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

Ridin you mentioned some time ago that some Mode artists might appear to be singers but actually are not, Clora Bryant. I was in Montreal this weekend and came across that lp and decided to buy it as I was curious about her trumpet playing. Turns out she is a singer and trumpet player and does both on these songs. Ive only listened to it once but found it quite enjoyable. Her trumpet playing in particular has quite a beautiful clear tone with fun bent accents.
Ive posted a review below since i am really new to her stuff
Edit having a hell of a time uploading the review I will try later once I figure it out

 

Check out Valaida Snow if interested in a woman who played trumpet and sang. Her life story, including imprisonment by the Nazis and a life as a servant after her return to America, is incredible.

 

Is there an easy way to post a screenshot . I can’t seem to figure this basic thing out
I’m fine when I take my own photo. But when I try to post a web image or a screenshot the upload won’t work for some reason
apologies for the diversion

 

(from the Post #365)
"Valaida Snow is second best trumpet player in a world after me" -- Louis Armstrong
Please check out also Post #366 - continuation of the Queen of the Trumpet post.

 

IV. Independents​

A. Crown Records​

​

Following her earlier tenures with two majors (Columbia, Decca), Mildred recorded for two minor labels in the mid-1940s. Her Crown masters are circumscribed to just one 78 album, containing 8 tracks. Half of them were recorded on December 19 and the other half on December 30, 1945. Here is that shellac album:





On vinyl, the primary source for these tracks is a LP titled All of Me. It was released in 1972 by the Monmouth-Evergreen label, which might have actually purchased the original Crown masters.





Note that all eight numbers are on side A of the vinyl. (Side B offers a selection of Mildred's tracks on Majestic, the label on which we will be concentrating for our next message.) The liner notes, by co-producer Bill Borden, are recommended to anyone looking for a basic, satisfactory, non-complicated overview of Mildred's career and achievements.

The British label Ember reissued this LP -- on vinyl, with the same title but different artwork. I don't think that I've seen all eight tracks on any other LP.

On digital, you have at least two alternatives. One is to get two volumes from the aforementioned Chronogical series, if you want to acquire the contents of both Crown sessions. The tracks from the first date are on the series' 1943-1945 disc, those from the second date on the1945-1947 CD.

The alternative is to obtain the Baldwin Street CD pictured below (which also features material to be discussed in subsequent posts):





As part of the CD's generous bonus program, all eight Crown tracks are included, and in good sound quality.

This is the end of section A. The second half of this post (i.e., section B) will be next.

 

IV. Independents
(continued)​

B. Majestic Records

Over four sessions, Mildred recorded a total of 16 masters for Majestic, a short-lived, Manhattan-based label. The first session took place in 1946 (March 5), the last in 1947 (November 20). Naturally, most of those cuts made their earliest appearances at the time, on shellac records.

In the early 1950s, the fact that Majestic was no longer in existence allowed for the re-appearance of some of Mildred's numbers on several budget, dime-store labels, which produced 10" vinyl of cheap quality (Allegro, Halo, Royale, et cetera). The practice continued later, with the advent of the 12" LP. Here are two pictorial samples:





Recommendations? If vinyl is your preference, choose none of the above. When it comes to the Majestic masters, the best choice by far, with no competition anywhere near, is the following 1985 LP (also available on cassette):





If you are a completist, this suitably titled LP comes with both good and bad news. The bad: it gives you 14 of the 16 numbers recorded by Mildred, thereby leaving out just two (presumably due to lack of space). The good: it gives you several alternate takes, some of them never issued before. That's why the LP has 17 tracks in spite of the fact that not all 16 original masters are included.

For a complete Majestic Mildred collection, you'll still need to add digital to your vinyl.

The Chronogical 1945-1947 CD includes all 16 masters.

So does Quadromania's Public Domain 4CD set Sunday, Monday or Always, already pictured in a previous post.

A more compact choice is this other Public Domain disc, which does have pretty good sound quality, on the Definitive label:


Non-completists could instead consider other CDs, such as the one that Toilet Doctor reviewed in one of the posts above: Denon's Me and the Blues. As also already mentioned, that CD is actually a reissue of a Regent LP. Both LP and CD feature the same front artwork and the same 10 tracks:





Further notes for completists can be found below. (Skip them if you are not one. These matters always make for confusing reading.)

I want to reiterate that the above-discussed CDs give you all of Mildred's Majestic masters but do NOT give you all of her Majestic self. Since they will also want to collect the alternate takes, completists will still need the Savoy Jazz LP The Majestic Mildred Bailey. (If I counted correctly, the LP has five alternate takes and one breakdown. Of the five alternate takes, two made their appearance on the LP along with the respective masters. The other three masters are not on the LP; you get only the previously unissued alternates.)

