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

Just a few more

 

That was more than year ago and may... no, simply changed:

Although I do have 9 CDs of her in the Chronological Classics (France) series... (I re-packaged 8 of them in the double Jewel cases to safe some space on the shelves and now it looks like this):











Nevertheless, you inspired me a lot and I ran and bought this:

Mildred Bailey "The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Mildred Bailey" (Mosaic, 2001)

"Ten CD's worth of anyone's material may seem like a bit much, but in Mildred Bailey's case, it's more than deserved. This collection tracks Bailey's career from 1929 to '42, and it's all lovely stuff. Bailey and Norvo, working with arranger Eddie Sauter, led a series of dazzling jazz bands -- swank and precise, stately and swinging small combos. Norvo was a very demure performer, who kept his solos short and his arrangements sweet. Bailey, on the hand, was simply a goddess, one of the best singers of her time. The material ranges from hip wartime swing to earlier recordings that feature jazzy reworkings of familiar down-South-with-Mammy themes, such as Hoagy Carmichael's "Snowball" and "Lazy Bones," songs that carry uncomfortable overtones, but are a rich part of the Tin Pan Alley tradition. Bailey, who was of mixed race, straddles the high and the low, much like Ethel Waters did, dipping backwards into old-school Bessie Smith growling while anticipating the sleek uptown approach of the postwar pop vocalists. With 214 tracks, this collection gives us a pretty good chance to size up her style, and the most amazing thing is what a consistently high batting average she and Norvo had. They really swung. This box set features a fair amount of back-to-back alternate takes, frequently the bane of super-completist jazz collections, but in the Bailey/Norvo case, a blessing. More often than not, the versions tackled the tunes from completely angles -- they weren't doing re-takes and trying to get it right, they were testing different approaches to the material. It's fascinating to hear the easy and versatility with which they switched gears, and the improvements they made from take to take. For fans of sweet big band material -- particularly Billie Holiday fans, this box set provides a wealth of "new" tunes to check out... it's pricely, but worth every penny."

Price was really good: $17.50 per CD + $4 for shipping - the seller said that the reason is the box itself is missing, otherwise, all ten CDs are in like new condition.

I will compare two sets and post result here.

 

That is not too bad a price at all. Many copies of the full box with outer case ended up having severe damage, because the hinge ripped off the silver lettered spine...thus having lower value as a "collector's item". You will be glad you got it. It is scarce. I do not think the entire licensed limited edition run was actually manufactured.

 

There is some dispute about when Mildred was born. Though she had given her birthdate as 1907, some believe it was closer to 1900. Women artists at the outset of their careers often have understated their age, because audiences are more drawn to younger artists.

Me, I have always overstated my age by a year since I was a kid. I never liked being the youngest kid in the class, and I just got used to that. At wine and beer stores these days, the clerks are required to ask you your birthdate even if you are an old man (they don't want to see proof). I always make up some weird date, for fun. They end up saying, "Gee, you look pretty good for your age." That makes me feel good.

 

The seller has good score and reviews. I hope it is not a CD-R. (In 2001 it was not in a fashion to do - 5000 copies were printed). I have not heard about the CD-R mosaic yet. The company is still in charge CD-R usually appears officially and legally when the company leaves the business and there is nobody to care...
Such is the case with the "Chronological Classics" series (thanks God I have originals from long ago), but now retailers (including amazon) legally offer CD-R for $15 or more. Keep in mind, everyone!

Despite the fact that nobody offers Mosaic CD-R yet, I'm maybe the first one to get "initial copies" of the Mosaic CD-R... I'll let you know.

 

I would be confident that it is NOT CDR. If it is, return it and get in touch with me.

 

"Message from seller:
Hello, These are not CD-R. Will have your order packed with confirmation shortly. Thank You."

And I said: Thank you for quick response. Cannot wait...

