Other Blues vocalists:

The Blues Singers (Female)
==================
Some of the ladies, who sang the blues:
[ Ida Cox ]
B: Toccoa, Georgia. 1889 D: Knoxville, TN, USA. 1967
Uncrowned "Queen of the Blues". A contemporary of Bessie Smith, Ida also toured with her own Tent Show Company. Ida is typical of those singers whose work is professional, but uninspired. Her Rhythm and pitch were good, but she lacked the subtlety and emotional drive that characterizes, say, a Bessie Smith.

She started recording for Paramount in 1923. When she recorded "Rambling Blues" in 1925, her husband Jesse Crump was the pianist and Tommy Ladnier was on clarinet. Ida was "discovered" in 1939 by John Hammond, who brought her to New York for his "Spirituals to Swing" concert. She suffered a stroke in Buffalo, NY in 1945, and in 1949 retired to her home in Knoxville, TN, where she died in 1967.

[ Leola "Coot" Grant ]
Was touring the negro vaudeville circuit in the
1920's with her husband Wesley "Kid Sox" Wilson. Leola was still active in the 1940's.

[ Bertha "Chippie" Hill ]
B: Charleston, SC, USA. 1905 D:
"Chippie" is probably the equal of any blues singer, past or present, but remarkably, remains little known today. She first toured with the Ma Rainey Vaudeville Show as a dancer, but later took to singing. The best known of all her blues is "Trouble in Mind" by Richard M. Jones.

In 1946, Chippie was re-discovered when Rudi Blesh found her working in a bakery. Her 1946 recording of "Around the Clock Blues" is interesting. It is a 16 bar blues with AABA form, played by authentic New Orleans musicians such as Baby Dodds (drums); Lovie Austin (piano) and John Lindsay on Bass.

[ Alberta Hunter ]
Memphis, TN, USA. 1895 to 1984
This '20's blues singer was still popular in the 1970's. She was singing in a restaurant club in New York's Greenwich Village.

[ Sara Martin ]
Louisville, KY, USA. 1884 to 1955
A fine vaudeville act, her piano accompanist was Clarence Willians, later known as a songwriter, band-leader, and music publisher.

[ Lizzie Miles ]
She had some records released in England in 1923.
Listen to Lizzie singing "Saltydog"

Other Blues vocalists drawn from Black Vaudeville circuits were:
Victoria Spivey of Houston, TX, 1900 to 1976
Edith Wilson of Louisville, KY, 1906 to 1981
Sippie Wallace of Houston, TX 1898 to 1986
Lucille Hegamin of Macon, GA, 1894 to 1970 ("Harlem's Favorite")

[ Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and her Rabbit's Foot Minstrels ]
======================================
Called 'The Mother of the Blues'.
Often billed as Madam Rainey or sometimes as Ma Rainey, when she toured the mid-west and southern vaudeville circuits. She also toured with her own "Rabbit's Foot Minstrels" group. The "Minstrels" included: Al Wynn on trombone; Eddie Pollack, sax; Gabriel Washington, drums; Dave Nelson, (King Oliver's Nephew); and Thomas A. Dorsey on piano. In the late '20's, Dorsey cut some records on his own under the name of "Georgia Tom", and later, he became a gospel song writer. "Ma" always appeared on stage wearing a headband with an Eagle on it. It was her show's trademark. The stage backdrop would also have an Eagle picture on it.

There were a number of blues shouters named Smith, none of whom were related to each other. Trixie Smith; Mamie Smith; Clara Smith and Laura Smith were some, to name a few.

[ Trixie Smith ]
"The Southern Nightingale"
Atlanta, GA, USA. 1895 to 1943
Curiously, she is forgotten today, and her records have disappeared. Her recording career ran from 1920 to 1931.

[ Bessie Smith ]
===========
B: TN, USA. 1895. D: Memphis, TN, USA. Sept. 1937
Maybe the most famous of the early blues shouters, she was given the title of "Empress of the Blues". She was quite popular on the Negro Vaudeville circuit, throughout the 1920's. Heavy drinking markedly shortened her career. In 1937, Bessie was in an automobile accident and died on the way to a southern hospital.

A reader, "Kid Dutch" Uithoven, has noted that an old, but persistent, rumor has her dying because she was refused admission to a southern hospital. "This is an old rumor and simply is not true. She bled to death before the attending physician could get her transported to the hospital. There was no refusal of admission based on race or anything else. Chris Albertson (Bessie's biographer) confirmed this with the physician involved and others who were there."

[ Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds ]
========================
B: 1893, Cincinati, OH, USA. D: 1946
Mamie Smith, "The First Lady of the Blues"
Remembered today as the first Black vocalist to make a 'blues' recording. Here's a great photograph of Mamie and the "Jazz Hounds", which was really a band formed and led by Johnny Dunn. But as in so many other long forgotten happenings, the truth is sometimes clouded. The band was probably part of a concept between Mamie Smith, composer Perry Bradford, and Johnny Dunn, and was no doubt formed specifically to back Mamie's act on her TOBA vaudeville tour. In the photograph, you can see Johnny Dunn playing his fiddle, that's Perry Bradford, at the piano, -and do you recognize that "kid" playing the tenor sax....that was a young Coleman Hawkins.

There is a false story in circulation regarding Mamie's recording of "Crazy Blues". It is said that in Jan. 1920, Victor brought Mamie to a recording studio, in place of the great White singer, Sophie Tucker, to cut a test disk of "That Thing Called Love", by Perry Bradford. A few months (Aug. 10) later she recorded her hit "Crazy Blues", the first vocal recording of a traditional 12 bar blues form. 800,000 copies were sold.

The truth is that composer Perry Bradford had convinced Okeh Records producer Fred Hagar to use Mamie in a recording of some of Bradford's songs. The recordings were made in a February 1920 session.

In 1922, among "her Hounds" one could hear a young trumpeter named Bubber Miley, and a 16 year old Coleman Hawkins blowing on his saxophone.

Some of the Male Blues Singers
=====================
[Blind Lemon Jefferson ]
B: Couchman (Nr. Wortham), TX, USA. 1897. D: Chicago, IL, USA. 1930
Lemon "Blind Lemon" Jefferson. Guitarist and singer.
Was singing for money in Wortham in 1911. In 1917 he moved to Dallas, TX, and became a wrestler, and also sang in the Dallas Red Light district, where he met Ledbetter (who was in prison most of the time that Blind Lemon was in Dallas). Blind Lemon toured To Mississippi; Alabama and Tennessee. In 1925, he went to Chicago and Recorded there from 1926 on. He died in Chicago in 1930. Influenced both Huddie Ledbetter and Josh White.

There are two good quotes on Blind Lemon:

      Before 1920,..Jefferson and Leadbelly had....
     "joined forces, and with Huddies mandolin and Lemon's guitar,
     made a good living in the saloon and redlight district of East
        Dallas." -- John and Alan Lomax (Folklorists.)

     "Lemon was fat, dirty, dissolute, but his singing was perhaps
     the most exciting country blues singing of the 1920's."
        -- Samuel B. Charters. "The Country Blues, (Rinehart)

[ Robert Johnson ]
B: Hazelhurst, MS, USA . May 8, 1911. D: Greenwood, MS, USA. Aug. 16, 1938
Called "King of the Delta Blues", Robert was an itinerant musician. Raised by his Mother, half-sisters and 2 step-fathers. As a young boy, he learned to play the harmonica. Sometime around 1930, Ike Zinnerman taught him to play the "bottleneck" guitar. (Ike was a popular performer at the local Church Suppers and Fish Fries around the Mississippi delta area.) Robert traveled as far as New York (Brooklyn), Canada, and Texas, where he made his recordings.

As a child, he was influenced by such bluesmen as Son House and Willie Brown. He died at only 28 years of age, but his work strongly influenced such singers as Sonny Boy Williamson; Muddy Waters; Howling Wolf and Junior Parker.

He died in 1938, in Greenwood, MS, when he drank some poison that was given to him by a female, who was probably the innocent accomplice of her jealous husband.

[ Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter ]
B: Morringsport, LA, USA. 1885. D: 1949
He was traveling and playing well before the 1920's in Texas and throughout the south. Often working with Blind Lemon Jefferson., whom he had first heard singing in the Dallas bordellos. Hudie served some long sentences in both Texas and Louisana Jails for violent crimes. He was the lead singer while in the prison work gangs. Pehaps his most famous song is "Good Night Irene". But, both "John Henry" and "Juliana Johnson" are examples of his 'work' songs that became popular.

When one listens to Huddie, you can clearly see the links between the much older Blues and the newer Jazz of New Orleans. Huddie died in 1949.

