This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Barbara Dane

Barbara Dane (born May 12, 1927) is an American folk, blues, and jazz singer.

"Bessie Smith in stereo," wrote jazz critic Leonard Feather in the late 1950s. Time said of Dane: "The voice is pure, rich … rare as a 20 karat diamond" and quoted Louis Armstrong’s exclamation upon hearing her at the Pasadena jazz festival: "Did you get that chick? She’s a gasser!"

Career as singer

Moving to San Francisco in 1949, Dane began raising her own family and singing her folk and topical songs around town as well as on radio and television. A jazz revival was then shaking the town, and by the 1950s she became a familiar figure at clubs along the city’s Embarcadero with her own versions of women’s blues and jazz tunes. New Orleans jazz musicians like George Lewis and Kid Ory and locals like Turk Murphy, Burt Bales, Bob Mielke and others invited her onto the bandstand regularly. Her first professional jazz job was with Turk Murphy at the Tin Angel in 1956.

To Ebony, she seemed "startlingly blonde, especially when that powerful dusky alto voice begins to moan of trouble, two-timing men and freedom … with stubborn determination, enthusiasm and a basic love for the underdog, [she is] making a name for herself … aided and abetted by some of the oldest names in jazz who helped give birth to the blues." The seven-page Ebony article was filled with photos of Dane working with Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Clara Ward, Mama Yancey, Little Brother Montgomery and others.

By 1959, Louis Armstrong had asked Time magazine readers: "Did you get that chick? She’s a gasser!" and invited her to appear with him on national television. She appeared with Louis Armstrong on the Timex All-Star Jazz Show hosted by Jackie Gleason on January 7, 1959. She toured the East Coast with Jack Teagarden, appeared in Chicago with Art Hodes, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Willie Dixon and others, played New York with Wilbur De Paris and his band, and appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as a solo guest artist. Other national TV work included The Steve Allen Show, Bobby Troop’s Stars of Jazz, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

In 1961, the singer opened her own club, Sugar Hill: Home of the Blues, on San Francisco’s Broadway in the North Beach district, with the idea of creating a venue for the blues in a tourist district where a wider audience could hear it. There Dane performed regularly with her two most constant musical companions: Kenny "Good News" Whitson on piano and cornet and Wellman Braud, former Ellington bassist. Among her guest artists were Jimmy Rushing, Mose Allison, Mama Yancey, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson, Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.

In her speech to the GI Movement of the Vietnam War Era (whose text can be found in the booklet that’s included in Paredon Records’ FTA! Songs of the GI Resistance vinyl album of 1970), Barbara Dane said, "I was too stubborn to hire one of the greed-head managers, probably because I’m a woman who likes to speak for herself. I always made my own deals and contracts, and after figuring out the economics of it, I was free to choose when and where I worked, able to spend lots more time with my three children and doing political work, and even brought home more money in the end, by not going for the "bigtime." I did make some really nice records, because I was able to choose and work with wonderfully gifted musicians."

Political activism

She continued to weave in appearances as a solo performer on the coffeehouse circuit with her folk-style guitar. She also stepped up her work in the movements for peace and justice as the struggle for civil rights spread and the Vietnam war escalated. She sang at peace demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and throughout the US and toured anti-war GI coffeehouses all over the world. In 1966, Barbara Dane became the first U.S. musician to tour post-revolutionary Cuba.

In 1970 Dane founded Paredon Records, a label specializing in international protest music. She produced 45 albums, including three of her own, over a 12-year period. The label was later incorporated into Smithsonian-Folkways, a label of the Smithsonian Institution, and is available through their catalog.

In 1978, Dane appeared with Pete Seeger at a Rally in New York for striking coal miners.

Blues singer and role model

When she was in her late 70s, Philip Elwood, jazz critic of the San Francisco Examiner, said of her: "Dane is back and beautiful…she has an immense voice, remarkably well-tuned…capable of exquisite presentations regardless of the material. As a gut-level blues singer she is without compare." Blues writer Lee Hildebrand calls her "…perhaps the finest living interpreter of the classic blues of the 20’s." In a 2010 profile on Barbara produced by Steven Short of KALW in San Francisco, Bonnie Raitt said "she’s always been a role model and a hero of mine – musically and politically. I mean, the arc of her life so informs mine that – she’s – I really can’t think of anyone I admire [more], the way that she’s lived her life." The interview is archived on the KALW website.

Text from Wikipedia 

 

Barbara Dane – Livin’ with the Blues – 1959 – The whole LP

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Abbie Gardner

Best known as one-third of the female harmony Americana trio Red Molly, Abbie has listened to the sweet sound of high lonesome harmonies since her first bluegrass festival at three years old. Her father, Herb Gardner, is a swing jazz and stride pianist and dixieland trombonist. He introduced Abbie to one of her favorite vocalists, Billie Holiday, and continues to be a big influence on the musician she is and strives to be.

Abbie studied classical flute growing up, but once she started playing Dobro in 2004 she found her main instrument. She traveled to Lyons, CO and Nashville, TN to study with Rob Ickes and Sally Van Meter. Left to her own devices, without many Dobro influences near NYC, Abbie continues to develop her style by listening to other instrumentalists, such as David Rawlings, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt. Always keen on following the vocal part and trying to find the one really perfect note, instead of a dozen okay ones, Abbie is quickly compiling an extensive discography of recording credits.

She recorded three full-length albums and one EP with Red Molly, the last of which spent several weeks in the Top 10 on the Radio & Records Americana Chart (Spring 2010).   In 2008, She released Bad Nights/Better Days a duo record of original material with Anthony da Costa. The album was featured on WFUV’s top 2008 album lists and has been described as a work of staggering emotional power. (Acoustic Live! in NYC, 2008)

 

Abbie’s first full-length recording, My Craziest Dream is an album of jazz standards featuring her father on piano. It earned her an entry in the 2009 Hal Leonard book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide and she continues to perform with her father, whenever possible.