 

Thanks for this and also thanks to our good doctor as well for the info in Mildred
I knew her name only. I had yet to dig back far enough. I was worried when it you mentioned she sounds so much like Billy as I sometimes find cloning off putting. Fortunately after now listening I find Mildreds voice is unique to my ears. Though I can see how billy has been heavily influenced in terms of hanging onto the notes etc. But of course Billy’s style also has plenty of pure Billy in it. Naive of me to worry. I just absolutely love Mildred.

 

That's great. Now, if not already done, it may be time to discover Bing.

Certainly Lee Wiley!

 

I am a devoted fan of Lee Wiley.

I always brushed Bing with that simplistic indiscriminate brush called “that stuff my parents listen too”
Of course my Dad was also a keen Billie Holiday fan so perhaps it’s high time I give Bing another shot. Where might you suggest I start?

 

That is hard to say. His voice changed through at least four phases, say early 30's, late 30's to mid 40's, late 40's to mid 50s, then the late period. His most popular was early to mid 40's, he was most resonant in the late 40s, he was most influential on all singers that followed from the early 30s. Try them all, but I would say only try the late stuff last.

If you get hooked, put an addition on your house for expanding your collection

 

I found a nice article about Mildred Bailey worth to spend a few minutes:

The Story


Mildred Bailey - late 1920s

(see nest post)

 

"Mildred Bailey (1903-1951),
was a pioneering jazz-oriented female vocalists, and one of the greatest singers of the swing era. Her influence on many of the singers who emerged as stars during and after the swing era, including Bing Crosby, Helen Forrest , Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney, among many others, was great. Her career escalated through the 1930s, and then slowly declined through the 1940s. One of her accompanists was pianist Bill Miller, who worked with her in her then husband Red Norvo’s band in the late 1930s. Later, he was Frank Sinatra’s accompanist for forty-plus years. He recalled some years ago; “Oh yeah, the Old Man (Sinatra) liked Mildred and the (Norvo) band. He had forgotten that I was on that band for awhile until I reminded him that I was with Red and Mildred for two years. People remember Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, but Red Norvo fell by the wayside–which is a shame, because that was such a great band, and Mildred was so good. She knew how to ad-lib. (By that) I mean that she never sang anything the same way more than once. She wasn’t quite a jazz singer, but other than that I wouldn’t know how to describe her. She was an oddity. She just never made it, not really.” (*) The obvious question is: why didn’t Mildred Bailey really make it?

Any story of Mildred Bailey’s singing career must include Bing Crosby. He was inextricably intertwined with her at the beginning of her rise to fame, and sadly, at the end of her life, which came far too soon, when she was only 48 years old.

Here is a summary of her early years, which is based on notes her brother, Charles Rinker, wrote for a Bailey LP entitled” Mildred Bailey with Paul Baron’s Orchestra…1944, Hindsight LP HSR-133 (1979). I have tried to correct and augment Mr. Rinker’s recollections when necessary, based on my own research: “She was born on February 27, 1903(**) as Mildred Rinker in Tekoa, Washington. She was the oldest of four children. Her ancestry included Scottish, Irish, French, Swiss, and Native American. Her mother, Josephine, was a member of the native American Coeur D’Alene Tribe, and a devout Roman Catholic. Her father, Charles, sang, played fiddle and called square dances. Her mother was a talented pianist, and played piano every evening after supper and taught Mildred to play and sing. Her three brothers all eventually worked in the music business. They were the vocalist, composer and singer Alton (Al) Rinker; the lyricist Charles (Chuck) Rinker, who also worked in music publishing; and Miles Rinker, who became a booking agent.

Mildred began studying music, including piano and singing, around 1910, and continued in Spokane, Washington where she moved with her family In 1912, until about 1917, when her mother died of tuberculosis. Then she went to work as a sheet music demonstrator at Woolworth’s and Eiler’s music store, both in Spokane, until about 1918, when she was fifteen. By that time, her father had remarried, and Mildred did not get along with her father’s new wife. Consequently, she moved to Seattle, initially living with her Aunt Ida. There, she met, married and soon divorced Ed Bailey, keeping his last name because she thought it would look better on a marquee than Rinker.


