Mamie Smith’s lavishly expensive wardrobe and over-the-top stage presence is reported to have been breathtaking, and a young aspiring blues woman named Victoria Spivey was so bowled over by the spectacle that it inspired her to pursue her own recording career. The third installment in Document’s four-part chronological history of Mamie Smith brings together two-dozen sides dating from early May 1922 through mid-August 1923. This is a particularly rewarding collection as it combines instrumentals like “Stuttering,” “Those Longing for You Blues,” and “Strut Your Material,” with songs destined to become warhorses in the barrelhouse and traditional jazz repertoire ( “That Da Da Strain,” “Kansas City Man Blues,” “You’ve Got to See Mama Ev’ry Night,” and “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None O’ This Jelly Roll”); in addition to three numbers perhaps best remembered among early jazz lovers for the piano roll versions by Fats Waller which appeared almost contemporaneously with Smith’s phonograph recordings (“Got to Cool My Doggies Now,” “You Can’t Do What My Last Man Did,” and “Do It, Mr. So-And-So”). These records also offer further proof that Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds were almost as important to rising young talent in its day as would be Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers during the ’50s. Future stars heard on these ancient platters include cornetists Bubber Miley, Joe Smith, and Johnny Dunn, as well as reedmen Buster Bailey, Garvin Bushell, Coleman Hawkins, and Sidney Bechet. – arwulf arwulf
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