• List Price: $14.99  
• Your Price: $9.29
• In Stock: 3

You must login to place orders.




Not purchasing for a business? See our consumer site.

Accordionist, pianist, singer and band leader, Christine Chatman was popular around New York and played a mean boogie piano. Decca probably had high hopes of good sales at the height of the boogie woogie craze. Her vocals were rousing rather than mellifluous with echoes of Big Joe Turner! Viola Wells, known professionally as Miss Rhapsody, was an active member of the generation of lady 'vaudeville' blues singers that included Ethel Waters, Clara Smith, Lucille Hegamin et al. She operated on that undefinable borderline between blues and jazz, having started out singing in a church choir. In 1940 she got a big break when Helen Humes left Count Basie's Band and Viola replaced her when the band appeared at President Roosevelt's 3rd Term inaugural in January 1941. Her versatility is demonstrated in these Savoy recordings where she ranges from all out boogie in 'Bye Bye Baby', through 1920's classics like 'Downhearted Blues' and 'He May Be Your Man' to the socially conscious 'We're Sisters Under The Skin'. What a voice the lady had.... Irene Williams was the daughter of famed musician, composer and music business entrepreneur Clarence Williams and his tremendously popular vaudeville blues singer wife Eva Taylor who had recorded regularly throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Ruby Walker was the niece of Jack Gee, who for several years was (stormily) married to the great Bessie Smith. She took the surname Smith, perhaps partly in tribute and certainly to benefit from the relationship, but wisely avoided trying to copy Bessie's style. Instead, she steered a careful course between 'torch' blues and rhythm and blues. WNYC probably felt the opportunity was too good to miss and Ruby recorded two of Bessie's most successful numbers, in contrast she also recorded a strong version of the Cecil Gant hit 'Hit That Jive, Jack'.

Track Listing