Abbie has a strong throaty voice that’s reminiscent of Wesla Whitfield’s… she uses it to render evergreens from the 1920s and 1930s with a crew of guys who play like they were around when this music was the cat’s pajamas.  (Cadence Magazine, June 2004)

Her 2006 release Honey on My Grave was her first independently released CD of mostly original music spanning varied genres with consistently strong Dobro, guitar, and vocal performances.  (Chronogram, 2006)

Abbie has been recognized as an award-winning songwriter, as well, with such accolades as; 2008 Lennon Award Winner (folk) for “The Mind of a Soldier” and 2008 American Songwriter Magazine Grand Prize Lyric Winner for “I’d Rather Be”. Her song “Honey on My Grave” was also published in Sing Out! Magazine in 2008.

Abbie continues to tour with Red Molly, currently promoting their third full-length CD James.   Her latest solo CD “Hope” will be released in April 2011.  It features 8 new original songs, 3 covers and three different types of slide!  See the shows page for updates on the CD release tour with Craig Akin on upright bass and Abbie on dobro & National Steel guitar.

In Context

Red Molly is a folk trio consisting of Laurie MacAllister (vocals, guitar, banjo), Abbie Gardner (vocals, guitar, Dobro, lap steel guitar), and Molly Venter (vocals, guitar). They perform original works composed by each of the group members, as well as covers of other songwriters including Hank Williams, Gillian Welch, Mark Erelli, and Ryan Adams. Their fans are known as “Redheads.

History

Red Molly was formed late one night at the 2004 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. MacAllister, Gardner, and Carolann Solebello, three solo singer-songwriters, were the last ones left at a song circle. They liked the way they sounded together and decided to form a band. The name Red Molly is taken from a character in the Richard Thompsonsong “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”

Their career started to take off in 2006. They were the top vote getters in the 2006 Falcon Ridge Folk FestivalEmerging Artist Showcase. WUMB in Boston named them Top New Artist of the Year and picked their AlbumNever Been to Vegas as one of their Top Albums of 2006. They have appeared in John Platt’s Under the Radar series in New York, a showcase for up and coming musicians.

In 2007 they toured with Pat Wictor and Ellis, the other winners of the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist showcase, on the Falcon Ridge Preview tour and performed with them in the Most Wanted Song Swap at the Festival itself.

Their album Love and Other Tragedies reached number 15 on the Americana Charts on June 30, 2008. James reached number 4 on the same chart in May 2010. Light In The Sky was released on October 4, 2011.

On June 15, 2010 Red Molly announced that Carolann Solebello would be leaving the group and replaced by Molly Venter. On July 24 Solebello announced to the crowd at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival it was her last show with the band and concluded: “I know about 75% of you by face, and I wanted my last show to be with my friends here at Falcon Ridge, not at some small club in some country I didn’t know anybody.” Solebello continues to perform as a solo artist and released her third solo album “Threshold”, in June 2011.

Molly Venter’s debut with the trio was on August 6, 2010 at the Lunenburg Folk Festival.

Text from abbiegardner.com & Wikipedia

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Nancy Wilson

Nancy Wilson (born February 20, 1937) is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist. She has received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".

Career

When Wilson met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested that she should move to New York City, believing that the big city would be the venue in which her career could bloom. In 1959, she relocated to New York with a goal of obtaining Cannonball’s manager John Levy as her manager and Capitol Records as her label. Within four weeks of her arrival in New York she got her first big break, a call to fill in for Irene Reid at "The Blue Morocco". The club booked Wilson on a permanent basis; she was singing four nights a week and working as a secretary for the New York Institute of Technology during the day. John Levy sent demos of "Guess Who I Saw Today", "Sometimes I’m Happy", and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960.

Wilson’s debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today", was so successful that between April 1960 and July 1962 Capitol Records released five Nancy Wilson albums. Her first album, Like in Love, displayed her talent in Rhythm and Blues, with the hit R&B song "Save Your Love for Me." Adderley suggested that she should steer away from her original pop style and gear her music toward jazz and ballads. In 1962, they collaborated, producing the album Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, which propelled her to national prominence, and Wilson would later appear on Adderley’s live album In Person (1968). Between March 1964 and June 1965, four of Wilson’s albums hit the Top 10 on Billboard‘s Top LPs chart. In 1963 "Tell Me The Truth" became her first truly major hit, leading up to her performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964 – the turning point of her career, garnering critical acclaim from coast to coast. TIME said of her, "She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller." In 1964 Wilson released what became her most successful hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am", which peaked at No. 11. From 1963 to 1971 Wilson logged eleven songs on the Hot 100, including two Christmas singles. However, "Face It Girl, It’s Over" was the only remaining non-Christmas song to crack the Top 40 for Wilson (#29, in 1968).

After making numerous television guest appearances, Wilson eventually got her own series on NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show (1967–1968), which won an Emmy.Over the years she has appeared on many popular television shows from I Spy (more or less playing herself as a Las Vegas singer in the 1966 episode "Lori," and a similar character in the 1973 episode "The Confession" of The F.B.I.), Room 222, Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, The Jack Paar Program, The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show (1966), The Danny Kaye Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Kraft Music Hall, The Sinbad Show, The Cosby Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Soul Food, New York Undercover, and recently Moesha, and The Parkers. She also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffith Show,The Tonight Show, The Arsenio Hall Show and The Flip Wilson Show. She was in the 1993 Robert Townsend‘s The Meteor Man and in the film, The Big Score. She also appeared on The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars and the March of Dime Telethon. She was signed by Capitol records in the late 1970s and in an attempt to broaden her appeal she cut the album Life, Love and Harmony, an album of soulful, funky dance cuts that included the track "Sunshine", which was to become one of her most sought-after recordings (albeit among supporters of the rare soul scene with whom she would not usually register). In 1977 she recorded the theme song for the The Last Dinosaur, a made for TV movie which opened in theaters in Japan.

In the 1980s, she recorded five albums for Japanese labels because she preferred recording live, and American labels frequently did not give her that option. She gained such wide popularity that she was selected as the winner of the annual Tokyo Song Festivals.

In 1982 she recorded with Hank Jones and the Great Jazz Trio. In that same year she recorded with Griffith Park Band whose members included Chick Corea and Joe Henderson. In 1987 she participated in a PBS show entitled Newport Jazz ‘87 as the singer of a jazz trio with John Williams and Roy McCurdy.