The Baldwin Street CD The Blue Angel Years: it includes Mildred's last Majestic session (November 20, 1947) in its entirety. Only that session. A total of seven tracks, including two alternates. This exact same seven-track bunch can be found on the Savoy Jazz LP, too.

 

I can comment only on the T.O.M. Vol.1, which arrived the other day.





Sound-wise:

Two first songs from 1929 and 1930 sessions sounded very close.
In the remaining recordings 1999 Classics sounded better than 1992 T.O.M.: more spacious and breathable, which was especially evident in the full impact of the orchestra playing and less - in the vocal parts. There are so much recording sessions on these CDs, and in the better recordings the difference was more obvious.
Overall, the clarity of sound leaves much to be desired in both discs, which is unfortunate, since so much charming songs there.

Nevertheless, both CDs sound much better than this:



If you don't have any of these, go for Classics.

 

Mildred Bailey - A Basic Discographical Sketch
V. Radio And V-Disks
​

A. V-Disks

We are talking about records waxed for the listening pleasure of the US Armed Forces, such as this one:





I believe that Mildred can be heard on 16 of these records. The total of extant Mildred vocals that were intended for V-disk issue is, as far as I can ascertain, 23. (This is all based just on my own research, by the way. I've spent some time checking and counting, but none of it is "official." I might eventually try to put together a discography, based on this ongoing sketch. If so, I'll double-check then.)

The primary CD on which you can hear almost all of Mildred's V-Disk material is this one:

​

The first 19 tracks were all taken from V-disks. (The last four are from Mildred's aforementioned 78 album on Crown Records.)

Since I said that the total number of extant v-disk numbers is 23, four are missing from the disc shown above. Three of them can be found in the sequel, titled The Chronogical 1945-1947. Specifically:

20. I'll Close my Eyes
21. That Ain't Right
22. Lover, Come Back to Me

All three are dated March 1, 1947. (Performances #20 and #21 can also be found on the Baldwin Street CD The Blue Angel Years. Not so performance #22; I'm not sure i it is even available on any other CDs.)

(As for the rest of The Chronogical 1945-1947 , it consists almost entirely of Mildred's work for Crown and Majestic. The exceptions are two songs from a single on Victor, which we will be discussing later on.)

Alright, 22 songs, so far. One left.

23. There'll Be a Jubilee (July 31, 1944; with Benny Goodman's All Stars)

You won't find that one on the Chronogical Mildred CDs, but you can find it in the Chronogical Benny Goodman 1944-1945.

For those of us who are fans of Mildred in particular, a better option on which to find that Goodman track is the following CD, on the Vintage Jazz Classics (VJC) label:






Aside from the Goodman track and the commendably good sound quality, there are several other reasons why this CD must be part of any Mildred CD collection:

-- Some of the V-Disk material was transferred straight from the 16" acetates.
-- It gives you various V-Disk breakdowns.
-- It contains not only V-Disk but also radio performances, including one complete broadcast.
-- The booklet incorporates a transcription of a 1946 Mildred article/interview.
-- Mildred's V-Disk sessions are included in full.

That last statement might be confusing. Let me explain. A lot of Mildred's performances on V-Disk were actually taken from episodes of her radio show. Only some 7 or 8 of her numbers were recorded expressly for the V-Disk program. All of them are on this VJC CD (along with a few performances taken from the radio broadcasts).

This is the end of section A. The second half of this post (i.e., section B) will be next.

 

B. Radio

Like most other esteemed music artists of her time, Mildred made quite a few appearances on radio shows of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to serving as a guest on programs of the day, such as Camel Caravan, she managed to have her own show -- and not just one time. Between 1933 and 1935, she had two of them, one succeeding the other, each on a different network (CBS, Blue). I don't believe that those have been preserved, but I could very well be wrong. In any case, that was her first wave on the air, with her own show. She'd ride a second (air) wave in the 1940s.




This 1977 LP on Stash Records has a full episode of CBS' Mildred Bailey Show, probably broadcast sometime between 1940 and 1943. It is the same episode that opens the Vintage Jazz Classics CD (mentioned in the preceding post).

Because there are no traces of any additional episodes, the producers of the VJC CD speculate that this one could have been a pilot, or audition trial for her. If so, it just wasn't picked up, sadly.

We find a happier state of affairs when it comes to Music Till Midnight - Mildred Bailey And Company: all 36 episodes of this mid-1940s CBS show are believed to be extant. The program was first broadcast on September 1, 1944, last on February 9, 1945. (It was actually preceded by a brief trial over the summer, whose resulting broadcasts I presume to be part of the 36 count.)

