The Collection

Backed by a rotating roster of jazz stars, Smith's potent delivery made her a peerless star of classic female blues, combining a fiercely independent, almost defiant approach with subtly effective tinges of vulnerability. Early cuts such as "Downhearted Blues," which supposedly saved Columbia records from extinction in 1923, and "T'aint Nobody's Bizness If I Do" feature only Clarence Williams's piano behind her, but it's her work with Louis Armstrong that truly stands out-Satchmo majestically bobs and weaves his cornet around Smith's lines on "St. Louis Blues," "Reckless Blues," "I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle," and the ragtime chestnut "You've Been a Good Old Wagon." Unfortunately, Columbia offers buyers only two options: this cursory 16-song introduction or an exhaustive five-volume double-CD series. --Marc Greilsamer