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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Ridin'High, Sep 4, 2016.

  1. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    It took me an effort to "steal" that picture for the thread - it was copy-protected...
    My second best or maybe first:

    [​IMG]
    Believe or not, this picture named: "Patrice Munsel's Feet" (from Wikifeet Collection).


    [​IMG]
    This one from old time radio stars collection.

    [​IMG]
    This is, as you know, Wiki's main photo. (Cannot resist this one).
     
  2. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    I wanted to say something similar. They look more solid and durable against reg. CD-R and never failed. Those groves on top are adding rigidity and, I want to believe, they should last longer.
     
  3. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    Many collectors would like their CDRs to outlast them. I would prefer to outlast my CDRs.
     
    Eric Carlson likes this.
  4. ezbud

    ezbud Active Member

    Location:
    Missouri
    Funny that Patrice Munsel was mentioned! My latest project at work is processing the archives of our local community theatre. In 1969, they hired Patrice to do a production of "The Sound of Music" here, and I'm finding all sorts of wonderful things--contracts, performance riders, personal letters from her and her husband (who handled all of the arrangements), photos of a reception they had for her here--just really fun artifacts! They stick to local talent now, but I guess back in the day the company hired really interesting guest performers like Patrice, Benay Venuta, Constance Towers, and Betty Buckley.
     
    toilet_doctor and Eric Carlson like this.
  5. Jbeck57143

    Jbeck57143 Forum Resident

    Location:
    IL, USA
    Here's what happens when a label uses bad quality CDRs, like Flare Records used for their Helen O'Connell CD "Especially For You". I've ordered two copies from two different sellers. The first copy, which I received a couple of weeks ago from a seller on Amazon, had started turning bronze on the label side and was so badly deteriorated there was static throughout the disc. I got a refund for that one. The second copy (which was new and still sealed) appears to have begun turning bronze as well and, though I don't hear any static now, will likely eventually become unplayable like the first copy. It looks like the same brand of CDR, although the label looks a little different. I used Nero DiscSpeed to scan both discs for damage. The first copy was 100% damaged and the second copy was 58% damaged. The second copy, which I received last week, was from a seller on Discogs that had closed their store in 2005--so the sealed copy I got from them was an early pressing as well. The seller wasn't aware of any companies using CDRs in 2005, but this definitely looks like one--the data side is light green. I don't know if Flare is using a different brand of CDR for that title now. I have their second Helen O'Connell CD -- "It's All Yours" -- and that one is a different brand.

    Here's the front of the first copy:

    [​IMG]

    Here's the back:

    [​IMG]

    Here's the results from Nero DiscSpeed:

    [​IMG]

    Here's the results from Nero DiscSpeed for the second, still sealed, copy:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
  6. Jbeck57143

    Jbeck57143 Forum Resident

    Location:
    IL, USA
    EAC was only able to extract the first 10 tracks from the second copy of the Helen O'Connell disc without errors, though the quality of track 10 is only 97.5 %. Starting with track 11 there were errors. I was able to extract the first 16 tracks with dBpoweramp. Starting with track 17 there were errors. The EAC and dBpoweramp rips were identical for tracks 1-9. Track 10 was different. Most of the remaining tracks, 17-24, are available in Flac format on the Interenet Archive from original 78s. I recorded two songs from the deteriorating CDR using Audacity, so I was able to "reassemble" the disc. Here's what I ended up with:

    Helen O'Connell - Especially for You (Flare CDR - ROYCD 219; 2000)

    "Assembled" from original deteriorating CDR, Flacs from interent archive, Audacity (for recording tracks 18 and 20)
    tracks 1-9 identical to EAC rips
    tracks 1-16: original deteriorating CDR > dBpoweramp > wave > FLAC level 8 using Trader's Little Helper (bitverified W/foobar2000 v1.3.8)