In 1982 she also signed with CBS, her albums here including The Two of Us (1984), duets with Ramsey Lewis produced by Stanley Clarke; Forbidden Lover (1987), including the title-track duet with Carl Anderson; and A Lady with a Song, which became her 52nd album release in 1989. In 1989 Nancy Wilson in Concert played as a television special.

In the early 1990s, Wilson recorded an album paying tribute to Johnny Mercer with co-producer Barry Manilow entitled With My Lover Beside Me. In this decade she also recorded two other albums, Love, Nancy and her sixtieth album If I Had it My Way. In the late 1990s, she teamed up with MCG Jazz, a youth-education program of the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, nonprofit, minority-directed, arts and learning organization located in Pittsburgh, PA.

In 1995, Wilson performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1997. In 1999, she hosted a show in honor of Ella Fitzgerald entitled Forever Ella on the A & E Network.

All the proceeds from 2001’s A Nancy Wilson Christmas went to support the work of MCG Jazz. Wilson was the host on NPR‘s Jazz Profiles, from 1996 to 2005. This series profiled the legends and legacy of jazz through music, interviews and commentary. Wilson and the program were the recipients of the George Foster Peabody Award in 2001.

Wilson’s second and third album with MCG Jazz, R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) (2005), and Turned to Blue (2007), both won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Awards and honors

In 1964, Wilson won her first Grammy Award for the best rhythm and blues recording for the album How Glad I Am. She was featured as a "grand diva" of jazz in a 1992 edition of Essence. In the same year, she also received the Whitney Young, Jr. Award from the Urban League. In 1998, she was a recipient of the Playboy Reader Poll Award for best jazz vocalist.

In 1986, she was dubbed the Global Entertainer of the Year by the World Conference of Mayors. She received an award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993; the NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award in 1998, and was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999. She received the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1994. Wilson received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990, at 6541 Hollywood Blvd. She received honorary degrees from the Berklee School of Music and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Wilson has a street named after her in her hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio. She co-founded the Nancy Wilson Foundation, which exposes inner-city children to the country.

Wilson was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships award in 2004, the highest honors that the United States government bestows upon jazz musicians. In 2005 she received the NAACP Image Awards for Best Recording Jazz Artist. She received the 2005 UNCF Trumpet Award celebrating African-American achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP in Chicago, and Oprah Winfrey‘s Legends Award.

In September 2005, Wilson was inducted on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Wilson was a major figure incivil rights marches of the 1960s. Wilson said, "This award means more to me than anything else I have ever received."

Times.com, August 20, 2006: "It’s been a long career for the polished Wilson, whose first albums appeared in the 1960s, and she faces that truth head-on in such numbers as ‘These Golden Years’ and ‘I Don’t Remember Ever Growing Up’. Shorter breathed these days, she can still summon a warm, rich sound and vividly tell a song’s story. With a big band behind her in ‘Taking a Chance on Love‘, she also shows there’s plenty of fire in her autumnal mood".

At the Hollywood Bowl, August 29, 2007, Wilson celebrated her 70th birthday with an all-star event hosted by Arsenio Hall. Ramsey Lewis and his trio performed "To Know Her Is To Love Her".

Text from Wikipedia 

Nancy Wilson + Carl Anderson at the Carnegie Hall (complete)

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Mable John

Mable John (born November 3, 1930) is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown’s Tamla label.

Biography

John was born in Bastrop, Louisiana. At a very young age, she and her parents moved to north across the state-line into Arkansas where her father got a job in a paper mill near the community of Cullendale. There four brothers (including R&B singer Little Willie John) and two sisters were born. In 1941, after her father was able to secure a better job, the family moved to Detroit, where two additional brothers were born. The family lived in a new housing development at Six Mile and Dequindre Road. She attended Cleveland Intermediate School, and then Pershing High School, which is at Seven Mile and Ryan Road. After graduating from Pershing High School, she took a job as an insurance representative at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, a company run by Berry Gordy‘s mother, Bertha. Later, she left the company and spent two years at Lewis Business College. She subsequently ran into Mrs. Gordy again, who told Mable that her son Berry was writing songs and was looking for people to record them. Gordy began coaching her and would accompany John on piano at local engagements. This continued until 1959, when John performed at the Flame Show bar on John R Street at the last show that Billie Holiday did in Detroit, just weeks before Holiday’s death.

The same year, John began recording for Gordy. First she was signed to United Artists, but nothing was released there. Eventually, she became one of the first artists signed to Tamla, Gordy’s own label. In 1960, she released her first Tamla single, "Who Wouldn’t Love a Man Like That?," a romantic blues number, to no success. John followed with "No Love" in June of that year and then with "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" by year’s end. While Motown was beginning to have success with acts like The Miracles and The Marvelettes (and later The Supremes, who had sung background vocals for John) that appealed to teenagers and young adults, it failed to make an impact in the established blues market. As a result, Gordy soon thinned out his roster of early blues artists. While John continued to be used as a background singer, Gordy dissolved her contract in 1962.

After leaving Motown, John spent several years as a Raelette, backing many Ray Charles hits. In 1966 she attempted a solo career again, signing with Stax Records. Her first single with the label was "Your Good Thing Is About To End." The song peaked at #6 on the R&B chart, and even managed to cross over onto pop radio, peaking at #95 there. She released six more singles for the label, none of which captured her first single’s success. After leaving Stax Records in 1968, John rejoinedThe Raelettes for several years. She left secular music in 1973, and began managing Christian gospel acts, occasionally returning to the studio as a singer.

John received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994. She appeared in John Sayles‘ 2007 movie Honeydripper.

