Trommeslageren Jo Jones så Bessie Smith optræde en enkelt gang – i 1934.
Han var med Count Basie i Little Rock, Arkansas, hvor Bessie Smith turnerede forbi med sit show.

“We all went down”, fortæller han til Sara Grimes.

Sara Grimes: “”What was it like to hear her in person?”

Jo Jones: “I can’t tell you but one thing: That’s the reason I got bald. The woman took my hair off. It tingles from your toes up, it tingles.”

Sara Grimes: “What did she look like?” Jo Jones: “You can’t describe beauty…”

Sara Grimes
BackWaterBlues, 2000