    Track 10 - In the Middle of a Dream, eac rip:
    original deteriorating CDR > eac (secure) > wave > FLAC level 8 using Trader's Little Helper (bitverified W/foobar2000 v1.3.8)

    (Approximately) 75:24

    Ripped with dBpoweramp
    1. Boog It
    2. All of Me
    3. I Bought a Wooden Whistle
    4. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
    5. Love Never Went to College
    6. Six Lessons from Madame la Zonga
    7. When the Sun Comes Out
    8. Are You Havin' Any Fun
    9. I Said No (With Bob Eberly) (Also Flac From Internet Archive)
    10. In the Middle of a Dream (also ripped with EAC)

    Ripped with dBpoweramp; Also Flacs From Internet Archive
    11. Little Curly Hair in a High Chair
    12. The Bad Humor Man

    Ripped with dBpoweramp; Also recorded with Audacity - saved as Flac
    13. One Sweet Letter from You
    14. You Made Me Love You

    Ripped with dBpoweramp; Also Flacs From Internet Archive
    15. Back to Back
    16. You've Got Me This Way

    Flac From Internet Archive
    17. Tangerine (With Bob Eberly)

    Recorded from CDR with Audacity - saved as Flac
    18. I Love to Watch the Moonlight

    Flac From Internet Archive
    19. Especially for You

    Recorded from CDR with Audacity - saved as Flac
    20. Keep a Knockin'

    Flacs From Internet Archive
    21. Melancholy Lullaby
    22. In the Hush of the Night (With Bob Eberly)
    23. Minnie from Trinidad
    24. Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2018
    bluemooze, Reader and toilet_doctor like this.
  7. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Thank you for sharing your test results with us.

    Flare Records' CD-R are the worse CD-R I have. They probably bought them at their local Dollar store 100 pack for $1. The Dollar store found them at the local Junk Yard.

    Could you please test up-coming (Apr. 13, 2018) Pat Suzuki 'Singles and Rarities' (Collector's Series) Mini LP CD-R
    in so-called "digital vinyl" black CD-R type (Post 1552, 1556)?

    [​IMG]
    https://www.amazon.com/Singles-Rari...TF8&qid=1521479662&sr=1-2&keywords=Pat+Suzuki
     
    bluemooze likes this.
  8. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    CDRS were in heavy use in commercially sold music since the big busts in NYC and elsewhere in 1996 and beyond on bootlegs and unauthorized editions, no matter how "legal" in some places. Many collector labels started going that way as well soon after, as they were really "on the sly" even when sold at Tower Records, other record stores and Amazon too. They really started using CDRs as soon as the cost of blank discs started dropping fast. Within two years, the price had dropped from $15 to $20 per blank to as low as $1 per blank, then they dropped even further.
     
  9. jazzyvocalfan

    jazzyvocalfan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    I've been curious about Bette (or Betty) St. Clair. I can't even find a photo of her other than her album covers. I read she was from Columbus, Ohio, like me. Her name never comes up in books and articles about the history of jazz in Columbus, however. She looks a little like Carmen McRae on her Basin St East album cover, which is the only photo that gives me an idea of her appearance.
     
  10. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    https://i.imgur.com/leYb6fq.jpg
    Just a few days after posting the above I found the attached June Christy gem at a thrift store near Vero Beach Florida .
    I really had to dig thru some nasty stuff to unearth a gem!
     
    Reader, toilet_doctor and Stu02 like this.
  11. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    Imgur
    Same trip , different store!
     
  12. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    More from the same trip
    Imgur
     
  13. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    [​IMG]

    Lee Wiley
    (1908 - 1975)


    "Now, if not already done, it may be time
    to discover... Certainly Lee Wiley!"

    (Tribute)




    Lee Wiley was an American jazz singer popular in the 1930s - 50s. Her husky, surprisingly sensual voice and exquisitely cool readings of jazz/pop standards distinguished her singing.
    However, Lee Wiley earns notice as one of the best early jazz singers by recognizing the superiority of American popular song and recording a set of songs dedicated to one composer - later popularized as the songbook album or concept LP. She was also a songwriter in her own right, and one of the few vocalists with more respect in the jazz community.