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer- Mamie Smith

Mamie Smith (née Robinson) (May 26, 1883 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress, who appeared in several films late in her career. As a vaudeville singer she performed a number of styles, including jazz and blues. She entered blues history by being the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings in 1920. Willie "The Lion" Smith (no relation) explained the background to that recording in his autobiography,Music on My Mind

Musical career

On August 10, 1920, in New York City, Smith recorded a set of songs written by the African-American songwriter Perry Bradford, including "Crazy Blues" and "It’s Right Here For You (If You Don’t Get It, ‘Tain’t No Fault of Mine)", on Okeh Records. It was the first recording of vocal blues by an African-American artist, and the record became a best seller, selling a million copies in less than a year. To the surprise of record companies, large numbers of the record were purchased by African Americans, and there was a sharp increase in the popularity of race records. Because of the historical significance of "Crazy Blues", it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994, and, in 2005, was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

Although other African Americans had been recorded earlier, such as George W. Johnson in the 1890s, they were African-American artists performing music which had a substantial following with European-American audiences. The success of Smith’s record prompted record companies to seek to record other female blues singers and started the era of what is now known as classic female blues. It also opened up the music industry to recordings by, and for, African Americans in other genres.

Smith continued to make a series of popular recordings for Okeh throughout the 1920s. In 1924 she made three releases for Ajax Records which, while heavily promoted, did not sell well. She also made some records for Victor. She toured the United States and Europe with her band "Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds" as part of "Mamie Smith’s Struttin’ Along Review". She was billed as "The Queen of the Blues". This billing of Mamie Smith was soon one-upped by Bessie Smith, who called herself "The Empress of the Blues." And like Bessie did, Mamie too found that the new mass medium of radio provided a way to gain additional fans, especially in cities with predominantly white audiences. For example, she and several members of her band performed on KGW in Portland OR in early May 1923, and she earned very positive reviews.

Various recording lineups of her Jazz Hounds included (from August 1920 to October 1921) Jake Green, Curtis Moseley, Garvin Bushell, Johnny Dunn, Dope Andrews, Ernest Elliot, Porter Grainger, Leroy Parker, Bob Fuller, and (June 1922-January 1923) Coleman Hawkins, Everett Robbins, Johnny Dunn, Herschel Brassfield, Herb Flemming, Buster Bailey Cutie Perkins, Joe Smith, Bubber Miley and Cecil Carpenter.

While recording with her Jazz Hounds, she also recorded as "Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Band", comprising George Bell, Charles Matson, Nathan Glantz, Larry Briers,Jules Levy, Jr., Joe Samuels, together with musicians from the Jazz Hounds, including Coleman, Fuller and Carpenter.

Film career and later years

Mamie Smith appeared in an early sound film, Jailhouse Blues, in 1929. She retired from recording and performing in 1931. She returned to performing in 1939 to appear in the motion picture Paradise in Harlem produced by her husband Jack Goldberg. She appeared in further films, including Mystery in Swing, Sunday Sinners(1940), Stolen Paradise (1941), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), and Because I Love You (1943). She died in 1946, in New York.

Text from Wikipedia 

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Man, What A Pair

Muddy Waters & Howlin’ Wolf

Image found at beatnikdaddio

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singers – Those Lovely Dirty Old Blues & Jazz Pioneers

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Johnny Winter: Blues musician who inspired John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards dies aged 70

Blues musician Johnny Winter died the day before yesterday (16 July) in his Zurich hotel room at the age of 70.

His wife, family and bandmates are all saddened by the loss of their loved one and one of the world’s finest guitarists," it read. "An official statement with more details shall be issued at the appropriate time."

He had been on an extensive tour that included Europe. He did his final performance on Saturday (12 July) at the Lovely Days Festival in Wiesen, Austria.

Born 23 February 1944, Winter went onto inspire musicians such as John Lennon, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger – all of whom wrote songs in celebration of him. He also helped revive the careers of the legendary Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker through his collaborations.

Johnny Winter and Janis Joplin

Winter began his recording career at the age of just 15 with his band Johnny And The Jammers, when he released “School Day Blues”. His big break came in December 1968 when Mike Bloomfield invited him to sing and play a song at a Bloomfield and Al Kooper concert in New York. Representatives from Columbia Records attended the gig and signed him in what was then the biggest advances in the history of the recording industry – $600,000.

James Cotton – Johnny Winter – Muddy Waters

In addition to his own performing career, he is known for his work with Muddy Waters – his childhood hero. Winter created three lucrative albums for the musician; Hard Again (1977), I’m Ready (1978) and King Bee (1981). The partnership culminated in him wining three Grammy Awards. He was named 63rd best guitarist ever by Rolling Stone magazine.

Text from The Indipendent

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Beth Hart

Beth Hart (born January 24, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. She rose to fame with the release of her 1999 single "LA Song (Out of This Town)" from her second album Screamin’ for My Supper. The single was a number one hit in New Zealand, as well as reaching top 5 on the US Adult Contemporary and number 7 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 Chart. The song also aired during Episode 17 of the 10th and final season of Beverly Hills, 90210. Beth also delivered music to the end-scene of the last episode of "Californication" season 6, with "My California", Subsequent albums namely "Seesaw" and "Live In Amsterdam" by Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa, achieved number 1 status on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. Beth’s last release "Bang Bang Boom Boom" rose to number 3 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart, as well as the album "Don’t Explain" by Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa. The album "Seesaw" rose to number 8 on the Billboard Top Independent Album Chart. Beth Hart has had two number 1 singles in Denmark "As Good As It Gets" and "Learning To Live", as well a platinum selling album "Leave The Light On". Beth’s first album with Joe Bonamassa, "Don’t Explain", went gold in The Netherlands. Beth in 2014 was nominated for a Grammy award with the album "Seesaw" and she was also nominated for a Blues Music Award in the category Best Contemporary Blues Female Artist.

Early career

While playing the Los Angeles clubs, she enlisted bassist Tal Herzberg and guitarist Jimmy Khoury. In 1993, Hart appeared on Ed McMahon‘s Star Search several times, ultimately winning the Female Vocalist competition for that season.

Beth Hart and the Ocean of Souls was recorded in 1993. It includes "Am I the One" and a pop-rock cover of the Beatles’ "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Hart released her album Immortal with her band Beth Hart Band in 1996.

Screamin’ for My Supper: Career breakthrough

Her next album, Screamin’ for My Supper (Atlantic, 1999), featured "LA Song (Out of This Town)", a #1 hit in New Zealand and a top 5 Adult Contemporary chart hit. At the same time, Hart was singing the lead role in Love, Janis, an off-Broadway musical based on Joplin’s letters home to her mother.