Coming back to 1990, when the 1990 VJC CD was released, there are more sad news to report. The disc's producers write about their incipient plan to release each of these 30-minute broadcasts over 12 CDs. Alas, the plan never came to fruition.

In present time, I imagine that some episodes from the show can be heard at (or obtained from) old-time radio sites.

Let's try to pinpoint which episodes (or episode portions) have shown up on LP.




1975 Sunbeam LP
(13-track total)
Broadcasts:
November 24, 1944 (2 tracks)
January 12, 1945 (six tracks)
January 19, 1945 (five tracks)




1979 Hindsight/London LP
(18-track total; American & European versions)
Broadcasts:
No dates given. Looks like a grab bag of cuts
taken from many different episodes.
It's on cassette, too (below).




To be continued.

 

Thank you, Ridin'High. Excellent job. You named it "sketches", but I'd say: analytical work.

Here is some info you need to finish it:

 

P.S.
Ridin'High, I don't know whether you have this CD or not...

Mildred Bailey Music Till Midnight Mr. Music 2001 USA (The Best of Jazz Divas series)





This CD was a nice project with good sound, and has very informative liner notes by Wayne Knight with photos from his personal collection.
The liner notes give the insights on the year of the show, which started as 'Mildred Bailey and Company', originally scheduled to run for 13 weeks, but, due to growing popularity, ran for 34 (not 36) weeks as 'Music Till Midnight' 30 min (11:30-12:00 PM) series.

Liner notes started and finished with the same phase:

"1944 proved to be a banner year for Mildred Bailey...":



I'm not going to give entire text, but rather key-moments:

The music for the series was arranged by top writers and performed by handpicked 32-piece all-star jazz orchestra with strings conducted by CBS music director Paul Baron or in-house sextet with Red Norvo (vb), Ted Wilson (pn), Roy Eldridge (tp), Remo Palmieri (gt), Al Hall (bs) and Specs Powel (dr) later became known as 'The Solid Sextet'.
Each episode featured two (inside and outside) guests - Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Colman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Tummy Young, Jimmy Maxwell and Charlie Shavers to name a few, and included usually 7-8 musical numbers (4 vocals by the hostess and 3-4 selections by the guests).

In the early October, the V-Disc staff used 23 stellar radio performances for the V-Discs production.

Also at the same time, Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), began recording the Bailey shows for their own purposes. Starting from October 6, 19 shows were recorded on 16 in. transcription discs.
The performances on this CD are two complete ARFS programs from Oct.6 and 13, 1944.

As the music has been carefully transferred from discs that about 60 years old (by the sound engineer Ed Burke), every effort has been made to present the performances in their original sound.

Parallel with her show, Mildred occasionally appeared as a guest on other radio shows, and opened October 23 to rave reviews at Cafe Society Uptown for another extended engagement.





Close to the year's end there were two more surprises for Mildred:
First, 'Music Till Midnight' was awarded top honors for its excellence in production and musical performances by the various radio polls as well as in the music trade papers.
Finally, in December Esquire magazine reported that Mildred had placed first in their vocal jazz poll replacing the previous year winner, Billie Holiday.

1944 truly was a banner year for Miss Bailey.

 

I just wanted to thank everyone for such a great thread - I now have several albums coming my way. It's nice to stretch beyond my love of Billie Holiday.

 

Thanks, this is a reference thread, and it's nice to know that it works.
I learned a lot and bought a lot upon our posts and still plan to buy more.
(I hope my wife will not read this).

 

B. Radio
(continued)

Here are three CDs exclusively dedicated to Mildred's work on the radio. (Other than these and the aforementioned Vintage Jazz Classics CD, I do not believe that there are any others, as of early 2018).













To see the last CD's back cover and track information, check one of the preceding messages from Toilet Doctor. (Thanks, Doctor!)

Music Till Midnight​

We mentioned earlier that Music Till Midnight - Mildred Bailey And Company consists of 34 or 36 episodes. I have tried to ascertain how much of this show is commercially available on LP and CD. Here is a quick list of my findings so far (and when I say "quick," I mean that I spent some time on this, but not enough to be able to say that it is 100% correct):