    Lee Wiley was born in 1908 in Ft. Gibson, OK; (Other sources give 1910) early press reports claimed lineage from a Cherokee. She began singing at an early age, influenced by Mildred Bailey, Ethel Waters and other pioneers of jazz singing. She left Oklahoma for New York City as a teenager, and made a few demos in the late '20s before hiring on with Leo Reisman. Her first hit, "Time on My Hands," came in 1931 with Reisman, and earned her solo billing on a few radio programs. Wiley also began recording her own sides for Kapp, backed by the Casa Loma Orchestra, the Dorsey Brothers, and Johnny Green.

    Her popular fortunes fell however, after the threat of tuberculosis kept her from singing for more than a year. ...
    [I have to stop right here].

    When I prepared a short biography from various sources, a great article by jazz historian Mike Zirpolo unexpectedly appeared, just in time. So I cut off all the facts from my brief introduction and left only beautiful vintage and some very rare photos:

    [​IMG]
    1934

    [​IMG]
    1933

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    1951

    If you look at the pictures, I chose (here and in the next posts), you will see that it was something irresistibly magnetic in her personality, how she was dressed, spoke, smoked and, not to mention, sang, definitely resembling the strongest female figures of the 20's. This spirit she injected in her unique and very distinctive singing style. And she never betrayed or changed it, carrying it through her entire career. And this spirit of 20's, combined with a gentle and subtle approach, purposely faithful to original melody, brought her closer to Mildred Bailey and made her not only a cult figure, but perhaps the 3rd most influential female jazz singer in the history of jazz.
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2018
    Tribute likes this.
  14. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    [​IMG]

    "I was singing in the Big Room of an elegant club in New York City called The Blue Angel. One night after the show, I joined some friends in the Art Deco lounge and saw a sight I'll never forget: a woman, draped in sable, seated at one of the black leather upholstered banquettes, surrounded by five or six gentlemen in black tie. The men were clearly enchanted with this glamorous creature, lighting her cigarettes, pouring her champagne, laughing ever so delicately at her witticisms, and not a one paying the slightest attention to darling Bobby Short, singing Cole Porter tunes on a little upright over in the corner with all the persuasion and enthusiasm he possesses to this day. "WHO is that?", I asked. "THAT" is Lee Wiley!"

    [​IMG]

    I was dazzled and thrilled to see the great Lee Wiley, and determined I'd be the center of attention at a similar party one day... Best I've done so far is that night backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival when some guy offered me a joint, a bottle of beer and a ride home." (Carol Sloane)
     
  15. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    I cite Mike Zirpolo's article, unedited with original photographs.


    “Manhattan” (1950) Lee Wiley
    by Mike Zirpolo (Oct. 25, 2017)


    The story: Lee Wiley, born October 9, 1908 in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, and died December 11, 1975 in New York City, was a pioneering American jazz singer. After short period of study in Tulsa, Oklahoma she went to New York City to begin a career as a singer, working early on with Leo Reisman‘s band at the Central Park Casino in Manhattan. Her singing style was initially influenced by Mildred Bailey and Ethel Waters. Her first hit with Reisman was the Vincent Youmans-Harold Adamson-Mack Gordon song “Time on My Hands” in 1931. In 1933 she left Reisman’s band, and a bit later in a one-off with the Casa Loma Orchestra, she recorded (on February 23, 1934) “A Hundred Years from Today.” She also recorded with the Dorsey Brothers and Johnny Green on an ad hoc basis..

    [​IMG]
    Lee Wiley and Victor Young, 1934.

