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

Carol's self produced independent label LP Subway Tokens (scarcs) has also been reissued in Japan

 

This is the definitive discography

Carol Sloane Discography

 

Canada has issued a postage stamp this year honouring her. Born in 1919 she is apparently still alive.

 

You might already know this, but just in case: I’m seeing it available in most of the major retail stores, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, etc. (I’m not yet seeing copies for sale here in the forum, nor at Discogs, but I imagine that they'll turn up, in the coming months.)

(Music on the YouTube clip starts at :28.)

I was hoping that somebody else would give an answer, but it hasn’t happened. That’s because I’m not the best candidate to make Alice Babs recommendations. My familiarity with her interpretations is more through YouTube than through the albums themselves. She has recorded many, but I only have three CDs of hers in my collection, along with several LPs. (And I happen to like her stuff on vinyl far more than what I have on compact disc.)

That being said, of the three CDs I have, this compilation has enough variety to give a fair idea of her overall work:



It has tracks recorded between 1966 and 1975. Some of the songs are in English, others in Swedish. Some are jazz standards; the rest run the gamut from gospel to operatic stuff. Amazon currently has a couple of copies for eight bucks.

Your question has inspired me to order a few more of her CDs. I have these three coming my way, and if I like any of them in particular, I will report here:

 

Thanks! Please let us know about Alice's cds.

 

Eileen Barton


FiFi LeMour

 

Greetings. Recently joined this discussion and have been through all 99 pages (slowly) finding some wonderful new/old singers. Years ago I discovered the unique phrasing and timbres of Bev Kenney and Lucy Ann Polk, among others and sought out recordings. Stumbled across a radio show series from the 40s that featured well known singers, as well as the more (now) obscure: you'll find Martha Tilton, Betty Roché, Kitty Kallen, Annette Warren, Ella Mae Morse and others here if you keep scrolling down. www.radioechoes.com/?page=series&genre=Variety&series=Jubilee

By the way, love the discussion and discoveries. For whatever reasons, I've always gravitated to female jazz and standards singers over male singers (except for Mark Murphy) and it's a kick to find a few who meet my oddly exacting demands.

 

Check my Youtube Channel and you'll make some discoveries for sure...

https://www.youtube.com/c/dondanmusicchannel/videos

 

Leave It to Women


“Why Don't You Do Right?”
(Song by Joe McCoy, 1936)



Basically, women are better than men…
Here is a short excerpt from my unfinished book “Audiofilia”, which I dedicated to all audiophiles – poor, sick people suffering from this contagious mental illness:

"It's a Man's World"
Despite the fact that men and women love music equally, this disease affects only men for genetic and social reasons. (The number of women who “came out of the closet” with audiophilia is so small that it can be omitted).
The genetic roots of audiophilia have not yet been studied by scientists.
The social reasons why audiophilia applies only to men are obvious and do not require additional research.

God did not create men and women equal. He made women better because he already used his experience of creating a man.
Women are beauties against men; they are smarter than men and therefore live longer, able to survive in extreme situations, make decisions, succeed in business, careful drivers, take care home, children and men.

Their wisdom and common sense do not allow them to fall into such a mental illness. Women would never be involved in drug abuse if men did not put them in it. (Life of Amy Winehouse comes to mind).
Statistics also proves that women are generally better as persons.

Men / Women

Serial Killers 100 / 0.01
Murderers 100 / 0.1
Rapists 100 / 0.0001
Pedophiles 100 / 0.001
Arm Rubbery 100 / 0.001
Street Violence 100 / 0.01
(toilet_doctor)

This is in general, and if we talk about jazz and standards, then male vocalists can give excellent voices and even voice manipulation and scatting, but they simply cannot raise the song to such a high emotional level, as our ladies did and do.

I will show with one example why men should not get carried away singing most of the songs that we called Standards.

Why Don't You Do Right?
Although, the song often has been attributed to Peggy Lee, she was second who recorded it in 1942.

