Music In, 2024, Batch 3

Featuring, some big collections from "black" female singers of the 1920s-1950s.

I was going to do a post of all the ("black") female singers I have discovered. I wondered, where are the "white" female singers?

OK, 1 of the 1st artists I discovered from the 1920s-1940s was Annette Hanshaw (1901-1985). I heard a song of hers ("would you like to take a walk") on NPR on the car radio waiting for someone at an airport. I remember the song from a Merry Melodies cartoon where a bear is singing the song trying to persuade prey animals to go for a walk with it (not in the video). I bought a CD of hers. I do 3 songs off of it:

1. "let's fall in love" 1933
2. "would you like to take a walk?" 1931
3. "i've got a feeling i'm falling", 1929

I think I read that she retired from music in the mid-late 1930s &, with her husband, purchased & managed an hotel in upstate New York. That's not in her wikipedia article, not sure where I got that from - probably the album notes. I gave the CD to my mother-in-law after I ripped it.

Interesting, "would you like to take a walk" was composed by Harry Warren, who had no playlist on the Jaz Dumoz YouTube channel. Turns out he wrote 5 of the songs in the Jaz Dumoz book. I have updated the metadata & given him the proper props. I did the same for a frequent lyricist of his Al Dubin.

Another "white" female singer, Ruth Etting (1896-1978), has furnished 2 intros to songs I do. She was played by Doris Day in the fictionalized biographical movie "Love Me or Leave Me", 1955. Songs we overlap on:

1. "all of me", 1931.
2. "whose honey are you?", 1935

I've run across Jo Stafford (1917-2008) too, but we seem to overlap on only 1 song, "i remember you", 1941.

A couple years ago, based on a recommendation of my friend & fellow performer Tom Cool (Yolton), I bought a couple of albums by Blossom Dearie (1924-2009), both reviewed in this blog. She was a great singer & pianist, but her singing style, very soprano and warbly, sadly approached being self-parody.

I think I was soured on "white" female early pop singers by Julie London (1926-2000). I loved her 1st album, "Julie Is Her Name", 1955 - I worked up "easy street" and "cry me a river" from that album - both hard songs, Barney Kessel guitar parts. But, I bought her 2nd album and her producers had had her do this very overly breathy ("sexy to somebody apparently") singing style, which I found very cheezy & offputting - it was way too close to self-parody. I'd forgotten about it, I was thinking about buying "Julie Is Her Name, Volume II", 1958, I listen to a track or 2, it is the breathy delivery, ugh.

She was a calendar/pinup girl during WWII. Also nurse Dixie McCall on the TV series "Emergency!", with her husband & arranger/ producer/ pianist/ songwriter (& composer of the song "(get your kicks on) route 66") Bobbie Troup, who played a doctor. Her 1st husband was Jack Webb of Dragnet & several equally execrable cop shows (and "Emergency!").

I've recently encountered some tune overlap with Peggy Lee (1920-2002) "i cover the waterfront". I think I might harvest some good tunes from her.

So when I do my post on early female pop singers, I will include all "races". I am undecided, should I mention the artist's "race"? The opportunies available to them were definitely affected by "race".

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That certainly was a long aside. On to Batch 3:

• Lake Street Dive, "Good Together", 2024, 11 tracks, BandCamp. Nice tunes, a couple may be a bit trite, but, this band is now 20 YO, & most of the tracks work. The duets between lead singer Rachel Price & the keyboard player since 2017 Akie Bermiss definitely work. I liked "Seats at the Bar", this was my wife & my dining strategy for decades. We now follow the old folks' canon of going out to eat dinner at 5:00 pm.

  4 stars. This song is a bit of a stretch, but I could so hear Donna Summer singing it: "Dance With a Stranger".

• Asher White, "Home Constellation Study", 2024, 11 tracks, BandCamp. Very high & trebly vocals, very unthreatening. Catchy tunes, great beats. 4 stars. Here's "Theme From Leaving Philadelphia":

• Una Mae Carlisle And Her Jam Band, "Irresistable Masterpieces (Live)", 1944, 5 tracks. I am so enamored of Una Mae - she died of cancer, age 40, in 1956, I was 5 YO.

  In late 1932, Fats Waller moved his family to Cincinnati, so he could perform on clear channel radio station WLW, which pretty much reached coast to cost. For his 1932 christmas show, he recruited 17 YO singer/pianist Una Mae Carlisle, from nearby Xenia OH, who had won a talent contest. She became a regular on the show through 1933. Una Mae was a force of nature. She tried to steal my review of the 1st Fats Waller biography I read.

  I recorded my 1st Una Mae song December 16, 2024: "t'ain't yours", a snarky, feminist manifesto, FTW! Meanwhile, of these 5 tracks, 4 stars, I will be working up 4 ("hangover blues" didn't make the cut): "i would do anything for you", "love walked in", "mean to me", and the 1st track "don't try your jive on me":

• Pond, "The Weather", 2017, 11 tracks. Recommended by my young friend Chris Cooper. Australian, the co-band of Tame Impala, a definite fav of mine. A lot of the same sound == production values. I realized that their musical DNA probably goes back to Electric Light Orchestra by way of The Flaming Lips. I was concerned when the 1st track had kind of whiny glam rock vocals, but the vocals got better. 4 stars. Here's the title track.

• Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "High and High and Mighty", 2024, 2 (long) tracks, BandCamp. As much as I am fan of this Louisville favorite son, I could not get traction with these 2 very long songs. 2 stars.

• Criibaby, "when i'm alone i feel weightless", 2024, 12 songs, BandCamp. I was having trouble finding videos because I missed the "ii" in the name. One of those internet things, lots of "crybaby" and "cribaby". Very chill, high vocals over laid back instrumentals. The website states, gender neutral. I have 2 earlier EPs, this is the 1st LP. 4 stars. Here's the title tune.

• Allysha Joy, "the Making Of Silk", 2024, 11 tracks, BandCamp. Apparently her 2nd album, I blogged her 1st here. Neo-Motown from Melbourne, OZ, but more jazzy & world overtones. Very good stuff, 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "your touch".

• "Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears", eponymous, 1944, 24 tracks. Ina Ray Hutton was a female singer, tap dancer, and band leader. She led bands with male members, but this album is mostly her and her Melodears - an all-female big band. Weird, she sure looks "white", but her Wikipedia article says she was listed as "mulatto" in the 1920 census & as "negro" in the 1930 census. Whatever. She knows how to swing. She was married 5 times. 4 stars. Here's "truckin'" - note, this was really a popular song, I also have recordings of it by Fats Waller, Adelaide Hall, Duke Ellington featuring Ivie Anderson, & Jaz Dumoz.

• "Jelly's Last Jam", from the Broadway musical, which was a vehicle for Gregory Hines? 1992, 22 tracks. Reading Fats Waller biographies turned up some references to Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), the New Orleans pianist who claims to have invented "jazz". This musical is somewhat of a biography, heavily themed around his denying he was "black" in favor of being "creole".

  Gawd, I so forgot how, for the last 4-5 decades, Broadway musicals have totally sucked. My wife & I were watching a movie about Bob Fosse which caused us to remember, we walked out of the theater 1/2-way through "Chicago" - we both got tired of waiting for a decent song. & we saw a production of "Hamilton" in Cincinnati, neither of us cared for it - so trite & formulaic. So, 2 stars for this album, & I will endeavor to remember, 0 love for Broadway musicals.

• Redeyes, "Slow", 2024, 11 tracks, BandCamp. I previously had 1 EP & 1 LP of theirs. Techno from Toulouse, France. This LP has lots of guest vocalists, a nice mix of tunes, all slow - the title was not a joke. 4 stars. Here's the last track, "Butterfly feat. Saint Harmony".

• James P. Johnson, "1921 - 1926 (Remastered)", 1926, 11 tracks. As I discovered in the 1st Fats Waller biography I read, James P. Johnson was Fats' mentor. He is considered "the father of Harlem stride piano". These songs are so easy to listen to. 4 stars. Although this blog has already linked to it, once again, here is his signature tune, "Carolina Shout":

• Kate Bollinger, "Songs From a Thousand Frames Of Mind", 2024, 11 tracks, BandCamp. It looks like I have 2 EPs of hers, this looks like her 1st LP. Laid back, dreamy female vocals over nice, catchy alternative rock tunes. I am, as always, a sucker for this stuff. Here's the cute 1st track, with what looks like the only "official video".

• Adelaide Hall, "A Centenary Celebration", 1945, 52 songs. I 1st encountered Hall in the Fats Waller biography: she brought Art Tatum to NYC as part of her band, where he blew away Fats Waller & his mentors James P. Johnson & Willie "The Lion" Smith.

  Her singing style is, soprano with LOTS of vibrato - warbly, maybe? So I load up these 2 CDs, start listening, the 1st 3 tracks ("creole love call", "this blues i love to sing", & "chicago stomp down") are all her scat singing in a soprano, warbly growl (with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1927-1928)?!?!? Somewhat reminiscent of a kazoo, which is definitely an instrument of which one needs only very small doses. I'm like, OMG, did I just buy 52 tracks of this? :-O

  But she does thereafter start singing more normally - if very high & warbly. Some of the songs are less warbly, & maybe more enjoyable to me.

  She moved to London in 1938 & never returned to the US. Included on these CDs are 2 tracks recorded in London in 1938 with her accompanied by Fats Waller on organ & smartass patter. She was definitely part of the crowd with which Fats hung out during his 1938 London soujourne.

  The album is historically interesting. There are BBC tracks in which she is introduced. There are a few short tracks recorded as promos for a German radio station.

  1 thing that was odd, she does "sophisticated lady", & does a 2nd verse & bridge with completly different lyrics than the canonical Ella / Sarah Vaughn version?!?!?

  So, 4 stars. Here's 1 of the tracks with Fats, "that old feeling":

  Quite a bit of music, FTW! Meanwhile, 12 albums in Q4 so far, 12 days left to go.