October 06, 1944 (complete episode, on the Star Line CD)
October 13, 1944 (complete episode, on the Star Line CD) (three of these tracks are also on the Mr. Music CD)
October 20, 1944 (just 2 tracks, on The Chronogical 1944-1945) (one of these two tracks is also on the VJC CD)
November 03, 1944 (just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945 & also on the Vintage Jazz Classic CD)
November 10, 1944 ( just 2 tracks, on the Vintage Jazz Classic CD)
November 17, 1944 (just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945 & also on the Vintage Jazz Classic CD)
November 24, 1944 (just 2 tracks, on the Sunbeam LP)
December 08, 1944 (just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945)
December 15, 1944 (just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945)
January 05, 1945 (complete episode, on the Storyville CD) (1 of these tracks is also on The Chronogical 1944-1945)
January 12, 1945 (a total of 6 tracks, on the Sunbeam LP)
January 19, 1945 (complete episode, on the Storyville CD) (5 of these tracks are also on the Sunbeam LP)
January 26, 1945 (a total of 5 tracks, on the Storyville CD)
February 2, 1945 ( just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945)
February 9, 1945 ( just 1 track, on The Chronogical 1944-1945)
Date Unknown (16 tracks, on the Hindsight LP; some might be the same tracks available on the items listed above)

Great to belatedly see your inclusion of those photos and info, Toilet Doctor. I do have this CD.

The total number of episodes is also given as 34 in a few other sources. However, I chose to follow instead the Vintage Jazz Classics CD annotation, in which the total number is given as 36. It is true that Knight's notes are very informative and seem very reliable, with a fair amount of specifics. For those reasons, 34 might very well be the correct number. Still: as long as we are not 100% sure as to which count is right (if either), I'd rather err on the side of "more," not "less."

Guest Appearances​

To reiterate, there is probably a fair number of Mildred guest appearances out there.

The Mr. Music CD collects a healthy amount of them, the earliest from 1939 and the last from 1947.

Also, the JVC CD presents us with what might have been Mildred's very last appearance, from 1951.

Between the 1947 and 1951 appearances, there was at least one additional guest spot, on Bing Crosby's radio show. On the episode broadcast on April 12, 1950, Mildred sang "Georgia on my Mind" and "I've Got the World on a String."

 

P.P.S.

CD 'Music Till Midnight' is rather a historic document covering two entire episodes. Of its 16 tracks, Mildred sings in 7 of them.

Another CD 2004 The Mildred Bailey Radio Shows: Original 1945 Broadcast by Storyville Records, Germany covers 3 episodes broadcasted on January 5, 19 and 26, 1945.





If 'Music Till Midnight' sounds good, the German CD sounds very good with overall better clarity of sound.
But again, Mildred sings in 9 tracks of 27.

Speaking of Mildred Bailey 'Live' CD (Post #1485 and 1489), it has 19 Mildred's songs of 20 tracks.
The first 4 tracks from 1939 Live shows sound similar to the CD "Music Till Midnight", while the remaining 16 tracks sound at the level of "The Best", as it was recently recorded.

WARNING!
Although the label Mr. Music finally nailed the sound, they failed to do everything right:
This is CD-R and in two last songs sound is jumping and shooting as a semi-automatic in my main system (it sounds normal in computer system, however).

 

How many Mildred's songs were recorded at the Show?

I see, it started from 4 per episode from the beginning and reduced to 3 toward to the end.
So, I count 3.5 songs (on average) running min 34 episodes: roughly 120 Live songs.

She had brief (15 min) show in 30's and the guest appearances in 30's and 40's.

All that we have, only 35 released live songs on 3 CDs plus 23 on V-Discs...

 

Mildred Bailey - A Basic Discographical Sketch
VI. Odds And Ends​

One: Live In Concert

In our lengthy discussion of Mildred Bailey, mention has already been made of Esquire magazine and its annual jazz polls, on which Mildred alternated between the #1 and #2 spots for best female jazz vocalist. Winners of the magazine's 1944 and 1945 polls were gathered together for two so-called Esquire All-American Jazz concerts, whose performances have been preserved. Here are photos from the first of the two concerts; Mildred can be seen twice:





On LP and also on CD, there are numerous albums which proclaim to feature this 1944 concert. Beware: many of them are truncated versions. Mildred, in particular, tends to get the short end of the stick. She is typically skipped from such incomplete versions. (Conversely, Billie never seems to be missing.)

Among others, the following Radiola LP appears to include everything that was preserved from the concert. Check out the detailed "inventory" on the back cover.





The total of Mildred tracks is four. They are "Rockin' Chair," "More Than You Know," "Squeeze Me," and "Honeysuckle Rose."

But perhaps you do not want to acquire the full various-artists 1944 concert? Maybe you would prefer to instead have Mildred's tracks on a Mildred release? If so, you are in luck: three of these numbers are included in the recently discussed Mr. Music CD, First Lady of Swing - Live. Only "Rockin' Chair" is missing from that CD.