First recording by our singer Lil Green (1941)


You mentioned Mark Murphy… Well, when he sang this song, he had to reverse the lyrics and he just looks pathetic asking a lady to give him some money… but that's not the point.
The fact is that he had nothing to offer, except for a good rhythm:

Mark Murphy
https://youtu.be/r7lgdamXhF0

Could Mark Murphy deliver the chilling dose of sensuality that today's young jazz singers do at the snap of their fingers? This is a rhetorical question.

Chloe Jasmine (Live)

https://youtu.be/0Y5HcAfz7fs

Rebecca Ferguson (Live)

https://youtu.be/a4fwkiFakTI

Sarah Gibson (Live)

https://youtu.be/H9WZMMe3h1E

Ana Marie (Live)

https://youtu.be/ODW3HiSzdjM

Mark Murphy was good at some jazz songs and even entire albums, as other male vocalists, but when it comes to jazz ballads and many standards written for female vocalists, I would say:

Guys, “Why Don't You Do Right?” and leave it to women – it’s a woman’s world.

 

To me, ALL arguments that "A" is better than "B" are a total waste of time.

 

Especially when anyone with any taste or brains know it is "C"

 

Picked this up recently at a local thrift store. Another torch/jazz singer I’d never heard of!

From Fresh Sound Records - “Carole Simpson began piano lessons at five, voice lessons at twelve. She started as a piano cocktail singer at Hotel Wisconsin in Milwaukee, until she joined Billy May’s band as a featured vocalist in 1952-1954. Then came several long and sometimes weary years of clubbing it around the country, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, never truly deciding whether she preferred singing or playing piano.

Eventually, Tutti Camarata heard Carole sing and brought her to the attention of Capitol Records, who recorded her first album in the summer of 1957—“All About Carole.” Steve Allen then booked her for his TV show, and in 1960, as soon as he knew Carol’s contract with Capitol was over, invited her to record her second LP, “Singin' and Swingin'”. “

Her voice on this album is very smooth, and on occasion reminds me of a laid back June Christy. The jazz backup is excellent.

 

She was phenomenal. That LP in original issue is scarce. Great find.

 

I've never thought that such a book as Audiophilia can be taken seriously:
Here is the nest chapter for you:

Women and Audiophiles

"Women are very patient with Audiophiles.
Here is what they say during my sessions:

- When we were young, doctor, we often attended various concerts. My husband loves music, me too. We had a good time. But now he no longer listens to music - he simply compares records and discs and wants me to do the same. "You are very good at it" - he said. He called it the "blind test". But who will take care of things? He is crazy, please help us. Divorce? No, I love him...

- My hubby has his hobby, you know, doc. But it's better than drinking and smoking...

- My husband get abscessed with his boxes; calls himself an "audiophile". I love him and I have to deal with it, somehow...

- Men are big kids, nothing else. And kids need toys... We have to let them play."

 

Another recent thrift find, Sunny Knight. I’m gonna be honest (and don’t kill me for it) but the overall appearance of the LP just looks amateur to me. And she’s even from NC (where I live), but I still decided to give it a try. And wow! Such delicate, really beautiful singing! I gotta say I’m shocked! I’ll let the last photo with her bio showcase the details of her career.

(And this copy is signed, to boot!)

 

There was a kickstarter campaign to rerelease the Sunny Knight album along with 4 others: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1961434059/vocaljazz-records

The link includes a sample of her singing

 

Has Bill Reed retired?

 

Too bad this was unsuccessful.

 

Ivie Anderson
I recently came across this story about Sonny Clay and his bands trip to Australia and Ms. Anderson was mentioned as being a band member:

Jazz kings and wayward women - ABC

Harlem Nights, Deirdre O'Connell — Melbourne University Publishing

Hopefully some enterprising author is working on a biography of FiFi LeMour.

 

Belated greetings to you too, and thanks for the link to the log of radio shows. Some interesting stuff there awaiting for me to listen to!

Glad to hear that you’ve been enjoying browsing this thread. About your comment that you usually gravitate toward female singers of standards, but one exception is Mark Murphy (widely regarded in the music business as the greatest male jazz singer of the modern era), here is one interesting point to make, as a follow-up. By Mark's own admission, his greatest earliest influences were female singers: Peggy Lee and Lee Wiley. He apparently listened to them assiduously during his formative years.