Al Rinker and Bing Crosby - 1927.

With the help of her second husband, Benny Stafford, whom she married on November 8, 1920, she slowly became a professional singer. It appears that Stafford was a bootlegger, and he used that enterprise to get his wife auditions and singing jobs at speakeasies along the West Coast that were his customers. Mildred worked at Marquand’s Cafe’ in San Francisco in the early 1920s. By 1924, she was in Los Angeles, working at Mike Lyman’s Alabam Cafe’, and then in Franchon and Marco vaudeville productions. Within a short time, she began singing in speakeasies in Los Angeles, and by 1925 was also singing on L.A. radio station KMTR.

Meanwhile in Spokane, Mildred’s brother Al, and a young man known as Bing Crosby, formed a six-piece group called “The Musicaladers,” which included Al Rinker on piano, Miles Rinker on alto sax, and Bing Crosby on drums. By October 1925, Al Rinker and Crosby were in Los Angeles. By then, they were the singing duo “Crosby and Rinker.” They stayed with Mildred and Benny Stafford until they got enough work in L.A. to afford their own apartment. Mildred was instrumental in getting them started on the L.A. show business scene. Crosby’s biographer, Gary Giddins, stated that Crosby first heard of Louis Armstrong and other Chicago black jazz recordings at the Bailey-Stafford house from records in Mildred’s collection in his book “Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903–1940.”


Bailey in 1931 with Whiteman sidemen L-R: Harry Goldfield,Jack Fulton, and the King’s Jesters vocal group. The man with the unruly hair is an unidentified radio announcer.

By late 1926, Rinker and Crosby were working for Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. In 1929, they (who had been joined by Harry Barris to form the Rhythm Boys), helped Bailey in turn by introducing her to Whiteman. She first sang for Whiteman at a party she hosted for the Whiteman band in Los Angeles in August of 1929. Immediately thereafter, Whiteman put her under contract to sing with his orchestra and allow him to manage her career. She sang a tune called “Moanin’ Low” on Whiteman’s radio program sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes on August 6, 1929. Positive public reaction was immediate. She sang with Whiteman’s band from August of 1929 to September of 1932.

For a number of reasons, Whiteman was not making many records in the period from the summer of 1929, when Bailey joined him, until the fall of 1931. Nevertheless, Bailey was quite busy during this time singing with the Whiteman organization, and away from it, under the aegis of Whiteman. He subcontracted her services to RKO for a vaudeville tour in 1931, and then on radio in Chicago in the same year. It was during this time, when Whiteman was selling Bailey’s services for several times what he was paying her pursuant to the personal management contract he had with her, that a strain developed between the two of them. This disagreement over money eventually drove Bailey out of the Whiteman organization in September of 1932.


Mildred Bailey-1930

Her first recording with Whiteman was “It’s Sleepy Time Down South,” made in Chicago on October 4, 1931 for Victor. Don Rayno, author of the monumental two-volume biography/discography Paul Whiteman…Pioneer in American Music, states at page 597 of volume 2: “Fine vocal performance by Bailey on this mammyesque song, singing solo for sixteen bars, then for thirty-two more backed by the King’s Jesters (vocal group). She closes with a two-bar tag, with a glissando a’ la Jolson.”


NBC promo photo-1933.

After Bailey left Whiteman, she went to New York and began her career as a radio singer. Throughout the fall of 1932 and into 1933, she was featured on several radio shows emanating from Manhattan. By early spring 1933, she was also beginning to make some recordings as the featured artist. These were done for the Brunswick label, which was managed then by the enterprising Jack Kapp. Kapp had “borrowed” Bailey from Whiteman on September 15, 1931, to make four recordings with the up and coming Casa Loma band which was then contracted to make records for Brunswick. The Casa Loma records were trial balloons to see what the public reaction would be to a girl singer being featured with a big dance band. The experiment was successful. Jack Kapp was duly impressed by the singing of Mildred Bailey. More would come of this.