    She worked closely with the composer Victor Young in the early 1930s. She also had a romantic liaison with him. With Young’s assistance, she composed various songs such as “Got The South In My Soul” (recorded by Wiley with Leo Reisman on June 15, 1932), and “Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere,” which became a Rhythm and Blues hit in the 1950s. The Wiley-Young relationship also involved Young, who was a very well-trained musician, urging Wiley to study singing seriously, which she did. Her earliest recordings reflect this rather formal approach to singing, yet there is still an unmistakable undercurrent of sensuousness, which would always be a hallmark of Wiley’s style. Young also cultivated her in many other ways, with an eye, perhaps, to getting her into Hollywood movies.

    Although I have read in a number of places that Lee Wiley was featured in some fashion with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra in the 1930s (a picture of them together does exist), I have seen no evidence of any such association in the definitive Whiteman biography written by Don Rayno.

    Wiley followed Young to Hollywood in 1935 when he went there to work in a number of high-profile musical situations, which led ultimately to his association with Bing Crosby at Paramount Pictures. This in turn led to a fruitful career for Young as a composer for Hollywood films which extended over the next two decades. When Young arrived in Hollywood in 1935 however, his Polish-émigré ’fiancee’ Rita was already there, waiting for him. They soon married, and the Young-Wiley romance was over.
    [​IMG]
    Lee Wiley-1935.

    In the summer of 1935, Lee Wiley was frequently in the audience at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles when Benny Goodman’s band was playing there in August and September. It was at this time that she began a relationship with jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan, with whom she had worked in radio in New York. (Berigan was working temporarily with the Goodman band that summer.)

    Wiley may have had a bout of tuberculosis in late 1935 early 1936, because she spent some months then recuperating in Arizona. She also was reportedly injured in a horse-riding accident, which may have happened in the late 1930s. These health-related challenges interrupted her career at a critical juncture.

    [​IMG]

    By early 1936, she was back in Manhattan, and she commenced what would be a torrid affair with Berigan which would continue, intermittently, until 1940, when Berigan broke off the relationship. Many who were around Berigan and Wiley in the late 1930s have speculated that the inspiration for Berigan’s great Victor recording performance of his theme song “I Can’t Get Started” came from his relationship with Wiley.As a result of Berigan’s recommendation in 1936, Wiley was able to work on the famous CBS network radio show The Saturday Night Swing Club. Wiley learned a lot about jazz from Berigan, and this influence is apparent in her singing starting in the late 1930s. He in turn, learned more about the best in American Popular Song from her.

    Although Wiley made a couple of rather odd recordings in February 1937 (vocals inserted into lengthy concert-style arrangements played by a large orchestra led by Victor Young [who was briefly in New York then]), she really did not begin making commercial recordings under her own name until November 1939, when she recorded a set of eight Gershwin songs supported by groups of jazz musicians for the boutique Liberty Music Shop record label. These recordings were released on four 10-inch 78 rpm disks in an album. That set sold well, and was followed by a set featuring the music of Cole Porter (1940). On this she is again accompanied by a small jazz group which on this occasion also included Berigan. Later Wiley collections included music by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10″ LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans, and Irving Berlin (1951). The jazz musicians on these recordings included, in addition to Berigan, Bud Powel, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Joe Bushkin, and Jess Stacy. These influential albums launched the “concept” or “songbook” album idea (often featuring lesser-known songs), which was later widely imitated by other singers.

    [​IMG]
    Lee Wiley and Jess Stacy-1945.

    Wiley nevertheless, did not make many commercial recordings before World War II. She was however, an active performer on radio and at various venues in Manhattan, often working with bands led by jazz guitarist/impresario Eddie Condon. This activity continued through the years of World War II. She was featured for a time in Jess Stacy’s band in the mid-1940s, but that band did not last very long. She returned to performing in Manhattan, again often with Condon, in the immediate post-war years.