Here is Mark’s ‘censored' version of “My Favorite Things.” It was ‘censored’ because Mark added to the lyrics some verses in which he lists many of the musicians and vocalists that he loved & admired at the time that he recorded this number. (Mark does not mention Lee Wiley, who was not recording by this time, but he does mention Peggy Lee.) His record label decided not to release the version below due to an objection (or expected objections) to the additional lyrics -- from the composer, most likely, or otherwise the lyricist. (Instead, the 1961 Riverside LP contains a second Mark version of the song, without the additional lyrics. However, a later Japanese LP edition of the album included this offending version.)

 

The first USA Riverside pressing of Mark Murphy's RAH included the "hip" version with Mark's new lyrics to "My Favorite Things" and also included a "hip" version with new lyrics by Mark of "I'll Be Seeing You" (by Kahal & Fain, not Rodgers)

These were both removed from the second USA pressing after the music publisher contacted Riverside. At the original sessions, Mark recorded a straight version of My Favorite Things, so that was used on the second pressing, but as there was no alternate of I'll Be Seeing You, that was deleted altogether from the second pressing.

"Censored" is a bit strong, as it was Riverside Records (notorious for fixing its books and cheating artists from their proper royalties) that decided to not seek permission from publishers. I believe that even if Riverside had later requested permission from the publishers, it would not have been granted, due to the offensive nature of Riverside's owner.

When you see a USA Riverside pressing with 12 tracks, that is a first pressing. If it has 11 tracks, that is a second or later pressing. The USA CD versions also are 11 tracks.

The Japanese pressing included all tracks (13) with both versions of My Favorite Things. Mark got a laugh out of that, as he said that the Japanese edition was illegal, because no permission for the new lyrics was ever obtained.

The whole thing was a shame, as Mark's new lyrics were a perfect example of his art.

By the way, Mark often told me that his early inspiration was Nat Cole. Mark was a singing pianist in his early career, and was deeply influenced by Nat. This is why Mark, at his own expense, recorded a two volume tribute to Nat. But Mark was also quick to add that his inspiration did not only come from singers. Jack Kerouac and Charlie Parker were at the very top of his list of inspirations.

The first pressing of RAH, though uncommon, is not extremely rare. Most of the circulating vinyl copies of RAH are from the much later OJC pressings.

P.S. - Don't count on Discogs for accurate info

 

Big mistake that I just made: after a while without regularly posting and checking this site, I had completely forgotten that I have made it a personal policy to stop reading your messages, and so I read the one above. Aye. Hopefully I won’t forget again. (As I’ve had occasion to say repeatedly, I’ve grown tired of your barely covered passive aggressiveness.)

The above having been said, it is absolutely true that the first pressing of Rah included both versions of the song. So, it’s by no means bad to see this corrected. (The pressing situation is something which I first learned decades ago, on another music list to which I belonged. It’s also yet another thing that I had simply forgotten.)

For the record, Discogs was not my source for the particular points which are being referred. Other than saying that, I won’t waste more of my time explaining the rest of the points in my messages. That’s a worn-out path that I’ve threaded before with the same individual, clearly to no avail.

 

Yet once more, congratulations are in order! Simpson & Knight - both worthwhile additions to any vocal LP collection.

So, you got the Capitol original (pictured above), right? The All About Carole vinyl item in my own collection is the Jasmine reissue, which is a lot easier to find. I don’t remember coming across the Capitol original all too often. So, definitely a good buy -- all the more so if it was at thrift store pricing.

You refer to Fresh Sound, which presumably means that you were checking online info about the following CD, which merits mention here because it contains her other main album:





Besides those two LPs, I am acquainted with a few more commercial items by her out there, but those are on compact disc, not vinyl.

I agree. On the basis of this specific LP, I too think of her as a member of the same cool school to which June belonged. In addition to singing style, several of her rarest song choices are numbers favored by, in particular, the Chicago-based chapter of the cool school. There’s, for instance, “You Forgot your Gloves,” which I always associate with Jeri Southern, or “Because We’re Kids,” which I first heard from Lucy Reed. (However, some of Carole's stuff on CD offers a relatively different vocal sound: not all that cool, but rather conveying the “dramatic intimacy” of a semi-dark barroom.)