The music: The adjective “joyous” is the most appropriate word to describe this recording. Exuberant and humorous also fit. This song by Maceo Pinkard (music) and Mitchell Parrish (words) falls into the category of songs that were intended to humorously deal with the rather bizarre racial stereotypes that existed in the U.S. in the early 1930s. The words of many songs in this mode would cross the line of what is considered offensive today. But we must remember that this was a time when two white men played two black men on radio with great success (Amos and Andy), and it was considered enlightened to have white and black children appear in the same comedy films (The Little Rascals), even though the dialog and story lines of those films were laden with blatantly disrespectful racial stereotypes. Fortunately, the satire in “Is That Religion?” is aimed primarily at the weaknesses most members of the human family share.


L-R: Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey-1934.

When this record was made, Mildred Bailey was in her first period of success on network radio. By 1933, the Great Depression in the U.S. had reached catastrophic levels for much of the American economy, including the record business. Radio however was booming. Jack Kapp at Brunswick Records, wanted to capitalize on Bailey’s success on radio by recording her. He selected the musicians to back her probably by giving Tommy Dorsey a call. Tommy then was one of the busiest New York free-lance musicians, playing a number of radio shows each week, putting together ad hoc bands quickly for recording sessions, and occasionally leading a band to play for dancers in the greater New York area, when time permitted. The musicians in the small group Tommy gathered for this recording were all in the same category. Trumpeter Bunny Berigan however was in the early months of his association with Paul Whiteman. He was able to do as much free-lance work in New York as possible, scheduling that work around whatever Whiteman had going on. Finally, Tommy contacted trombonist/arranger Glenn Miller to sketch a minimalist background for the musicians to play behind Ms. Bailey.

Glenn Miller could not resist creating the mock dramatic “Gabriel blows his horn” opening cadenza for Berigan to play. Berigan plays it perfectly, with the exact feeling required, and with apparent casual ease. (He did this twice because two takes were made.) After this bravura intro, the rollicking fun begins. Other soloists are Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet; Fulton “Fidgey” McGrath on piano; and an exuberant few bar of jazz by Berigan on trumpet. Bunny also plays scintillating lead trumpet throughout.
There is more to this story, especially in the influence the young Mildred Bailey had on the development of Bing Crosby’s singing style, which was a pervasive influence on singers throughout the swing era. The musical interaction between Bailey and Crosby was well explained by Will Friedwald in his excellent notes accompanying the Mosaic collection of Bailey’s early recordings “The Complete Columbia Recordings of Mildred Bailey,” (2000) at page 3: “But from the evidence on hand, we can only surmise that if Bailey could have hooked-up with a major band, or began recording in 1926 instead of 1929, what we know of the development of pop and jazz singing might have been quite different. Since Bing’s recording debut in 1926, we have documentation of the many innovations rightfully credited to Crosby. These include his intimate and direct way with a lyric, his incorporation of jazz techniques into the love song and his cultivation of the microphone and the mass media to create a newer, more immediate relationship between performer and audience. We can only assume that Bailey was also doing at least some of this in the mid-20s, and that she was, as Crosby himself averred, an influence on him.” Crosby did indeed “cultivate the mass media.” For despite his less than matinee-idol appearance, he forged throughout the 1930s and well into the 1950s, a spectacularly successful career as not only a recording artist, but also as a star of radio and Hollywood films.

