupe

Building on her passion for the "Empress of the Blues", Julia Titus shares the music of Bessie Smith and her contemporaries with a new generation of listeners.

Nicknamed the 'Empress of the Blues', Bessie Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s/30s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest performers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers.

The show chronicles Bessie's life from a one-room shack in Blue Goose Hollow, to becoming the highest-paid black entertainer of that time, to the tragic accident on Route 61 in September 1937 that ended her life aged 43 years.

Mixing Julia's rich, warm vocal sound with a dynamic band - that look, as well as sound the part - Ma Bessie and Her Blues Troupe perform a narrated show, featuring classic blues and jazz tunes from the inter-war years, such as 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and 'Ain't Nobody's Business', as well as showcasing many of Bessie's songs and a selection of original songs and hand-picked covers from the last fifty years of popular music.