Obscure & Neglected Female Singers Of Jazz & Standards (1930s to 1960s)

As I continue to check the messages from the last few pages, I am noticing that we now have two reviews of this album, a serious and recent one by Toilet Doctor's, plus my earlier, tongue-in-cheek one from some months ago. Both are quoted above. Also above: a YouTube clip that plays almost the entire LP. To those who are unfamiliar with the album yet (and want to check it out), listen to at least three or four tracks, because there is more than one type of instrumentation and stylistic approach throughout.

In addition to the LPTime CD edition, described by Toilet Doctor, this album has been on CD two or three other times. Examples:





On vinyl, we have the US original LP & EP, of course. I have also seen a Japanese RCA vinyl reissue ("Vocal Original LP Collection" series) and an Australian version of the EP. There might have also been a reissue on Fresh Sound Records, although I have not found evidence of it.

 

Thank you for putting them together (I missed your post about Charlene Bartley in a first place).

(I used the photobucket site to post my photos, but soon they deleted them with a note that I can share my photos only if I receive unlimited storage for $ 399.00 per year. So, I switched to flickr.com).

I want to add that, despite of a very good 2013 remaster, CD still is damn CD-R:

 

Congratulations on your first baby from Mavis, .crystalised! (And by "baby" I mean album, of course.) As I already said in one of my posts above, I feel that her Reprise albums are great. The one you acquired is one of my favorites, along with Swing Along with Mavis and, on Capitol, The Simple Life. I also love a CD that she did in later years, It's a Good Day.






To my ears, the vocal similarity between Ella and Mavis is very pronounced. Indeed, while living in Samoa and New Zealand, the adolescent Mavis spent some of her time enthusiastically sampling Ella's music at local record stores. After Mavis came to the United States and started to record for Capitol, music critics and disc jockeys heard and commented on the influence, too. When the vocal similarity was pointed to her, Mavis said that she was "flattered" and that she considered it "an honor." (Naturally and rightfully, Mavis also pointed out that she had her own style.)

Asked as well about her favorite female singers, Mavis named not only Ella but also June Christy, Chris Connor, Irene Kral, Mary Ann McCall, and Sarah Vaughan.

I think that you were very discerning in noticing a Doris Day influence, .crystalised. I do not know if the critics ever mentioned it, nor am I certain that I had ever ever noticed it before. But, after you pointed it out, I re-listened to some of her vocals on Reprise, and yes, I most definitely and clearly heard it ... In her young years as a radio and concert singer, Mavis probably had to cover many American hits. She must have thus become well acquainted with Doris' internationally popular records.

Case in point: here is the young Mavis, covering, for the New Zealand/Australia market, one of Doris' big hits, "A Guy Is a Guy." Very Doris.

 

A little known detail about Ginnie or Ginny is that she had a very pronounced stammer. Fortunately, there was no trace whatsoever of it when she sang.

Starting around 40:20, you can catch her in the flesh here, wearing a nice gown and singing in her fine cool way:



Both Ginnie and Boyd died young, she at the age of 33 in 1959, he at the age of 52 in 1966. There are stories out there claiming that their respective deaths were tragic -- hers involving a freak accident while vacationing in Bermuda, his from complications following a car accident that kept the poor man trapped and overturned for a full day.

The alleged cause of death seems to be accurate in Boyd's case, but perhaps not in the case of Ginnie. According to their daughter Susan: "my parents moved us to Nassau in the Bahamas, where they were going to open a jazz club. Something fell apart - my dad's partner got robbed, I don't know what the hell it was. And then my mother contracted meningitis and died within a week. She was 33. I was 8, and my brother was 10."

The children have gone of to distinguished professional careers. Bruce Raeburn is an award-wiring music historian and jazz educator at Tulane University. Susan Raeburn is a clinical psychologist who specializes in chemical dependency, and who counsels musicians and other artists, in particular. (She believes that both parents had a bit of a drinking problem. "They were funny, smart, beautiful, and their friends tended to be really interesting characters. My dad drank too much, which is one reason I work with addictions. Drinking was a major part of whatever was happening. So it was a very mixed bag.")

