Blues Queens of the 'Twenties: An alphabetical presentation of twenty-five of the female blues singers active and recording during the 1920s.
Ron Sweetman sitting in for regular B&B host John Tackaberry.
Artist: MILDRED AUSTIN
Accompaniment: Unknown pianist
Tune: My Papa Doesn't Two Time No Time
Date: May 1928
City: Richmond, Indiana
Company: Supertone
CD Title: Female Blues Singers Volume 1
Cut #: 10
CD Label: Document
Artist: MARY H. BRADFORD
Accompaniment: Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra
Tune: Chatanooga Blues
Date: October 1923
City: St. Louis, Missouri
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Female Blues Singers Volume 2
Cut #: 14
CD Label: Document
Artist: IDA COX
Accompaniment: Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders:
Tommy Ladnier [cornet], Jimmy O'Bryant [clarinet], Lovie Austin [piano]
Tune: Graveyard Dream Blues
Date: June 1923
City: Chicago
Company: Paramount
CD Title: Ida Cox Volume 1
Cut #: 4
CD Label: Document
Artist: PEARL DICKSON
Accompaniment: Maylon Harney & Richard Harney – guitar duet
Tune: Little Rock Blues
Date: March 12, 1927
City: Memphis
Company: Columbia
CD Title: The Ladies in Blues Volume 1
Cut #: 1-11
CD Label: Membran
Artist: MOANIN' BERNICE EDWARDS
Accompaniment: Probably own piano
Tune: Long Tall Mama
Date: February 1928
City: Chicago
Company: Paramount
CD Title: Texas Piano Volume 1
Cut #: 14
CD Label: Document
Artist: NELLIE FLORENCE
Accompaniment: Probably Charlie Hicks or possibly Robert Hicks [Barbecue Bob]
Tune: Midnight Weeping Blues
Date: April 21, 1928
City: Atlanta, Georgia
Company: Columbia
CD Title: The Slide Guitar Volume 2
Cut #: 6
CD Label: Columbia
Artist: LILLIAN GLINN
Accompaniment: Willie Tyson [piano] & unknown brass bass
Tune: The Man I Love Is Worth Talking About
Date: April 24, 1928
City: New Orleans
Company: Columbia
CD Title: Lillian Glinn: Complete Recorded Works
Cut #: 5
CD Label: Document
Artist: BERTHA “CHIPPIE” HILL
Accompaniment: Louis Armstrong [cornet] & Richard M. Jones [piano] ???
Tune: Trouble In Mind
Date: February 23, 1926
City: Chicago
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Jazz Blues Rarities 1924-1939
Cut #: 7
CD Label: LaserLight
Artist: ALBERTA HUNTER
Accompaniment: Clarence Williams [piano]
Tune: If You Can't Keep The Man You Love
[Don't Cry When He's Gone]
Date: August 11, 1926
City: NYC
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Female Blues 1922-1927
Cut #: 6
CD Label: RST
Artist: EDITH NORTH JOHNSON
Accompaniment: Baby Jay [cornet] & probably Roosevelt Sykes [piano]
Tune: Can't Make Another Day
Date: September 7, 1929
City: Richmond, Indiana
Company: Paramount
CD Title: Jazz Blues Rarities 1924-1939
Cut #: 5
CD Label: LaserLight
Artist: LOTTIE KIMBROUGH
Accompaniment: Winston Holmes [voice], Miles Pruitt [guitar/voice]
Tune: Don't Speak To Me
Date: August 21, 1928
City: Richmond, Indiana
Company: Gennett
CD Title: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Cut #: 2-18
CD Label: Yazoo
Artist: MANDY LEE
Accompaniment: Unknown
Tune: If Your Man Is Like My Man
Date: April 4, 1923
City: NYC
Company: Unknown
CD Title: Classic Blues, Jazz & Vaudeville Singers Volume 4
Cut #: 15
CD Label: Document
Artist: LILLIAN MILLER
Accompaniment: Hersal Thomas [piano]
Tune: Kitchen Blues
Date: March 4, 1926
City: Chicago
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Texas Girls 1926-1929
Cut #: 1
CD Label: Document
Artist: IDA MAY MACK
Accompaniment: K. Johnson [piano]
Tune: Goodbye Rider
Date: August 30, 1928
City: Memphis, Tennessee
Company: Victor
CD Title: Texas Girls 1926-1929
Cut #: 18
CD Label: Document
Artist: MEMPHIS MINNIE
Accompaniment: Joe McCoy [guitar]
