Everyone Who Likes Wine And Beer

Bessie Smith “At the Christmas Ball”

This blues number was recorded in New York City in 1925, right around the peak of Smith’s career. It’s a remarkable recording, not just for Smith’s performance, but for the way the microphones picked up so much of the room’s ambiance. There’s a really strong sense of place and space within this recording, and it’s all the more impressive given that the equipment used to capture it was so primitive. But you know, room mics are room mics – as a technique, it’s almost always going to yield a recording with more presence.

“At the Christmas Ball” is basically a song about the Christmas/New Year’s party season, and it’s more about the debauchery of those events than anything to do with holiday. The song is a bit sad, but in a vague sort of way – the lyrics never let on much about anything bad going on, but Smith sings it with a touch of pain and loneliness in her voice, as if to suggest that this merriment is all just a temporary distraction.

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