Leave the Light On, live album and 37 Days

Hart’s Leave the Light On was released in 2003. Hart followed this up with her live album Live at Paradiso in 2005. Her fourth solo studio album 37 Days was released in Europe in July 2007.

"Learning to Live" was used as the theme song to Losing It With Jillian on NBC.

Text from Wikipedia

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Teresa James

Originally from Houston, Texas, Teresa is based in Los Angeles where she has assembled a group of some of the top LA based touring and session musicians in her band, The Rhythm Tramps. They have been working in the LA area and at blues festivals and clubs throughout the US and Europe for many years. For the last 12 years, the band has also been a favourite on Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches Blues Cruise.

She has released 8 CDs  – her most recent, COME ON HOME, was released in August, 2012 and has been getting regular airplay on stations around the world and charting for weeks at a time on the Roots Radio Charts (topping off at the #3 spot). It has been listed on many ‘best of’ lists for 2012 and has been receiving raves reviews from writers and DJs everywhere.

Her 2008 release, THE BOTTOM LINE, garnered her a nomination by the Blues Foundation for Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year and her 2010 CD, YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT,was a finalist for an Independent Music Award (IMA).

She has performed live with such legendary artists as Levon Helm, Delbert McClinton, Eric Burdon, Marcia Ball, Tommy Castro, Big Al Anderson, Kirk Whalum, and many others. Her voice is featured on albums by Randy Newman, Eric Burdon, Tommy Castro, Bill Medley, and Walter Trout, among others. She has also sung for television and movie soundtracks; She and her band were featured in the Disney movie and soundtrack for “HOLES“.

Teresa’s band is an eclectic mix of Los Angeles based musicians who have worked with a wide range of artists including: Jimmy Reed, Eric Burdon, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, Was Not Was, Johnny Nash and many, many others.

Text from teresajames.com

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Janis Joplin Cutting “Piece of My Heart”

Photographer Daniel Kramer captures Janis Joplin cutting her 1968 hit “Piece of My Heart” in New York. “Janis wanted a bottle of Southern Comfort, so I accompanied her to a local wine store, then she did a few takes,” he recalls. “It was an empty studio, there was no stage or audience, no one to work to — yet she was just incredible.”

Image and text: THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM FOR EVERYTHING ROOTS AND BLUES

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Sippie Wallace

Sippie Wallace (born as Beulah Thomas, November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986) was an American singer-songwriter. Her early career in local tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by herself or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas. Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith.

In the 1930s, she left show business to become a church organist, singer, and choir director in Detroit, and performed secular music only sporadically until the 1960s, when she resumed her career. Wallace was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1982, and was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Biography

Wallace was born in Plum Bayou, Arkansas, one of 13 children, and later moved with her family as a child to Houston, Texas. In her youth Wallace sang and played the piano in Shiloh Baptist Church, where her father was a deacon, but in the evenings the children took to sneaking out to tent shows. By her mid-teens, they were playing in those tent shows. By performing in the various Texas shows, she built a solid following as a spirited blues singer.

Wallace came from a musical family: her brother George W. Thomas became a notable pianist, bandleader, composer, and music publisher; her other brother Hersal Thomas was a pianist and composer; and her niece (George’s daughter) Hociel Thomas was a pianist and composer.

Career

After following her brothers to Chicago in 1923, Wallace worked her way into the city’s bustling jazz scene. Her reputation led to a recording contract with Okeh Records in 1923. Wallace’s first recorded songs, "Shorty George" and "Up the Country Blues", the former written with her brother George, sold well enough to make Wallace a blues star in the early 1920s. Other successful recordings followed, including "Special Delivery Blues" (with Louis Armstrong), "Bedroom Blues" (written by George and Hersal Thomas), and "I’m a Mighty Tight Woman". Her younger brother Hersal died of food poisoning in 1926 at age 16.

Wallace moved to Detroit in 1929. Her husband Matt and brother George both died in 1936. Wallace for some 40 years was a singer and organ player at the Leland Baptist Church in Detroit. Mercury Records reissued "Bedroom Blues" in 1945. Aside from an occasional performance or recording date, Wallace did little in the blues until she launched a comeback in 1966 after her longtime friend Victoria Spivey coaxed her out of retirement and on the folk and blues festival circuit.

In 1966 Wallace recorded an album on Halloween night, Copenhagen, Denmark, Women Be Wise, with Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery sharing the piano stool. Another 1966 album Sings the Blues, on the latter song, Wallace accompanied herself on piano; otherwise she is backed by either Roosevelt Sykes or Little Brother Montgomery on piano. Includes Wallace’s signature song, "Women Be Wise", "Don’t Advertise Your Man". The album helped inspire blues-pop singer Bonnie Raitt to take up the blues in the late 1960. In 1971 Raitt recorded a rendition of Sippie Wallace’s "Women Be Wise" on her self-titled album Bonnie Raitt. Wallace toured and recorded with Raitt in the 1970s and 1980s, while continuing to perform on her own. The bond between Wallace and Raitt helped bridge the gap between two generations of blues queens.

Wallace recorded on Louis Armstrong album, Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers (1966), singing "A Jealous Woman Like Me", "Special Delivery Blues", "Jack O’Diamond Blues", "The Mail Train Blues" and "I Feel Good". Wallace also recorded an album of old blues standards with her friend Victoria Spivey, called Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, which came out in 1970 on Spivey’s own self-named label. In 1981, Wallace recorded an album Sippie for Atlantic Records, which earned a her a 1983 Grammy nomination, and also won the 1982 W. C. Handy Award for Best Blues Album of the Year. Wallace’s backup group on were pianist Jim Dapogny’s Chicago Jazz Band, consisting of cornetist Paul Klinger, trombonist Bob Smith and Russ Whitman and Peter Ferran on reeds.

In 1966 and 1967 she appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival, e.g. Copenhagen, Denmark in 1966, the Chicago Blues Festival, 1967, the Ann Arbor Blues Festival, 1972, and appeared at Lincoln Center in New York, 1977. She played herself in the documentary Jammin’ with the Blues Greats (1982).

