Swell Dames # 138 – Nina Simone

Nina Simone
Nina Simone was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment.

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Swell Dames # 137 – Liz and Martha Tilton

Vocalist Liz Tilton worked with a number of orchestras during the big band era. Though never as popular as her older sister, Martha (pictured), she had a successful career from the late 1930s until the mid-1940s when she retired to married life. She briefly returned to singing in the early 1950s. Martha Tilton enjoyed her greatest renown during her two-year stint with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Featured on Goodman's smash rendition of the swing-era classic "And the Angels Sing," she was also the first non-classical vocalist to perform at Carnegie Hall.

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Swell Dames # 136 – Timi Yuro

Rosemary Victoria Yuro (Rosemarie Timotea Auro), professionally known as Timi Yuro, was an American singer and songwriter. Sometimes called "the little girl with the big voice," she is considered to be one of the first blue-eyed soul stylists of the rock era. According to one critic, "her deep, strident, almost masculine voice, staggered delivery and the occasional sob created a compelling musical presence." Yuro possessed a contralto vocal range.

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Swell Dames # 130 – Faye Adams

R&B/blues singer Faye Adams was born Faye Tuell in Newark, NJ, in 1925. As a young girl she and two of her sisters sang as The Tuell Sisters in churches in the Newark area and on a local radio station, where they were soon given their own gospel program. Faye eventually left the gospel genre for R&B and blues, and began getting jobs in New Jersey and New York nightclubs (after marrying musician Tommy Scruggs in 1942 she used the name Faye Scruggs). In 1952 she joined an R&B/blues band called Joe Morris' Blue Cavalcade, and recorded "I'm Gonna Leave You" for Atlantic Records in 1953. When the band's contract with Atlantic expired, she and Morris signed a contract with Herald Records, and she changed her name to Faye Adams. She recorded her best-known song, "Shake a Hand", for Herald in 1953, which went to #1 on the US R&B charts. Although she had a string of subsequent hits, including two more #1 songs, her career had faded by 1957. She left Herald that year and recorded for a succession of smaller labels, but none of her songs were as successful as her earlier hits. She eventually returned to New Jersey and got back into gospel music.

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