Lorez Alexandria was a popular attraction for several decades. She sang gospel music with her family at churches starting in the mid-'40s and worked in Chicago nightclubs in the 1950s. With the release of several albums for King during 1957-1959, Alexandria became popular beyond her hometown, and by the early '60s she was living and working in Los Angeles. In addition to the King label, her earlier recording sessions were for Argo and Impulse, while her later albums were for Discovery and Muse. Despite a long period off records (only a few private recordings during the 1965-1976 period), Alexandria survived through the many changes in musical styles and could be heard in excellent form up until she retired in the mid-'90s. Not long after retiring, Alexandria suffered a stroke, and her health declined until her death in May 2001.
Cleo Brown performed in the Chicago area during the late 1920s. In 1935, she replaced Fats Waller on his New York radio series on WABC, and soon began recording. Her version of "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" was influential on pianists that came after her, and she is credited with being an early influence on Dave Brubeck, who played during the intermissions of her shows, and Marian McPartland, among others. Through the 1950s she worked frequently at that city's Three Deuces club, establishing a reputation as a two-fisted, driving pianist. Brown began to gain international renown for her work, and she continued to perform regularly in New York, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco until 1953, making records for Capitol Records and performing with the Decca All-Stars, among others.
Jerri Winters, born in 1930, was a singer from Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1948, she won top honours on Horace Heidt’s radio program and toured as a singer with the show. Later, she moved to Chicago, where she worked as a model and a dance instructor at Arthur Murray’s dance studio. In early 1952, she was selected from 500 contestants to join the Stan Kenton band, replacing June Christy. The search was sponsored by disc jockey Gene Norman in Hollywood. She recorded several songs with Stan Kenton, including "Adios", "All Because of You", and "She's a Comely Wench".
Lena Horne
Lena Calhoun Horne was born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. In her biography she stated that, on the day she was born, her father was in the midst of a card game trying...
Swell Dames is a weekly radio show on 3mdr-97.1fm that celebrates female singers of the 1930s, 40s, & 50s.
Born and raised in the historic gold boom center of Ballarat in Western Victoria, Australian Cosmic Country Queen Freya Josephine Hollick has mined a rich alluvial songwriting vein across 3 full-length albums including The Unceremonious Junking Of Me (2015), 2018’s Feral Fusion and most recently 2022’s The Real World.
As a young child cherry picking her dad’s hip 70’s record collection, Freya was exposed to the cosmic sounds of outliers like Townes Van Zandt, The Band and Gene Clark, authentic storytellers with pioneering spirit. The resultant contact high imbued Freya’s spirit, solidifying her desire to deal in that same brand of raw, heartfelt writing. With a voice that demands attention, and a rapidly developing craft, Freya found her resolve and her reason.
Music and song played an integral role in maintaining the morale of Allied troops and civilians during the Second World War as well as promoting the war effort at home and abroad. This week's show celebrates some of those songs and the artists that sang them.
Swell Dame - Ethel Ennis
There was a moment in 1965 when Ethel Ennis looked like the next big female vocalist in jazz. Ennis, who died Sunday (Feb. 17) at her Baltimore, Md., home of complications from a stroke, had a record contract with RCA, and she’d already performed with the likes of Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. She had a lustrous soprano and a nimble way around a lyric and a scat solo.
The stardom never came, and Ennis never regretted it. She gave up the international career and settled into her role as the jazz queen of her hometown, Baltimore. She continued to perform into her early eighties (she was 86 when she died). True, she never achieved the fame of fellow Baltimorean Billie Holiday, but she never suffered through drug addiction and bad marriages either. Who’s to say that’s a bad choice?
Joni Mitchell is one of the most highly regarded and influential songwriters of the 20th century. Her melodious tunes support her poetic and often very personal lyrics to make her one of the most authentic artists of her time. As a performer she is widely hailed for her unique style of playing guitar. Mitchell's unflinching struggle for her own artistic independence has made her a role model for many other musicians, and somewhat of a bane to music industry executives. She is critical of the industry and of the shallowness that she sees in much of today's popular music. Mitchell is also a noted painter and has created the beautiful artwork that appears on the packaging of her music albums.
Jazz singer Nancy Wilson, a three-time Grammy Award-winner, was born on February 20, 1937 in Chillicothe, Ohio to iron-worker Olden Wilson and the former Lillian Ryan, who worked as a domestic servant. Nancy was the first of six children. Her father's love of music and the records he played at home were a huge influence on Nancy as a young girl. She already knew she would be a singer by the time she was four years old, and developed her talent by singing in the church choir.
Born in New York in 1917, Syms first became interested in jazz through radio broadcasts of live shows on New York's famed 52nd Street, then also known as "Swing Street." As a teenager, too young and too poor to be admitted to the city's jazz clubs, she hid in coatrooms to listen to such greats as Art Tatum, Lester Young, Mildred Bailey, and the woman who would become her mentor and role model: Billie Holiday. Syms made her own debut in 1941, at a 51st Street club called Kelly's Stable. In 1946, she made her first recording, "I'm In the Mood for Love."