One of the most technically gifted and popular vocalists of the immediate postwar period, Jo Stafford effortlessly walked the line between breezy pop and the more serious art of post-big-band jazz singing. With the help of her husband, top-flight arranger and Capitol A&R director Paul Weston, Stafford recorded throughout the '40s and '50s for Capitol and Columbia. She also contributed (with Weston) to one of the best pop novelty acts of the period, a humorously inept and off-key satire that saw the couple billed as Jonathan & Darlene Edwards.
Lee Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma probably on October 10, 1908 – that’s what’s on her tombstone but she would have said 1915. She said that she was a Cherokee princess and had the nickname of “Pocahontas”. Lee Wiley was a tunesmith - like Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee
Lee Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma probably on October 10, 1908 – that’s what’s on her tombstone but she would have said 1915. She said that she was a Cherokee princess and had the nickname of “Pocahontas”. Lee Wiley was a tunesmith - like Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee
Betty Carter developed a legendary reputation, along with Art Blakey, as one of the great mentors for young jazz musicians. Equally legendary was her singing prowess, creating a distinctive style of improvisation that could transcend any song.
Jeri Southern, was a classically trained pianist who became a jazz-oriented vocalist in the 1950s, whose hit "You Better Go Now" proved the most successful of her several recordings. Born Genevieve Hering, on 5 August 1926, in Royal, Nebraska, Southern studied at the Notre Dame Academy, Omaha, and later played piano at the local Blackstone Hotel.
California is the main subject of some of the songs in this episode, but others simply mention something about the state such as a place, a street or highway, the weather, a person, or an attitude or lifestyle the state represents for the singer. Sit back and enjoy the silky subtleties of our swell dames as they pay homage to the Golden State.