    Wiley’s career made a large leap forward after the release of the Columbia album Night in Manhattan in 1951, which includes some of the best singing of her career. In 1954, she opened the first Newport Jazz Festival, accompanied by Bobby Hackett. Later in the decade she recorded West of the Moon (1956, with arrangements by Ralph Burns), and A Touch of the Blues (1957), with arrangements by Bill Finegan and Al Cohn, backed by trumpeter Billy Butterfield and a group of top-notch New York studio musicians.

    Wiley retired from singing in the early 1960s. A 1963 television film, Something About Lee Wiley, which told her life story, starred Piper Laurie as Wiley. The film stimulated interest in her and she resumed her career, making her last public appearance at a 1972 concert in Carnegie Hall as part of the Newport-New York Jazz Festival, where her performance was enthusiastically received, after a rocky start. Jazz historian Dan Morgenstern recalled that on the first tune Wiley began singing in a different key than her accompanist, pianist Teddy Wilson. She then proceeded to glare at Wilson, a most fastidious musician having enormous talent and experience, onstage before the audience. (Teddy, who was a man of great serenity, was very perturbed about this. I must conclude therefore that Ms. Wiley was the one in the wrong key.) I have in my library recordings of in-studio conversations between Wiley and the musicians who worked with her on the April 1940 Liberty/Cole Porter recording set referred to above. She did exactly the same thing on that occasion, with the wonderful pianist Joe Bushkin (who would work with her again on many occasions), being the object of her criticism. (Bunny Berigan, who was also on that session, settled the dispute by gently but firmly telling Wiley that Bushkin did not make a mistake.) Wiley’s reputation for being a temperamental and at times unreasonable diva persisted throughout her career, and was reinforced by these and other similar incidents.

    Wiley married the very talented jazz pianist Jess Stacy, a mild-mannered man, in 1943. The couple was described by their friend saxophonist/arranged Deane Kincaide as being as “compatible as two cats, tails tied together, hanging over a clothesline.” Wiley had an explosive temper. Once, when arguing with Stacy, she slammed a door on one of her fingers, severely damaging it. The damaged part had to be amputated. They divorced in 1949, with Stacy being the plaintiff in the divorce action. Wiley’s response to Stacy’s desire to get a divorce was: “What will Bing Crosby be thinking of you divorcing me?” while Stacy said of Wiley, “They did not burn the last witch at Salem.” Wiley later attempted to reconcile with Stacy, but that never happened.

    [​IMG]
    Lee Wiley in the early 1950s.

    Wiley married a retired business man, Nat Tischenkel, in 1966. She died on December 11, 1975 in New York City after being diagnosed with colon cancer earlier that year. She was 67 years old.

    Like another pioneering jazz singer, Mildred Bailey, Wiley had a strain of native American blood. In the liner notes for the Columbia album Night in Manhattan, it is stated that she was“…a direct descendant of a princess of the aristocratic Cherokee Indian tribe. Her great-grandfather, an English missionary, settled in the southwest after marrying one of his genuinely American parishioners.” (This assertion has been disputed.) Both Wiley and Bailey played important roles in developing the art of singing jazz and interpreting the best of American Popular Song. They also worked in a male-dominated, testosterone-driven profession at a time, long before women's rights were taken seriously, and had to deal with myriad challenges related to that situation simply to have careers. This may explain in part why Wiley sometimes behaved as she did. Both Lee Wiley and Mildred Bailey deserve to be the subjects of full-scale, scholarly biographies."
     
    ggjjr and Tribute like this.
  16. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA


    “Manhattan”

    Composed by Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyric).
    Recorded December 14, 1950 by Lee Wiley and Her Swinging Strings for Columbia in New York.


    Lee Wiley, vocal, backed by a small jazz group including Bobby Hackett on cornet, Joe Bushkin on piano, and a small string section.