Overall, my mind tends to think of her as a fine pianist who sing well, rather than the other way around. (I mean, I feel pleased with her vocals as I'm listening to them, but they do not stick with me.)

From this particular LP, I especially appreciate her inclusion of the not-often-heard verse of “You Make Me Feel So Young”:

Big rarity, and the fact that it is autographed means that you could eventually sell it for big bucks, if ever inclined. (Being local pays off!)

The modest self-production is indeed deceptive. It encourages low expectations. Also, one of those photos ... While I love the capture of the half-full glass (and the top of the piano, and the mic), I do not find the angle complimentary to the singer. It makes her look somewhat like Divine, the (in)famous female impersonator/drag queen from the John Waters movies. Photography commissioned by a big label would have perhaps produced a photo as interesting, but with a more keen attention to the singer’s best angles. Little matter, though: as soon as you play the album, none of that registers anymore. You hear a a very special combination of singer and repertoire.

She too seems to have cultivated a cool-school style, to a greater or lesser degree. Many singers have recorded “I’ll Take Romance,” but I tend to be reminded of June Christy, because she made it a staple of her repertoire. Ditto for my association of “When Sunny Gets Blue” with Anita O’Day. Even more to the point, Sunny picked for this album the seldom-covered “All About Ronnie,” which is a signature Chris Connor number. And, of course, some of us think of Chet Baker, Mr. Cool, when we hear “My Funny Valentine” ... About half of the album's repertoire might not have a firm, direct association with the cool school, but Sunny's light, feathery voice makes most everything sound cool.

 

Thanks! The photos you see are the actual albums I found, and both at thrift stores.

I’ll personally always associate “When Sunny Gets Blue” with Anne Phillips. It might have been the first time I heard the song (not sure) but her version is stunning, so it’s always stuck with me.

 

As this thread’s starter, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pay tribute to the very good singer Helen Grayco, who passed away last week at the age of 97. The few obituaries that I’ve caught do Helen a bit of a disservice by categorizing her as “the wife of Spike Jones.” She had been cultivating a singing career for nearly two decades before the marriage (since her pre-teens). She would go on to continue that music career on and off after his death (1965), and would of course live a long life thereafter, with a second lasting marriage to her credit. (All that being said, the close association of her name with that of Stan Jones is entirely valid, because they were not only a married couple but also a working team who did extensive television and live appearances.)

Talking about neglected singers, per this thread’s title, Helen was one singer whom I meant to profile in the early days of the thread (when I had more time than now), but never got around to doing so. Fortunately, these days there’s plenty to find about her online. So, if curious, just google. Here are just a few points of potential interest:

1. Like Anita O’Day, June Christy, Chris Connor, and several other relatively known names, Helen was a vocalist with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. (For only a short while, though.)
2. Big Crosby is informally credited with discovering her.
3. Italian heritage.
4. Two of her children have gone on to have significant career in music showbusiness.

Helen might have worked with Kenton, but hers was no cool voice -- not, that is, in the formal sense that we music fans have come to think of that word. Fiery is more like it. A rich, firm, creamy voice which, had she wanted, could have come off as thunderous. (She did not want, luckily. She also likes her vibrato, but uses it tastefully.) Occasionally the delivery and tone are reminiscent of Rosemary Clooney’s, but more often than not it is just an earthy, sexily warm voice that could have also done very well overdubbing the stars of Hollywood's cinema.

Albums:




From the second, I especially love her opening version of “Frenesi.” My only objection to her interpretation is the decision to start uptempo and then go slow. Going in the opposite direction would have worked better for me, and it would made the listener concentrate immediately in the excellent quality of her voice. Fun, catchy latin sound, too:





As if to pay early tribute to her passing later this year, Jasmine Records released her singles back in February. I’m giving a fresh spin to that CD right now. They are mostly novelties -- as opposed to the quality standards that she sings on the albums -- but she acquits herself pretty well even on the lesser of this material:





And that’s about it from me. For many more photos, links to music clips, and biographical info (gathered from a twofer CD), check Toilet Doctor’s earlier messages about Helen on pages 92 and 93 (#2299, #22301, #22302).

Long live Helen’s memory.