Various elements must have combined to prevent Ginnie from having a successful (solo) career: the challenge to popular tastes that was the Raeburn orchestra, the call of married life, perhaps the public challenges posed by her stammering and, of course, her early death. I would have been interested in hearing how she would have developed vocally and stylistically, had she been able to move from the position of a big band canary to that of a popular singer. Her voice strikes me as pleasant, and her phrasing reminds me of the young, pre-Capitol June Christy who, perhaps not coincidentally, also sang with Raeburn.

As far as I know, there is only one full album dedicated to her:





In addition to Raeburn, James, and Barnet, she sang with Gene Krupa's band and recorded for Decca with Jery Wald's orchestra, too. You can also hear the assorted Ginny vocal in the several Raeburn albums of radio remotes that are out there. In some of those, she duets with the band's crooner, David Allyn (who is favorite of mine, and the reason why I first listened to Ginny).




The performance of "Body and Soul" that Ethan picked is not only one of the few of hers available at YouTube but also the one chosen by the prestigious Smithsonian Institute, for inclusion in this boxed set:

 

Thanks for going through the extra step of posting this clip on YouTube. Ditto for the clips featuring some of the other little-known singers that you've mentioned.

Anna Marie is brand new to me. I will probably try to track down her 10" LP. Although this particular vocal did not make me go wild with enthusiasm, I do want to hear how she approaches some of the other numbers. (At the time of this writing, the "Lonely Beat" website does not seems to be operating.)

"What More Can a Woman Do" is a number written by Peggy Lee, and first recorded by her. Sarah Vaughan, Audrey Morris, Big Maybelle, Mildred Anderson, and Georgia Carr are among the other singers who have covered it, all of them in a fairly distinctive manner. To my ears, Anna Marie's interpretation remained a bit too close to Peggy's original. Fortunately, though, the two voices are fairly different. Also, the ending of Anna Marie's interpretation is very different from Peggy's; that's the one aspect of Ann's interpretation that I really liked, and which will compel me to seek out the album. Thanks again.



P.S. I belatedly located her version of "Interlude." Nice. Anna Marie & The Bill Rubenstein Trio: Interlude .

 

That's a catchy version of "The Sweetest Sounds." Specially, the music -- that long intro.

I am not a huge fan of Helen O'Connell. She did tend to cultivate a high-pitch, vibrato-laden style. But I actually enjoy her singing in later years, when the once girlish voice took a darker, deeper tonality, which appeals to me.





While we are at it, here are a few other Cameo LPs featuring singers of standards:





Also, one of the Julie Wilson LPs that have been already mentioned.

 

Nice score! ... Just to answer your question, I should dutifully point out that we have previously discussed Abbe Lane, Ann Richards, Joya Sherrill, Mary Mayo, and Rhonda Fleming. Gale Storm has also been repeatedly brought up, but there has not been an in-depth discussion.

I have seen but don't have the Fran Lacey LP. Nor have I ever heard her sing ... util now. I'm currently listening to sample tracks right in YouTube. Pleasant romantic instrumentation.

I am another fan of that Dorothy Collins album. I would not hesitate to name it among the best Latin albums made by American pop singers. (Same goes for the Rosemary Clooney-Perez Prado Touch of Tabasco.)

I have no use, on the other hand, for Tamiko Jones. But maybe I should go dig up this Mann album in which she is featured, and have another listen. I only remember getting the thing, giving it just one spin, and promptly filing it away.

At some point, curiosity got the best of me and I got another Tamiko album, a solo one which I liked even less. I remember it best for its cover, in which Tamiko looks like a psychedelic bat. ("Groove is in the heart" says Dracula's bloody daughter.)

Ah, found it:





Well, she's flexible.

Of the other artists who have not been covered yet, my attention gravitates toward Carol Ventura, a talented singer whose later years were perhaps very sad.

This Newark-born lady replaced Keely Smith in Louis Prima's orchestra (after Keely left the picture, of course). She came from a musical family. Her father was a vaudeville performer, her mother a singer, her brother a drummer. Carol did her singing apprenticeship by working with a few bands, including Charlie Spivak's. Traveled across the country, and to Europe.

