Dinah Shore, the quintessential American girl, was both America’s sweetheart in the 1940s and 1950s and a leading example of an independent woman in the 1970s. Her career spanned over forty years and included stints on the radio and in the movies. Her most enduring legacy, however, is her impressive vocal recordings and television shows.
One of the least regarded, but arguably the most talented of the many female pianist/vocalists who inhabited the West Coast during the 1940s, Mabel Scott was beautiful, elegant and classically trained, with a strong voice suitable for torchy ballads as well as uptempo jump novelties. And she was married, albeit briefly, to one of the major stars of 1940s black music. Small wonder, then, that she was not more commercially successful during her recording career - or more well-known today than she is.
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.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each...
War-era songstress Ginny Simms was born Virginia Simms on May 23, 1913, in Texas but was raised in California, which accounts for her lack of a Southern accent in her speaking/singing voice. Though she studied piano as a child, it was her vocal gifts that launched her career, which started when she formed a singing trio while studying at Fresno State Teachers College. Ginny was performing at a club in San Francisco when she was heard by bandleader/radio star Kay Kyser. She became his featured singer and the big attraction of Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, a comedy revue done in the style of a quiz show with music. They also became a romantic item. In addition to radio, she kept busy recording swing and pop albums.