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Jazz
The great ladies of jazz, accompanied by the greatest bands, singing the greatest songs of all time... this is a true musical feast, all the way from those legendary days of the 1930s and '40s.
If soul singer James Brown claimed with some justification that "This is a man's world", then the closeted confines of jazz were even more male-dominated. The abolition of slavery let America's black male population broaden its horizons, playing the music that became known as jazz in juke-joints, brothels and cabarets. But female emancipation would also be hard-won.
Whether black or white, the performers on this triple-disc set whose mainly 1940s heyday we sample, owe much to singers like Ma Rainey, Ida Cox and Bessie Smith, the ‘blues royalty' of two decades previously, for pushing open the door. Prior to their breakthrough, the most common musical outlet for black women had been the church, and even there females - whether singers or instrumentalists - had to prove themselves superior to their male counterparts in every respect to stand any chance of recognition.
Peggy Lee is often categorised as a jazz singer, but her appeal has always extended beyond the boundaries of the genre. The former Norma Delores Egstrom got her big break in Chicago in 1941 when Benny Goodman chose her to replace Helen Forrest at the head of his band. Her vocal style had been perfected during an early Palm Springs club engagement when she was daunted by the noise of the crowd. Singing in a low seductive purr, seemingly with the minimum of effort, both won the audience over and helped shape her future.
New Jersey-born Sarah Vaughan was also headhunted - this time by pianist and bandleader Earl Hines, whose band she joined in 1944. Teaming initially with fellow band member Billy Eckstine, she eventually went solo and wowed the world with vocal skill and control that rivalled that of an opera singer. A childhood spent both in the church and studying piano helped shape the performer she become, and the art of wordless scatting came naturally to her.
But when it comes to scatting, most would agree that Ella Fitzgerald reigns supreme. A taste for exuberant improvisation, an innate sense of swing and a three-octave vocal range gave the former dancer a place in jazz legend. Though many feel she reached her peak in the late 1950s/early 1960s, the selections here show evidence of early promise - notably ‘A-Ticket A-Tasket', an old nursery rhyme performed in swing style which put Ella on the musical map in 1938 after three years of recording.
Billie Holiday's early life, cleaning floors in a brothel, hardly suggested a star in the making - yet when she answered a sign in a nightclub window in an attempt to better herself, she opened the door to a bittersweet and highly influential career. The former Eleanora Fagan proceeded to take the 1930s scene by storm, assisted in no small measure by saxophonist Lester Young, the man who christened her Lady Day.
As is all too well documented, the pitfalls of stardom took their toll and she checked out of this world in 1959 - but not before bequeathing a breathtaking body of work often revived but never equalled.
Anita O'Day had unparalleled credibility among divas in the jazz world, having come up the hard way through the Depression working as a singing waitress in nightclubs and even, for two years, as a professional walkathon contestant. 1941 saw her fronting Gene Krupa's band (as she does on many tracks here), moving to Stan Kenton three years later.
But this diva was never going to be happy handling others' arrangements, and it was as a solo artist that she'd make her mark. Hugely popular in Japan, she battled substance abuse and major health problems to re-establish herself in the 1970s.
Unusually among our divas, Pennsylvania-born Maxine Sullivan was known as an instrumentalist as well as a singer. Her specialities were the flugelhorn and valve trombone. She began with the Red Hot Peppers, a local band led by her uncle, but made her name fronting Claude Thornhill's band. ‘Loch Lomond', the traditional song arranged by Thornhill, was a trademark tune.
After touring with Benny Carter's band in 1941, she teamed up for a long-term engagement with her then husband, bass-player John Kirby. She later turned her back on musical success, choosing to become a nurse, but would become a founder of a New York cultural centre, The House That Jazz Built.
Dinah Shore was one of the few top vocalists of the era not to serve an apprenticeship with one of the US big bands of renown despite auditioning for Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers. Nevertheless, Frances - she re-christened herself after winning her own 15-minute local radio programme with 'Dinah' as its signature tune - found a place in many a heart.
After moving to New York in 1938 she took a non-paying job in radio alongside the equally unknown Frank Sinatra. World War II saw her become the GIs' favourite, while a film career was launched in 1943. But the reason Dinah Shore's name is best remembered today is a television career that ran through to the mid 1960s and was resumed sporadically thereafter, winning her ten Emmy awards. The tracks on this set stem from the years 1940-42 when Shore was the premiere US female singer on records and radio.
Lena Horne transcended lowly beginnings to enjoy a long and successful career that continues into the present millennium. Her first selection 'Stormy Weather' is highly relevant to her rise, since it was a dressing-room rendition of that very song that persuaded singer Ethel Waters to take Lena under her wing.
Having been the Horne family breadwinner at 16, she soon acquired a family of her own and, by 20, was married with a daughter. But her feline approach, said to have inspired the like of Tina Turner, Shirley Bassey and Eartha Kitt, would take her far - and when Hollywood came calling she used the big screen to further her career despite encountering racial prejudice en route.
As the 1980s began, she returned to Broadway with a one-woman show, entitled Lena Horne: The Lady And Her Music. Our collection of ladies and their music is equally worthy of note. Each track here underlines the fact that jazz is emphatically not a strictly male preserve. Don't let James Brown - or anyone else - tell you otherwise!
Michael Heatley |
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