Carrie Smith is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer.

Smith was a member of a church choir that performed at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival

Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...

. She first won notice singing with Big Tiny Little

Big Tiny Little

Dudley "Tiny" Little, Jr. was an American musician who appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1959. His primary instrument was the piano.-Biography:...

 in the early 1970s, but became internationally known in 1974 when she played Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...

 (to whom she is of no relation) in Dick Hyman

Dick Hyman

Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...

's Satchmo Remembered at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

. Smith then launched a solo career, performing with the New York Jazz Repertory Orchestra, Tyree Glenn

Tyree Glenn

Evan Tyree Glenn was an American trombone player.-Biography:...

 (1973), Yank Lawson

Yank Lawson

John Rhea "Yank" Lawson was a jazz trumpeter known for Dixieland and swing music....

 (1987), Bross Townsend

Bross Townsend

Bross Elvie Townsend, Jr. was an American jazz and blues pianist.Townsend was born in Princeton, Kentucky. His father was also a pianist, who started his son on the instrument at age seven. He moved to Cleveland in 1933 and attended the Cleveland Institute of Music...

, and the World's Greatest Jazz Band

World's Greatest Jazz Band

The World's Greatest Jazz Band was an all-star jazz ensemble active from 1968 to 1978.Dick Gibson founded the group at his sixth Jazz Party, an annual event. The group performed mostly Dixieland jazz and recorded extensively. It was co-led by Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart, and did early jazz...

 in addition to numerous solo albums. She starred in the Broadway

Broadway (New York City)

Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 Black and Blues

Black and Blues

Black and Blues is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer recorded in 1990 and released on the Japanese DIW label.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 3 stars.-Track listing:# "Burning Like Love" - 5:54# "Crying" - 6:12...

from 1989 to 1991. She is not well known in the United States but has a cult following in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Discography

• Confessin' the Blues (Evidence Records, 1976)
• Do Your Duty (Black & Blue, 1976)
• Fine and Mellow (Audiophile Records, 1976)
• Nobody Wants You (Black & Blue Records
  Black & Blue Records
  Black & Blue Records is a French record label specializing in swing jazz and blues.Black & Blue was founded in 1968, and in its early years concentrated on reissuing jazz that had been previously released on American labels. The label recorded Blues and Jazz musicians both in America and France and...
  
  , 1977)
• When You're Down and Out (Black & Blue, 1977)
• Carrie Smith (West 54 Records, 1979)
• Only you can do it (GP, 1982)
• Sings the blues and then some (Fat Cat's Jazz, 1982) (cassette)
• Negro Spirituals and Gospel Songs (Black and Blue, 1982)
• June Night (Black & Blue, 1992)
• Every Now and Then (Silver Shadow Records, 1993)
• Sings Gospel Live in Europe (Self-released, 2001)
• I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues (IPO Records, 2002)