(Also, at least one of the four numbers, "Squeeze Me," was issued on V-Disc, and can thus be found on the Classics CD The Chronogical Mildred Bailey 1943-1945.)

A poster advertising this event can be seen on message #1278 (page 52). You can also check a tinier version of the poster in this clip, which gives you the whole big great concert. Mildred is first heard around 45:00, then again around 1:30.






The following set contains the other concert (and, for good measure, the already discussed concert as well):



Mildred sings just one number, "Downhearted Blues," with Benny Goodman. Note that there is preserved patter, too.

This concert version of "Downhearted Blues" can also be found in the aforementioned Mr. Music CD, First Lady of Swing - Live.

To be continued.

 

Two: The Blues Feather Date On Victor

Still left to mention is a session that Mildred did for critic-producer Leonard Feather on February 2, 1947. The two resulting masters were originally released on the various-artists RCA Victor album Singing the Blues, which came out on both 78 and 45:



Completists hoping to find these two Mildred masters on CD have at least three options: Classics' The Chronogical Mildred Bailey 1945-1947, Baldwin Street Music's The Blue Angel Years, and Quadromania's Sunday, Monday or Always.





Three: More Majestic Mildred Masters?

Potentially confusing, the following LP merits clarification.




Could it possibly feature rare Mildred masters, unavailable anywhere else?

No, it does not.

The Mildred numbers in this album are from the already discussed Majestic sessions. They are thus available in Mildred's own LPs & CDs.


And with this Regent release from Mildred's Majestic dates, I am closing her discographical sketch (finally!) ...

 

Contemporary singer Marlene Ver Planck passed away just a
few days ago. With a few exceptions, she did all her studio
recordings in the last five decades (from the mid-1970s onwards).
I have posted a longer commentary about her career in the
companion thread to this one:

Singers of Jazz & Standards (1970-2020)

Exceptions to the 1970s-2010s niche of her recording career include
her very first album (highlighted by Ethan Stoller in the post quoted
above), a couple of Capitol albums on which she appears as part of a
quartet, and backing vocals in the albums of other folks.

Leaving the albums aside, let me add that Marlene was very active in
music from the mid-1950s until the present time. Three of those
decades brought her considerable success as a jingle and demo singer.

 

This thread is one of Steve Hoffman Forum's Greatest Hits.

I'm looking for torch ballad albums by women vocalists that are as good as Sinatra's ballad albums. There are great suggestions and examples in this thread.

 

Start with this lady. She was "so in love" with Frank...



Start with 'The Intimate' album - newly remastered with great (I mean it) sound.

 

Mildred Bailey Sings the Blues

That Ain´t Right (1947)


I Don't Want to Miss Mississippi (1947)
I Don't Want to Miss Mississippi

Gulf Coast Blues (1939) (just posted on tub)
Mildred Bailey and her Oxford Greys "Gulf Coast Blues" 1939

St. Louis Blues
Mildred Bailey - St. Louis Blues (1939)

Arkansas Blues
Mildred Bailey - Arkansas Blues

Downhearted Blues
Downhearted Blues

Me and the Blues
MILDRED BAILEY - Me and the Blues (1946)

 

Thanks for letting me know, Stu. I just went and checked her out
in YouTube. Truth be told, the singing did not do much for me, but
I definitely enjoyed her trumpet playing and the swinging vibe from
the other musicians. I also like this album's cover (of course), and
the album's title .. Perhaps the title was inspired by the movie Young
Man with a Horn, which was a few years old when the LP came out.
Anyway, I'd venture that the tasty music playing and the nice visuals
would make this album definitely worth having for me, too.

I just looked Clora up and learned that she was a member of the
International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a 1940s all-female swing
band about which a lot has been written in recent decades.





Another female brass player who has sung in her albums is Vi Redd,
a saxophonist. I have one of her LPs (not the one below, though).

Were you able to figure out what was going on? I was about to send you to

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/how-to-add-a-picture-to-a-post.360845

but I'm seeing that you've already been there, and posted often. (Cool cat!)

The only other thing I noted is that the hosting site which you were using is no longer in operation (not, at least, according to the posters on that thread).

 

Glad to hear that the thread is being put to good use!

And I just came across your own thread. Interesting topic.

Some years ago, I asked myself that question -- or rather, a broader version of that question. I was amusing myself by trying to mentally pair famous male and female singers of jazz & pop ... When it comes to Frank's counterpart, I suppose that my avatar gives away who I would consider the one and only top candidate. Anyway, I might go participate in the thread at some point.

 

Thanks for that.
Love the duet with Sinatra. Where is it from?

After The Intimate Keely Smith, then what's next for a woman's ballad album like In the Wee Small Hours, Where Are You?, No One Cares?