Despite considerable success throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s on records and in radio, Bailey never appeared in a feature film. This undoubtedly was caused at least in part by her ongoing challenges relating to her obesity and how it affected her. Benny Goodman, who knew Mildred well and worked with her often, described her as follows in his “autobiography,” The Kingdom of Swing at page 168: “Mildred, who is a great big woman, you know, weighing about 250 pounds…” In an age when obesity was little understood, treated insensitively, and often resulted in nicknames like “Fats” and “Chubby,” Mildred Bailey suffered ongoing problems with her self-confidence because of her appearance. She probably had what now is termed “binge eating disorder.” Consequently, she would rapidly gain weight, and then try through various difficult diets to lose it. This vicious cycle, which gradually came to include bouts of ever deepening depression, continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s, until she began to suffer serious chronic health problems, principally diabetes. As that condition worsened, so did her overall health. Work, indeed life, became difficult. Through the kindness of several people, including Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, she was helped with her medical bills and living expenses in her last days. She died of heart failure on December 12, 1951.

(*) Much of the information in this post came from Will Friedwald’s excellent liner notes to the Mosaic CD set “The Complete Columbia Recordings of Mildred Bailey” (2000). Mr. Friedwald’s concise explanation of the relationship between the Brunswick, Vocalion and Columbia record labels in the 1930s follows: “American Record Corporation (ARC), was the parent company that owned, among other small labels, the Brunswick and Vocalion masters made after December 1931, as well as all Okeh and Columbia sessions, until CBS bought ARC in 1938, and reactivated the Columbia label.” (Pages 12-13.)

(**) Mildred Bailey’s year of birth is widely reported as being in 1907. However, members of the Rinker family have verified that she was in fact born in 1903. Her brother Charles Rinker gave her birth date as February 9, 1903 in the liner notes referred to above. This leaves unclear whether she was born on February 9 or 27, 1903. (swingandbeyond.com)



P.S. I had to cut some photos as system allows only 5 pictures per post.

 

This inscribed photograph of "Mr. and Mrs. Swing," a.k.a. singer Mildred Bailey and her husband, master vibraphonist Kenneth "Red" Norvo, call attention to recordings Williams made with Bailey in 1939 that are to be re-released later in 2000 by Mosaic Records as part of a set honoring the singer.

Mildred Bailey's Native American Roots

"Despite living in a racially stratified 1930s U.S., Mildred Bailey never sought to hide the fact that she was born into the Coeur d’Alene tribe of Idaho. Rather, it was a source of personal pride that she readily shared with her associates.
Cast within a jazz narrative that left no room for Native Americans, the public image of Bailey as a “white” jazz singer mattered for many reasons—not least, because she exerted considerable influence within the jazz and pop world, pioneering the vocal swing style that countless singers sought to emulate.

Bailey pointed to the Coeur d’Alene songs of her youth as a major factor in shaping her style:
“I don’t know whether this music compares with jazz or the classics, but I do know that it offers a young singer a remarkable background and training. It takes a squeaky soprano and straightens out the clinkers that made it squeak; it removes the boom from the contralto voice, this Indian singing does, because you have to sing a lot of notes to get by, and you’ve got to cover an awful range.”

This according to “American Indian jazz: Mildred Bailey and the origins of America’s most musical art form” by Chad Hamill, an essay included in Indigenous pop: Native American music from jazz to hip hop (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016, pp. 33–46).

Today is Bailey’s 110th birthday! Below Thanks for Memories 1938"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qphrZd2JhP4



MILDRED BAILEY - These Foolish Things (1944)

MILDRED BAILEY - Me and the Blues (1946)

 

Thanks for this Doc. Also the reference to The author Will Friedwald is notable. I picked up a great Jazz singers Guide Book that he wrote about 7 years ago. It has interesting info on many many singers both known and obscure.
Not sure it’s still available though

 

Used, but mint, copies of Friedwald's book (he has many) are readily available.

Excellent posts on Mildred Bailey. Many years ago, when I was only 19, I got the 3LP box set of her on Columbia. Everyone around me heard Mildred. It would be interesting to see if her Hudson Valley farm still exists, or whether it was subdivided.

 

I broadcast two hours of Peggy Lee tonight. To answer the question of whether she has become obscure, all of the callers said: "WHO is this?" and when I gave the answer, more than half of them asked "How do you spell that?"

E-g-s-t-r-o-m.

 

This one, right?