Tune: Bumble Bee
Date: June 18, 1929
City: NYC
Company: Columbia
CD Title: Memphis Minnie 1929-1930
Cut #: 3
CD Label: JSP
Artist: GERTRUDE PERKINS
Accompaniment: Willie Tyson [piano], Unknown guitar, Octave Gaspard [brass bass]
Tune: No Easy Rider Blues
Date: December 6, 1927
City: Dallas, Texas
Company: Columbia
CD Title: Texas Girls 1926-1929
Cut #: 8
CD Label: Document
Artist: MA RAINEY
Accompaniment: Her Georgia Band: Joe Smith [cornet], Charlie Green [trombone],
Buster Bailey [clarinet], Coleman Hawkins [baritone sax],
Fletcher Henderson [piano], Charlie Dixon [banjo]
Tune: Stack O'Lee Blues
Date: December 1925
City: NYC
Company: Paramount
CD Title: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey 1923-1928
Cut #: 16
CD Label: Giants of Jazz
Artist: MAMIE SMITH
Accompaniment: Her Jazz Hounds: Johnny Dunn [cornet], Dope Andrews [trombone],
Ernest Elliott [clarinet], Leroy Parker [violin], probably Perry Bradford [piano]
Tune: Crazy Blues
Date: August 10, 1920
City: NYC
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Crazy Blues: The Best of Mamie Smith
Cut #: 1
CD Label: Columbia
Artist: MARY STAFFORD
Accompaniment: Her Jazz Band: Charlie Gaines [cornet], Earl Granstaff [trombone],
Ben Whittet [clarinet], Nelson Kincaid [alto sax], George Breen [violin], Charlie Johnson [piano].
Tune: I'm Gonna Jazz My Way Right Straight Thru Paradise
Date: March 1921
City: NYC
Company: Columbia
CD Title: Female Blues Singers Volume 13
Cut #: 13
CD Label: Document
Artist: BESSIE SMITH
Accompaniment: Ed Allen [cornet], Garvin Bushell [alto sax], Greely Walton [tenor sax], Clarence Williams [piano], Cyrus St. Clair [brass bass]
Tune: Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out
Date: May 15, 1929
City: NYC
Company: Company
CD Title: The Complete Recordings Volume 4
Cut #: 1-19
CD Label: Columbia
Artist: HOCIEL THOMAS
Accompaniment: Louis Armstrong [cornet], Johnny Dodds [clarinet],
Hersal Thomas [piano], Johnny St.Cyr [banjo]
Tune: Gambler's Dream
Date: November 11, 1925
City: Chicago
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Hociel Thomas & Lillie Delk Christian
Cut #: 1
CD Label: Document
Artist: UNKNOWN [possibly Camille Allen]
Accompaniment: Sonny Clay [piano],
Tune: Mama Likes To Do It
Date: probably 1922
City: Los Angeles
Company: Sunset
CD Title: Female Blues Singers Volume 14
Cut #: 11
CD Label: Document
Artist: LOUISE VANT
Accompaniment: Roy Banks [piano]
Tune: The Man I Love Is Oh So Good To Me
Date: March 16, 1926
City: NYC
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Female Blues 1922-1927
Cut #: 20
CD Label: RST
Artist: SIPPIE WALLACE
Accompaniment: Joe Oliver [cornet], Hersal Thomas [piano]
Tune: Devil Dance Blues
Date: February 24, 1925
City: Chicago
Company: Okeh
CD Title: Sippie Wallace Volume 1
Cut #: 20
CD Label: Document
Artist: BILLIE YOUNG
Accompaniment: Jelly Roll Morton [piano]
Tune: When They Get Lovin' They's Gone
Date: April 3, 1930
City: NYC
Company: Victor
CD Title: Female Blues Singers Volume 14
Cut #: 23
CD Label: Document
“BLACK & BLUES” can be heard every Sunday from 9:00 to 11:00pm
on CKCU FM 93.1.
______________________________________________________
Bill Coleman, 1904-1981
About Me
- Ron Sweetman
- Ron Sweetman has been an activist for jazz and blues since arriving in Canada in 1969. He was a founder member of L’Atelier de Musique Experimentale (1972), Jazz Ottawa (1976), and Music Now (1997). He has written for CODA magazine since 1970, and has been a member of the Down Beat International Critics Poll since 1982. He has hosted his weekly jazz and blues radio show “In A Mellow Tone” on CKCU-FM 93.1 since May 1976. In his spare time, Ron is a management consultant.