On July 22, 1982 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Sippie shared the stage with the King of the Blues, B.B. King, which was filmed and later broadcast.

Then in Ann Arbor, Michigan she got together with German boogie woogie pianist Axel Zwingenberger, with whom she recorded a studio album in 1983. Wallace included many of her own groundbreaking compositions as well as other classic blues songs, on his album, And the Friends of Boogie, Vol. 1: Sippie Wallace, released in 1984. In 1984 she traveled to Germany to tour with Zwingenberger, where they also recorded the only complete live album she ever did: An Evening With Sippie Wallace for Vagabond Records.

Text from Wikipedia 

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Bedroom blues Sippie Wallace Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1925-1945) 1945 ? Classic Female Blues

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Dead drunk blues Sippie Wallace Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1925-1945) 1925 ? Classic Female Blues

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

I’m a mighty tight woman Sippie Wallace  Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1925-1945) 1927  ? Classic Female Blues

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I’m Beyond Salvation

I’ve been listening to Afro-American music for nearly 50 years. And worst, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it – Ted

BLACK HISTORY IN IMAGES: New Orleans in 1960 was sharply divided over the practice of segregation, and the “Citizens’ Council of Greater New Orleans” advocated some pretty silly stuff, including a protest against black musicians. Please share so we may never forget! Image and text from BlackPast.org

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Camille Howard

Camille Howard (March 29, 1914 – March 10, 1993) was an American R&B pianist and singer.

Howard was born in Galveston, Texas. When in California in the 1940s, she became the featured piano player with Roy Milton’s Solid Senders, playing on all their early hits on the Juke Box and later the Specialty record label, including "R. M. Blues" (1946).

After that record‘s success, she featured on more of Milton’s records, occasionally as singer. Record label head Art Rupe also began recording her as a solo artist, with her biggest hit coming with "X-Temporaneous Boogie".

She continued to record successfully in the early 1950s, but the growth of rock and roll and her own religious convictions ended her career.

Howard died in Los Angeles in March 1993

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

The Boogie And The Blues  Camille Howard  Rock Me Daddy Vol. 1  ? 2006 Blues Jazz, Jump Blues, Early R&B

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Rock Me Daddy Camille Howard   Rock Me Daddy Vol. 1 ? 2006 Blues Jazz, Jump Blues, Early R&B

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

The Mood I’m In Camille Howard  Rock Me Daddy Vol. 1 ? 2006 Blues Jazz, Jump Blues, Early R&B

The cd is a 25-song reissue of her 1947-52 Specialty material, about half previously unreleased. Includes "You Don’t Love Me" and "Money Blues," but not the chart hits "Fiesta In Mexico" and "XTemporaneous Boogie." Perhaps too suave and refined for the R&B/rock era, and as comfortable with jazzy ballads as boogies, Howard was nonetheless an important, and nowadays overlooked, star of the transitional era between jump blues and R&B.

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This Weeks Favourite Female Singer – Katie Webster

Katie Webster (January 11, 1936 – September 5, 1999), born Kathryn Jewel Thorne, was an American boogie-woogie pianist.

Career

Webster was initially best known as a session musician behind Louisiana musicians on the Excello and Goldband record labels, such as Lightnin’ Slim and Lonesome Sundown. She also played piano with Otis Redding in the 1960s, but after his death went into semi-retirement.

In the 1980s she was repeatedly booked for European tours and recorded albums for the German record label, Ornament Records. She cut You Know That’s Right with the band Hot Links, and the album that established her in the United States; The Swamp Boogie Queen with guest spots by Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray. She performed at both the San Francisco Blues Festival and Long Beach Blues Festival.

Webster suffered a stroke in 1993 while touring Greece and returned to performing the following year. She died from heart failure in League City, Texas, in September 1999.

Text from Wikipedia 

 

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Two-fisted mama  Katie Webster  Deluxe Edition 1999 1999  Swamp blues/Boogie Woogie

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Katie’s Boogie Woogie Katie Webster  I Know That’s Right 1987 1987 Swamp blues/Boogie Woogie

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

A little meat on the side  Katie Webster  No Foolin’ 1991 1991 Swamp blues/Boogie Woogie

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Melissa Martin

Philadelphia based Melissa Martin is one of today’s leading Blues and Swing vocalists. Long-time leading lady of the blues, Melissa’s voice and performance simmer irresistibly. Equally adept at Rockin’ Jump Blues, Drivin’ R&B and Jazzy torch ballads, Melissa Martin and her Mighty Rhythm Kings lay it down and thrill crowds from the first downbeat to the final encore. Etta James biographer Vince White pens, “Melissa Martin has all three S’s, she’s sexy, sassy, and soulful.” “Her pipes truly have a wealth of soaring thrill… like honey spiked with whiskey, sweet and bracing all at the same time.” adds Blueswax Magazine.

In addition to thrilling vocals, a typical Mighty Rhythm Kings performance spotlights a top-notch crew of versatile musicians, Gutbucket Blues? Check, Sophisticated Swing? Check, New Orleans two-step? Check, Boogie Woogie piano? Check, Smoldering R&B? Got It, Deep Rockin’ Roots of all sorts?… it’s in there. Arriving on the Philadelphia scene in 1995, Melissa formed the Mighty Rhythm Kings with a like minded group of blues enthusiasts. They proceeded to rock the house all up and down the East Coast, playing clubs, festivals, dance societies, house parties, and concerts. They were the right band at the right time, landing smack dab in the middle of the Swing revival.

Their debut CD “On The Mark” was recorded and released in 2003, drawing rave reviews world wide. “A sparkling and often downright splendid debut CD…the rhythms are tight, the solos are solid as a rock…every song is slicked up and polished like a treasure.