It's definitely worth owning. Probably the most well-rounded book on the subject ever published. More authoritative, better written, and less controversial than his earlier book on the same subject.



His most recent book actually came out a month ago, and it should prove of interest to many of us:

He offers detailed analyses of about 50 albums, deemed by him as the best or most representative of the field.



It was neither of these books, however, but a much earlier one, that put him on the musical map:

This first edition came out in 1990. I have the softcover (featuring Nat and Ella). There is also a 1996 edition (with a microphone on the cover) which updates part of the 1990 text:

This publication was a hit in jazz circles, promptly establishing itself as THE book on the history of jazz singing. Friedwald's very opinionated and (over?)enthusiastic style certainly made for very interesting reading! ... It was not all lollipops and roses, though. The book earned harsh criticism and "hate" from some sectors -- most notoriously, fans of the singers that he dismissed (Judy Garland, Michael Feinstein, etc.) The amount of adverse criticism was not extensive, however. (Besides, as the years have gone by, the author has changed his more dismissive opinions. For instance, he wounded up becoming friends with Feinstein, and has grown to enjoy Garland's singing.)

Ditto on both singers. And your comments reminded me of something else that Friedwald wrote. His 1990 book includes an interesting chapter titled "Cult of the White Goddess" (or something along those lines) which is entirely dedicated to just three women: Mildred Bailey, Connee Boswell, and Lee Wiley. If memory serves, he presents them as the three most important "white-skinned" songstresses of the 1930s.

He also comes up with a triad of post-war white goddesses: Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, and Kay Starr. In his mental map, the three elders can each be considered a direct ancestress to the women from the later generation: Connee would be Kay's predecessor, Lee would be Peggy's, and Mildred would be Anita's ... This is just interesting food for thought, of course, even if the "connective tissue" is not tight enough -- not, at least, in the case of Anita and Mildred. Besides, and as I'm sure he would agree, each of these six female singers qualify as a complex world on their own.

Moving on ... Seeing how there have been so many interesting posts about Mildred in these last pages, I'm hoping to contribute some replies today or tomorrow, when I have the time.

 

Will has matured some, but he still cannot resist making some extremely snide, sarcastic and totally uncalled for remarks about singers of great distinction. He still does that in his biographical guide. When I see things like that, it makes me put the book aside and not pick it up again for a long while. He can be great when he is praising someone. But his inability to avoid making sarcastic, dismissive digs against respected and widely loved artists is not really acceptable to me. Of course, many critics are guilty of this, but Will should have matured enough by now to recognize that he now loves artists that he once mocked. My friend Chick Wilson (RIP) was Will's mentor in learning about many singers, so I have some knowledge of Will's history.

 

Tribute, I'm curious...do you have a podcast? I would have liked to listen to your 2 hour show (although I'm sure I have all of those Peggy Lee songs). I love her song Johnny Guitar from the film and the song How Strange and so many others. What a great talent!

 

Sorry, no. I have never archived shows from over 45 years. I am kind of old school. Those radio waves have now exited the solar system and are somewhere in the Milky Way.

 

Yes that’s the book

 

I agree sometimes he comes across as - really only his opinion can be taken as the gospel -
And humility is not his strong point and yeah he can be nasty. But having spent decades reading the supposed authority on a given artist or record and then subsequently finding I have a markedly different take has left me taking everything I read with a huge dose of salt. I don’t deny it can be seriously annoying though....it’s just not something that bothers me enough to deter me from reading.

 

Speaking of Lee Wiley, the Completists' Ultimate Collection CDs have gotten to be pretty expensive, but
Vol. 1 is $14 at Wolfgangs, at
Lee Wiley CD | Wolfgang's

and they're having a sale of 50% off all orders through Sunday, December 17th (code Joy17). Shipping is $9.50, but it's still a lot cheaper than what some people are trying to get for these CDs.

 

I wish they had spent a little extra and made front booklets for those. They come naked. No front booklet was made. There was circulating paper about it but not CD graphics.