    The music: The wonderful Rodgers and Hart song “Manhattan,” was written originally for an unproduced musical comedy called Winkle Town. It was introduced in 1925 for the Broadway revue Garrick Gaieties. It was their first hit, and it very much shows that Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were in the process of becoming Rodgers and Hart when it was written. The very talented composer Alec Wilder, in his monumental book American Popular Song…The Great Innovators 1900-1950 (1972), Oxford University Press at page 167, provides some basic insights: “Since there are four sets of lyrics in the printed copy, it is safe to suggest that this song had more lyrical value to the show (Garrick Gaieties) than musical, or at least it was intended to have.But it is my conviction that, assuming the lyric to have been written first, Hart must have been considerably startled by the charm of a melody which probably was intended to be no more than a clothes horse for the lyric.”

    [​IMG]
    Cornetist Bobby Hackett.

    This recording is taken from the collection of classic 1950 Lee Wiley performances recorded by Columbia Records and issued as Night in Manhattan, where Ms. Wiley gets inspiring support from cornetist Bobby Hackett and pianist Joe Bushkin. The “Swinging Strings,” at least on this recording, are rather redundant.

    Joe Bushkin, who does a fine job both as Wiley’s accompanist and as a soloist here, met Lee Wiley while he was a member of Bunny Berigan’s big band in 1938-1939. He first recorded with her in early 1939, while she was in a studio with Berigan. Cornetist Bobby Hackett, began working with Wiley at the end of the 1930s, making records. On this recording, all three protagonists are in top form.

    [​IMG]
    Pianist Joe Bushkin-1950s.

    One interesting sidelight is that Ms. Wiley sings in this 1950 recording about the then-current Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical hit South Pacific. Clearly, the original lyric for “Manhattan,” which was written by Lorenz Hart in or before 1925, made no reference to South Pacific because South Pacificdid not debut until 1949. Since Lorenz Hart died in 1943, he didn’t make the revision. Presumably Richard Rodgers had Hart’s successor, Oscar Hammerstein, II, write these new lines to promote their latest Broadway success. Ah, the business of Broadway.
    This recording was digitally remastered by Mike Zirpolo." [Bold font by the author].
     
    peopleareleaving, ggjjr and Tribute like this.
  17. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    Thank you for your efforts to bring attention to Lee Wiley!!
     
    ggjjr and toilet_doctor like this.
  18. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Just get started - we'll move on tomorrow.
     
  19. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    5 rare Lee Wiley images:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    For a newspaper story, Miss Lee Wiley in 1933, billed as “Indian radio singer.”



    [​IMG]
    1933

    [​IMG]
    1936

    [​IMG]
    1938
     
    Stu02 likes this.
  20. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Lee Wiley avoided improvisation in jazz singing to deeper immerge herself into the lyrics, getting emotional.

    Captured in the act:


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    Lee Wiley singing with Max Kaminsky's band (30's)

    [​IMG]
    AT EDDIE CONDON'S JAZZ CLUB, GREAT VOCAL TALENT: Lee Wiley

    [​IMG]

    In 50's
     
  21. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Storyville Sweathearts: Lee Wiley, Teddi King, and Barbara Lea
    By producer Mark Chilla

    "In the early 1950s, torch singer Lee Wiley, on the waning end of her career, began to work in Boston in a club called Storyville, owned by jazz impresario George Wein. It was at Storyville that she began to influence two young singers — Teddi King and Barbara Lea — who would go on to form careers of their own.

    Lee Wiley, the 1930s Torch Singer


    [​IMG]

    Wiley was born in Oklahoma sometime around the year 1908—like many singers from this era, she wasn’t entirely forthcoming about her true age. She moved to St. Louis and then to New York, where she began to make a name for herself as a singer. She possessed a smoky voice with a good jazz sense and elegant diction, all of which made her famous in the 1930s, competing for radio play against Mildred Bailey, Kate Smith, and Connee Boswell.