Text from last.fm

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Send me to the ‘lectric chair   Melissa Martin & The Mighty Rhythm Kings   Lucky Girl  2009 2009 Gutbucket Blues, Sophisticated Swing and more

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

How can I sing the blues Melissa Martin & The Mighty Rhythm Kings  Lucky Girl 2009 2009 Gutbucket Blues, Sophisticated Swing and more

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Everything I do is wrong Melissa Martin & The Mighty Rhythm Kings   Lucky Girl 2009 2009 Gutbucket Blues, Sophisticated Swing and more

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

Her best-known recordings include "Dinah," "Stormy Weather," "Taking a Chance on Love," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time," "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky," as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. She is also the first African American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962.

Career
After her start in Baltimore, Waters toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious." Despite her early success, she fell on hard times and joined a carnival, traveling in freight cars along the carnival circuit and eventually reaching Chicago. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival and recalled, "the roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I’d grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental and loyal to their friends and co-workers." She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, where she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that Waters not compete in singing blues opposite her. Waters conceded and sang ballads and popular songs. Around 1919, Waters moved to Harlem and there became a celebrity performer in the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s.

Waters obtained her first Harlem job at Edmond’s Cellar, a club that had a black patronage. She specialized in popular ballads and became an actress in a blackface comedy called Hello 1919. Jazz historian Rosetta Reitz points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921, Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record, on the tiny Cardinal Records label. She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass."

She recorded with Black Swan from 1921 through 1923. In early 1924, Paramount bought the Black Swan label, and she stayed with Paramount through that year. Waters first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925, achieving a hit with her voicing of "Dinah", which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Soon after, she started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924, Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the "white time" Keith Vaudeville Circuit, a traditional white-audience based vaudeville circuit combined with screenings of silent movies. They received rave reviews in Chicago and earned the unheard of salary of US$1,250 in 1928. In 1929, Waters and Pearl Wright arranged the unreleased Harry Akst song "Am I Blue?," which then appeared in the movie On with the Show and became a hit and her signature tune.

Although she was considered a blues singer during the pre-1925 period, Waters belonged to the vaudeville style of Mamie Smith, Viola McCoy, and Lucille Hegamin. While with Columbia, she introduced many popular standards including "Dinah," "Heebie Jeebies," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Someday, Sweetheart," "Am I Blue?" and "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue" on the popular series, while she continued to sing blues (like "West End Blues," "Organ Grinder Blues," etc.) on Columbia’s 14000 race series. During the 1920s, Waters performed and was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington. She remained with Columbia through 1931. She then signed with Brunswick in 1932 and remained until 1933 when she went back to Columbia. She signed with Decca in late 1934 for only two sessions, as well as a single session in early 1938. She recorded for the specialty label "Liberty Music Shops" in 1935 and again in 1940. Between 1938 and 1939, she recorded for Bluebird.

In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President, which featured then-child performer Sammy Davis Jr. as Rufus Jones. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she "sang ‘Stormy Weather’ from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated." She had a featured role in the wildly successful Irving Berlin Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman in an otherwise white show. She had three gigs at this point; in addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway at that time. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success.

She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky, under the direction of Elia Kazan, after original director, John Ford, quit, due to his disagreements with Waters. According to producer Daryl Zanuck, Ford "hated that old…woman (Waters)." Ford, Karzan stated, "Didn’t know how to reach Ethel Waters." Kazan later referred to Water’s "Truly odd combination of old-time religiosity and free-flowing hatred.". In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding” In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah, but quit after complaining that the scripts’ portrayal of blacks was "degrading." She later guest starred in 1957 and 1959 on NBC’s The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the 1957 episode, she sang "Cabin in the Sky."

Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and had difficulties with the IRS. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow with Charles Samuels, in which she wrote candidly about her life. She explains why her age has often been misstated: her mother had had to sign a paper claiming Waters was four years older than she was, and that she was born in 1896. His Eye is on the Sparrow was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson. In her second autobiography, To Me, It’s Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1900. Rosetta Reitz called Waters "a natural … [Her] songs are enriching, nourishing. You will want to play them over and over again, idling in their warmth and swing. Though many of them are more than 50 years old, the music and the feeling are still there."

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Harlem on my mind Ethel Waters  The Chronological Ethel Waters 1933 -1938 1933 1999 blues/Jazz

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Trade Mark Ethel Waters The Chronological Ethel Waters 1933 -1938 1938 1999 blues/Jazz

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

Jeepers Creepers Ethel Waters  The Chronological Ethel Waters 1933 -1938 1938 1999 blues/Jazz

Title: Artist: Recording: Recorded: Released: Genre:

St Louis Blues Ethel Waters  The Chronological Ethel Waters 1946-1947 1947 1999 blues/Jazz

Text from Wikipedia

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Hadda Brooks

Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002), was an American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, “Swingin’ the Boogie”, which she composed, was issued in 1945. She was billed as “Queen of the Boogie.” Highlights of her life included singing at Hawaii’s official statehood ceremony in 1959 and being asked for a private audience with Pope Pius XII.

Life and career
She was born Hadda Hapgood on October 29, 1916 and raised in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, by her parents, who had migrated to California from the South. Her mother, Goldie Wright, was a doctor and her father, John Hapgood, a deputy sheriff. Her grandfather, Samuel Alexander Hopgood (October 22, 1857 – November 30, 1944), moved to California from Atlanta, Georgia, and proved to be an enormous influence on Brooks. He introduced her to theater and the operatic voices of Amelita Galli-Curci and Enrico Caruso. In her youth she formally studied classical music with an Italian piano instructor, Florence Bruni, with whom she trained for twenty years. She attended the University of Chicago, and later, returned to Los Angeles. She came to love the subtle comedy of black theater and vaudeville entertainer and singer Bert Williams. Brooks began playing piano professionally in the early 1940s at a tap-dance studio owned by Hollywood choreographer and dancer Willie Covan. For ten dollars a week, she played the popular tunes of the day while Covan worked with such stars as Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Shirley Temple. Brooks was married briefly during this period to a Harlem Globetrotter named Earl “Shug” Morrison in 1941. She toured with the team when they traveled. Morrison developed pulmonary pneumonia, however, and died about a year after they were married. It was Brooks’ only marriage.