[ Sonny Terry ]
nee: Saunders Teddell
B: Durham, NC, USA. Oct. 24, 1911 D:
Mouth Organ and Vocalist. Became blind in 1924.
Brief Chronology:
1937. Recorded with Blind Boy Fuller.
1938 Appeared in NYC. "Spirituals to Swing" concert
Later teamed with Brownie McGhee.
1941 Appeared in B'way show "Finian's Rainbow"
'46-'47 Appeared in B'way show "Cat on a TIn Roof"
Then Toured internationally with Brownie McGhee:
1957 USA Tour
1958 Toured Britain and Continent
1959 Toured Europe
1959-60. Toured India.

[ T-Bone Walker ]
Currently No Information

THE BLACK TRADITION OF DIXIE IN CHICAGO
=============================
In 1917, Storyville was closed. Many musicians sought work elsewhere.
1918-1928 Armand J. Piron with Peter Bocage formed the A.J.Piron & his Novelty Orch., and played at Tranchina's Restaurant in Spanish Fort, on Lake Pontchartrain, LA.
1917 Joe Oliver called himself "King" Oliver and moved to Chicago in 1918.
1919-1924. Kid Ory worked in Los Angeles, Ca.
1919 Sidney Bechet was playing in London, Eng. (Earnest Ansermet heard him.)
1914/5 Alcide "(Kid) Yellow" Nunez formed the Louisiana Five in Chicago. They were playing in New York in 1915, and back in Chicago again in 1919.
1903 Jelly Roll Morton started traveling extensively.

All the following were working in chicago

[ Junie C. Cobb's Band ]
Playing at the Club Metropole in 1929. Orchs were larger and men had to be able to double up on different
instruments. Unknown Pianist; Rip Bennett, banjo; Eddie Atkins; William Hogan; Thomas "tick" gray; William Lyle; Bill Stewart; George Terrace; Henry Allen Junie C. Cobb, leader and a trumpeter, (who could also play clarinet, sax and banjo).

ca. 1922
[ Doc Cook & his Dreamland Orch. ]
Large for it's day - 14 men.
Freddie Keppard, Trumpet
Jommy Noone Clarinet
Johnny St. Cyr banjo
Andrew Hilaire, drums

[ Carroll Dickerson Orchestra ]
Toured the Pantages Vaudeville circuit with an band that consisted of Earl Hines, piano; trumpeters Willie Hightower and Natty Dominique; Honore Dutrey, trombone; Drummer Jack "Tubby" hall; M.Carr, banjo; D. Brown, Chas. Irwin and Ed. Brown on Reeds, the Leader was Carroll Dickerson on Violin.

[ Willie Hightower's Night Hawks Singing Orchestra. ]
Willie on Trumpet; 2nd trumpet; John Lindsay, Trombonist; Bert Cobb, sousaphone, who also played tuba with Oliver's Dixie Syncopaters. drums; banjo; a girl on piano; 3 reeds alternating with clarinets and saxes including bass sax and a Violin.

[ Earl Hines Orch ]
Came out of Pittsburgh in '25, played with Armstrong at the Sunset Cafe 1928 Formed his own band to play at the opening of the Grand terrace Ballroom His band lasted thru the swing era and beyond.

[ Frankie Jaxon ]
1895, Alabama, USA. d. 1944, USA.
Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, was the Leader (no instrument). At just age 15, Frankie was already working in medicine shows touring the eastern U.S. seaboard. His feminine voice and outrageous manner alwauys pleased the customers. Early on, he was a working as a female impersonator in Atlantic City , NJ, following which he relocated to Chicago, IL, finding work with such great Black bands as Joe "King" Oliver, and Freddie Keppard, and with various Jazz bands, passing through the city.

He was also a leading vaudevillian, touring with his own band. He would sometimes jump up on the top of the grand piano, baton in hand, while leading a band, that included (1925) Bob Schoffner, trumpet; Drummer Tubby Hall, and also piano; clarinet, and a sax. Frankie had the ability to move with, consumate ease, from Jazz band, to show 'biz', and Folk genres.

Frankie kept the band going even into the early 1930's. While he certainly worked with many of the New Orleans Jazzmen who had migrated to Chicago, most of the men on his own bands were from were recruited from Chicago's South Side.

Among his legacy recordings are those made with with "Cow Cow" Davenport, '"Tampa Red" and his Hokum Jazz Band', Bennie Moten, and later the 'Harlem Hamfats'. Listen now to the song "Wet It", (557 kb), played by "Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon and his Harlem Ham Fats", with the "Half-Pint" singing. Here's another tune "Willie The Weeper", (436 kb). with the "Half-Pint" again singing and leading his "Frankie Jaxon Orchestra".

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