Carol recorded the odd single here and there, for a few labels, including Capitol. As far as albums go, she made only two, both of them released on Prestige Records:





One of them is very good, the other uneven albeit still fine. Mixed among the well-known tunes, there are some completely unknown songs, some of them written by major songwriters. One album was recorded in London, the other supposedly in Sweden (according to a YouTube poster; I don't know if it is true).

Carol's music career never took off beyond these 1960s albums. The liner notes indicate that she was studying acting and dancing, with a view to becoming a Broadway stage performer. Those dreams do not seem to have been realized, either.

If word of mouth is true, this New Jersey native wounded up living in the streets, due to mental illness. She allegedly needed to be medicated, and would take to a homeless life on those occasions in which she stopped using medication. She is said to have passed away at a senior home in 2010.

Here are some selections from her albums.



Carol Ventura...Day By Day
Carol Ventura: Quiet Room

I laughed out loud! That was fun. Well, if I were Herbie Mann, maybe I would strenuously deny it, too, for fear of being forever identified with that album cover!

 

Thanks for this Riding. It does sound up my street. So sorry for the late reply. I did not get an alert that you responded ( I guess do to the fact you multi quote responded) and my life has been too much work lately!

Yes you indeed have the right Mode label. They were Japanese vinyl reissues so I guess I will go pick some up now.
30 lp releases in 6 months. Most impressive!

 

Whenever I see an album cover as bad as that Herbie Mann I am always astonished that no one in the chain of bringing that cover to fruition did say "please rethink this".

 

Found a really great, pretty darn rare LP yesterday at a local antique store! Nancy Steele - Nitey Nite! This is an original pressing, not a reissue. The cover caught my eye first, and then after doing some quick research online in the store, I snatched it up and ran to the register! Not sure if she's been mentioned on here before or not. I did a quick thread search, and nothing came up...



Apparently this was her only album. There are a few more LPs out there with much more risqué covers and content, but from what I've read so far it appears that is a different singer. But it's also kinda vague, so who knows! She's got a nice, clean jazzy voice. But it's also a quiet, little intimate album. My LP has a couple scratches on it but it plays amazingly excellent on both sides! The jacket was pretty much split from top to bottom all the way around, and someone thought it'd be a great idea to tape the top split seam. (Taping is never a good idea!) I'm attempting to fix the entire jacket with wood glue.

The only legit info I can find comes from a Facebook page and states: "My aunt was Nancy Steele, who recorded the album, NITEY NITE. (She also had) a record/single "Christmas is a Little Doll" that was sung by her, and conducted by Burt Bacharah. Nancy had an exciting life as a singer, and passed away a few years back, always having lived in Manhattan."

 

A much more conservative company like Columbia never would have put out that record cover, and they would also have insisted on proper spelling!

Nighty Night!

Columbia might have used this for her cover art

 

Thank you for the bringing it up, Nathan.

This pretty Lady, Nancy Steele, was a wonderful singer!
And when I listen to this One Time Shooter, it always puzzles me:
Why? Why is there only one album?



Skylark

You'll Never Know












Nancy Steele, could sings anything, but when it comes to soulful ballads she is one of the best.
I'd pay a lot for two more of her albums: "Moody Mood" and "After Hours", but... Where are they?

Why Try to Change Me Now
(No-no, I love you, Nancy, as you are).

2009 LPTIME remaster is so smooth... and it's a factory pressed CD, as such a lovely lady deserves.

 

Usually it had to do with the sudden loss of interest in record companies issuing this type of singer, and the complex personal lives and interests of the singers.

 

- But "Nitey-Nite!" is so much more cute!

Well, Columbia did give us Rhonda Fleming! (Discussed elsewhere in the thread with cover image.) But it still wasn't as cheesecake as Nancy's cover. Think more Julie London, less June Christy.

 

[off-topic]
This is undeniably the most minutely detailed thread of the SH forums! I tip my hat to all the posters who contribute to it.
[/off-topic]

 

Good to see you here, Jacline

 

Bojangles was too discreet to...but he would dance up and down the stairs to greet you

 

Thanks, Fred.