Brooks actually preferred ballads to boogie-woogie, but worked up her style by listening to Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis records. Her first recording, the pounding “Swingin’ the Boogie,” for Jules Bihari’s Modern Records, was a sizable regional hit in 1945, and another R&B Top Ten with “Out of the Blue,” her most famous song. It was Jules Bihari who gave her the recording name Hadda Brooks. Clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman recommended Brooks to a film director friend of his who placed her in the film Out of the Blue in 1947. Encouraged by orchestra leader Charlie Barnet, Brooks practiced singing “You Won’t Let Me Go,” and the song became her first vocal recording in 1947. She usually played the small part of a lounge piano player in films, and often sang the title song. “Out of the Blue” became a top hit for Brooks, “Boogie Woogie Blues” followed in 1948, and she appeared in In a Lonely Place (1950) starring Humphrey Bogart, and in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas. Brooks became the first African-American woman to host her own television show in 1957. The Hadda Brooks Show, a combination talk and musical entertainment show, aired on Los Angeles’ KCOP-TV. The show opened with Brooks seated behind a grand piano, cigarette smoke curling about her, and featured “That’s My Desire” as her theme song. She appeared in 26 half-hour episodes of the show, which were broadcast live in Los Angeles and repeated on KGO in San Francisco. She commuted to Europe in the 1970s for performances in nightclubs and festivals, but performed rarely in the United States, living for many years in Australia and Hawaii. Following the 1984 release of Queen of the Boogie a compilation of recordings from the 40’s, two years later manager Alan Eichler brought her out of a 16-year retirement to open a new jazz room at the historic Perino’s in Los Angeles, after which she continued to play nightclubs regularly in Hollywood, San Francisco, and New York, to rave reviews.

In 1993, Brooks was presented with the prestigious Pioneer Award by Bonnie Raitt on behalf of the Smithsonian-based Rhythm and Blues Foundation, in a ceremony held at the Hollywood Palace. Brooks returned to movies with a cameo in Jack Nicholson’s film The Crossing Guard (1995), directed by Sean Penn, in which she sang “Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere.” Three years later she made another singing appearance in The Thirteenth Floor (1999). Her last performance on screen was an acting role in “John John in the Sky” (2000).

She resumed her recording career with the 1994 album “Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere” for DRG. Meanwhile Virgin Records had acquired the old Modern catalogue and because of Brooks’ new-found success issued a compilation of her 40’s and 50’s recordings entitled “That’s My Desire”. They also signed her to record three new songs for the Christmas album “Even Santa Gets the Blues,” made more unusual by the fact she had releases on the same label made 50 years apart. Her 1996 album for Virgin, “Time Was When,” featured Al Viola (Guitar), Eugene Wright (Bass) and Richard Dodd (Cello), and she wrote two of its songs: “You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Crazy” and “Mama’s Blues.” She began playing at hip nightclubs like actor Johnny Depp’s Viper Room, New York’s Algonquin Hotel Oak Room and Michael’s Pub and such Hollywood haunts as Goldfinger’s, the Vine St. Bar and Grill and the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill. She celebrated her 80th birthday by performing two full shows at Depp’s Viper Room.

In 2000, the Los Angeles Music Awards honored Hadda Brooks with the “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Hadda Brooks died at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles, following open-heart surgery at age 86.

In 2007, a 72-minute documentary, Queen of the Boogie, directed by Austin Young & Barry Pett, was presented at the Los Angeles Silver Lake Film Festival.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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More Audio Fun

Tittle: Let Me Down Easy Album: Bluesoul Belles: The Complete Calla, Port & Roulette Recordings Artist: Bettye LaVette – Released: 2005 Genre: Rhythm N’ Blues, Soul

Tittle: 40 Cups Of Coffee Album: Barrelhouse, Boogie & Blues Artist: Ella Mae Morse Released: 1954 Genre: Jazz/Blues vocal

Tittle: In The Basement, Part One Album: Down In The Basement (The Chess Years) Artist: Sugar Pie DeSanto Released: 1997 Genre: Rhythm N’ Blues/Blues vocal

Tittle: I’ve Got To Get Away From It All (Version 1) Album: Shades of Mitty Collier – The Chess Singles (1961-1968) Artist: Mitty Collier – Released: 2008 Genre: Rhythm N’ Blues vocal

Tittle: What Happened To The Real Me  Album: Only For The Lonely Artist: Mavis Staples  Released: 1970 Genre: Soul vocal

WordPress has a simple shortcode that places a music player right into your posts and thanks to some friendly e-mail coaching from Russ at Russ & Gary’s "The Best Years of Music" I am now able to use this code as you can see. If you are in any way interested in music from the days they knew how to make it their blog is a goldmine of sweet sound – Ted

From now on I’ll give you a little taste of my 3500+ records every now and then. Suggestions might be accepted if I should happen to have the track you want to hear – Ted

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This Week’s Favourite Female Singer – Shemekia Copeland

Shemekia Copeland (born April 10, 1979) is an American electric blues vocalist.

Career
Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is the daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland. She began to pursue a singing career in earnest at age 16, when her father’s health began to decline; he took Shemekia on tour as his opening act, which helped establish her name on the blues circuit. Copeland graduated in 1997 from Teaneck High School in Teaneck, New Jersey.

She landed a recording contract with Alligator Records, which issued her debut album, Turn the Heat Up! in 1998, following it up with a tour of the blues festival circuit in America and Europe. Her second album, Wicked, was released in 2000 and featured a duet with one of her heroes, Ruth Brown. It earned her three Blues Music Awards.

The follow-up record, Talking to Strangers, was produced by Dr. John, and in 2005 she released The Soul Truth, produced by Steve Cropper.

In 2008, Copeland signed with Telarc International, and released her first album, Never Going Back with that label in February 2009. She won the "Rising Star – Blues Artist" in Down Beat magazine’s critics poll announced in the December 2009 issue.

Copeland participated in the Efes Pilsen Blues Festival in 2009. On June 12, 2011 at the 2011 Chicago Blues Festival, Copeland was presented Koko Taylor‘s crown, and officially given the honor as the new "Queen of the Blues" by Koko Taylor’s daughter, Cookie Taylor.

In 2013, Copeland was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the Contemporary Blues Female Artist’ category.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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