    When the swing era hit, Wiley’s laid-back voice was ill-equipped. Instead, she created a career for herself as a sultry torch singer. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Wiley recorded what’s thought to be the very first “songbook” albums, 78 RPM records of tunes by a single composer, including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and others. Wiley continued to perform in the 1940s with several different artists, including her husband pianist Jess Stacy, and her lover, bandleader and composer Victor Young (Wiley’s love life is the stuff of legend).

    By the 1950s, Wiley’s star had mostly faded. She never caught on with the swing era, her best recordings were for smaller labels and lacked distribution, and had already spent 20 years in show business. However, she was still a cult figure among certain jazz aficionados, including a 25-year old pianist and jazz promoter from Boston named George Wein.

    Wein is probably most well-known for helping to create the Newport Jazz Festival, but before that in 1950, he started a new nightclub in Boston called Storyville. To help get Storyville off the ground, he invited Lee Wiley to perform a two week stint at the club in September of 1951, to be broadcast on the radio. Wein himself accompanied her, and many were in attendance, including Johnny Mercer.

    Wiley’s Storyville set marked a resurgence for the singer. Now nearly 50 years old, Wiley recorded several studio albums with the help of George Wein, including West Of The Moon and Night In Manhattan. These albums would prove to be the finest of her career.

    Teddi King, the Boston Star

    [​IMG]


    Wiley’s stint in Storyville had another impact as well. Her presence as a seasoned jazz star in Boston had an impact on the next generation of singers to come out of New England, namely Teddi King and Barbara Lea. Teddi King turned 21 the day before Wiley’s opening night at Storyville, although her career was already off to a good start. The Boston native had already recorded with bandleader Nat Pierce, a fellow New Englander, and she was beginning to appear on the radar of George Wein, who would end up guiding her career for much of the 1950s.

    By 1951, Teddi King was becoming more well-known around the Boston area, making regular appearances at George Wein’s nightclub Storyville. It was at Storyville that King was introduced to pianist and bandleader George Shearing, after opening for the band in the early 1950s. Shearing invited the 22-year old singer to tour with the band in the summer of 1952. Shearing worked with many famous vocalists throughout the years, including Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, and Peggy Lee—but only one singer toured with Shearing, and that was Teddi King.

    King’s career flourished in the 1950s, mostly thanks to the support of George Wein. After opening the club, one of the first things Wein did to expand his Storyville empire in Boston was to try his hand at a record label.

    The Storyville label was short-lived, but it did feature a few big names, including Lee Wiley, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and trumpeter Ruby Braff. Teddi King’s very first sessions as a solo artist were for this Storyville label, and included albums like Miss Teddi King and Now In Vogue. King would move to RCA Records in the late 1950s, but like Wiley, her career faded after 1960. Teddi King passed away from lupus far too young in 1977.

    Barbara Lea, the Jazz Professor

    [​IMG]


    "Barbara Lea was nowhere near as well known as the other two singers, Lee Wiley and Teddi King, but she had an excellent voice for jazz—it’s only a shame that she came of age at a time when jazz singers were beginning to decline in popularity.

    Barbara Lea, born in Detroit, moved to Boston around the year 1950 for same reason that many 18-year-olds move to Boston: to go to college. She studied music theory at Wellesley College, and began to get more and more involved in the jazz scene there, frequenting George Wein’s Storyville nightclub. In fact, during Lee Wiley’s famous stint had headlining Storyville in 1951, Barbara Lea was there, as the young girl at the front door charging admission. No doubt that she learned something from the elder Wiley on those dates, because they are remarkably similar in their tone.