 

I love this cheesecake cover - it inspired a lot of people, Warner's cover-designers, for instance.
At least Nancy had sexy voice and appearance, but what does Marty to do with his cover?:



BTW, I went through the Nancy's album "Play Girls " (it belongs to the different thread). What a waste of the time: Pin-Up style cover, cheap production, narrative style urban-ish songs, based on suggestive, double meaningful lyrics (nothing explicit, thou), silly piano accompaniment, music... there is no music there.

She is not so good there either - feels like she didn't like what they want her to sing. One song is a tad better (or maybe not), named "Quit Your Filling Around" - street-life scene with lyrics like that: "Take your hand of my knee; else, I call a cop from the beach...

 

- That Marty Paich goes for a pretty penny, too!

As I'd mentioned earlier, unless someone has found other information to the contrary, it's thought that the Nancy Steele of "Nitey-Nite" and the Nancy of the "Playgirl" risqué albums are two different people.

 

It's very possible, especially with Joe Davis label.

(from the Kitty Kallen post #860 - please check it out.)
According to Peter Dempsey, the author of the liner notes, during the peak of her popularity, there were not one, but two singers who performed fraudulently under the name "Kitty Kallen". When one of them, Genevieve Agostinello, died in 1978, Kitty was shocked to read her own obituaries.

 

Great to see you post Jacline. There are a number of us really missing you over at jazz conversations. Please excuse the number of pin up images and related talk, it seems you cant avoid that with the marketing of 1950's female singers..!

 

Not offended at all by the pin ups! I'm an "older woman," and I've seen everything, and then some

I enjoy pretty much all the album covers from that era. Different times, for sure.

You guys--Ridin'High, toilet_doctor, Nathan, Tribute, and everybody else--, please keep up the good work. This thread is precious, since it's becoming a very exhaustive document about that particular musical side.

 

I was walking by my record shelves tonight and noticed a record by a female singer who has not been mentioned except in passing in this thread. I don't think she can be called obscure nor is she someone you would normally think of as belonging here as a jazz singer. I'm going to write a little about her anyway.

She was born in 1907 and didn't start talking until she was four years old. By the next year she was singing at church socials and three years later entertaining at army camps during World War I. She sang at amateur nights in vaudeville halls, in musical revues and road shows, and made an appearance on Broadway. She began recording in 1926 and was discovered by Columbia Records in 1930. She first appeared on radio in 1931 and hosted her own radio shows from 1931 through 1945. She also hosted her own television series from 1950 until 1960. She appeared in several movies. In 1982 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Ronald Reagan. She was a big star in every way.

If you don't already know by now, that singer is Kate Smith. Yes, the First Lady of Radio, the Songbird of the South, most well-known today for her rendition of God Bless America which has been played at Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey games first starting in the 1969-1970 season.

Kate Smith led a remarkable life. That does not qualify her here, but perhaps this one record does as it does seem to be obscure. I found it in a thrift shop some years ago. It is called simply Kate Smith and was released on Capitol Records (T854) in 1954.



The album is all standards:

Side One

The Nearness Of You
They Can't Take That Away From Me
Your Love Is Here To Stay
Who Cares?
If I Had You

Side Two

The Very Thought Of You
'S Wonderful
But Not For Me
Love Walked In
Somebody Loves Me
It Could Happen To You

Although Kate Smith was often looked upon as a joke because of her size, singing style, and perhaps the songs she sang, this record is not a joke like say Mrs. Miller was in the 1960's. Kate Smith loves to sing and can sing. She's not not just belting here. Yes, you could say her singing style is a bit old fashioned even for 1954. The orchestra and band are not even identified. But there's something for me that I found quite touching and really enjoy very much. I admit that when I listened to this record the first time, it really changed how I thought of her. She really deserves that too.

I didn't find much of the album on YouTube, but here are a couple of selections. She's on my record shelf with the singers we've been talking about.

Kate Smith - Love Is Here To Stay



Kate Smith - Who Cares