    Barbara Lea’s finest recordings come from the mid 1950s, a series of a records she made with trumpeter Johnny Windhurst and his quintet. By the end of the 1950s, Barbara Lea, as well as Teddi King and Lee Wiley, had all faded out of the spotlight almost completely. In the 1970s, both Wiley and King passed away—King, far too soon—but Barbara Lea continued her career until 2011, taking on the role of an intellectual jazz professor of sorts, and the keeper of a torch-singer style that was mostly forgotten."
    (Dec. 16, 2016)
     
  22. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    My Lee Wiley


    "Lee is here within me,
    I close my eyes and... she is there"

    (Nabuco Miyamoto)



    The name of Bill Reed, a journalist and jazz enthusiast, has already been mentioned in the post about singer Jennie Smith (Post 1540).
    Now Bill Reed offers to re-discover Lee Wiley along with Japanese actress Nabuco Miyamoto, who found herself knowing nothing about Lee:

    [​IMG]

    HERE IS A CLIP [5 clips] from an award-winning 45-minute 2002 Japanese TV documentary in which Japanese actress-singer Nobuko Miyamoto goes in search of "her" Lee Wiley. Translated narration spoken by Bill Reed (i.e., Me!). One of the participants in the documentery, Gus Kuhlman, talked about the making of the film in an online oral history.

    "Lee Wiley came down. I met her, and we became friends. And I always made---there was a lot of interest in---I wrote a small book about it. One time I got a call from a producer in Japan who said that they wanted to do a documentary on Lee Wiley. I'll try to shorten the story. Her picture up there. That's the Japanese actress who was an award-winning actress in Japan, who was going to be the main one who was acting in this. What happened was her husband was a director [Juzo Itami of "Tampopo" fame]. One day he threw himself out of a six-story window, out of his office, and killed himself. And she went into a terrible state, and she wasn't doing any movies or doing anything. And she heard Lee Wiley's song--she was singing, And she just fell in love with this, and she liked that, and she heard more of her. She tried to learn more about Lee Wiley, and she couldn't learn anything. So they went on the Internet and asked for anyone who could give her help on Lee Wiley. And they got no answer. They were just about to withdraw and give up the idea when they got an e-mail from Barbara Lea. She's a singer here who is currently singing in New York City and is another good friend of mine. And she said, "Get a hold of Gus Kuhlman if you want to know more about Lee Wiley." So they did. They contacted me, and that did it. From that point on they were able to make the movie. So she didn't impersonate Lee Wiley. It was called 'My Lee Wiley', and she just wanted to learn more about her singing and everything. So part of it was filmed here right in this room and outside. They did a heck of a job. It was named Documentary of the Year in Japan in 2002. So it was a lot of fun to do. No script or anything. It was just off-the-cuff stuff. It was very nice. I have some pictures upstairs of that, too, when they were filming here. And they had sent us some VCR's of her earlier films that she had done before this. So we got to know who she was, too. We still correspond."


    Part 1


    Part 2
    MY LEE WILEY PT. 2

    Part 3
    (what a bad joke was played by fortune for the Lee's love to Victor Young)
    MY LEE WILEY PT. 3

    Part 4
    (funny guy, jazz impresario George Wein in person)
    MY LEE WILEY PT. 4

    Part 5
    MY LEE WILEY PT. 5
     
  23. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    I am way too tired tonight. I just read the thread title as:
    Obscure & Naked Female Singers Of Jazz & Standards (1930s to 1960s)
     
  24. Tribute

    Tribute Senior Member

    Well if they were naked, they would not be neglected, so that must be some other thread. Rest up.
     
    Ridin'High and toilet_doctor like this.
  25. toilet_doctor

    toilet_doctor "Rockin' chair's got me"

    Location:
    USA
    Believe in music or not, but you came to the right place. I have a lot of experience in such cases.
    From the beginning, try to simplify the search to two keywords. Instead of "Obscure & Naked Female Singers Of Jazz & Standards (1930s to 1960s)", put into your search simply "Necked Singers". It should lead you to the right thread.

    If this does not help, my toilet_doctor office is always open for further assistance.
    RCT (Rocking Chair Therapy) - the latest technology we can try once a day from the start.
    Please click on my avatar (once, then one more time) to see better what I mean.

    P.S.
    It's much more effective than old tech:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2018

Share This Page

molar-endocrine