Vintage Jazz and Blues Vocalist
Linda Carone Vintage Jazz and Blues
Toronto Canada live music
Linda Carone jazz vocalist singer artist
2015
Yes, this is number 1. It's my debut cd and I’ve got a stellar line-up of musicians and a kick-ass producer joining me in this collaboration. I’m inviting YOU to get in on the details as they happen. Stay close so that I can get your ideas and input. Please send your EMAIL address and get on the mailing LIST. disegnodonna@sympatico.ca
December 5th...
Today in America is what is known as Repeal Day. The Day Prohibition ended December 5, 1933, with the adoption of the 21st Amendment. Of course, prohibition did not stop people from drinking and having fun for those 13 years prior to that day. People flocked to the speakeasies, where jazz bands played. There was a Liberation, Revolution!, Wild Dancing, Men and Women drank together and you know what that can lead to!
So it’s no surprise that Repeal Day parties are popular this time of the year. Time to Celebrate! I had the pleasure of entertaining the crowd at Spirithouse in Toronto as part as a Repeal Day Celebration being held there.
This particular video represents the essence of this era, although it is not a song about alcohol, it is about Marihuana which at the time was legal in some states and not in others, during the time of prohibition. This song was originally called SWEET MARIJUANA (aka "Marahuana”) (by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow). It was a song and dance number from a 1934 film called 'Murder at the Vanities’. The song was censored and then went through lyrical changes as well as a title change, now known as LOTUS BLOSSOM (aka "Sweet Lotus Blossom”). Here is a little clip from my last gig singing it!
I can fall in love with a song. Once that song comes to me.. I must listen to it, find out what I can about it, learn it, build a chart, find the right key for me and sing it. There is something about really getting into a song, finding a connection with it and discovering that it suits you, in personality and as a vocalist. That’s what happened when I heard 'Blue Prelude’. A song written in 1933, Words by Gordon Jenkins (22 years of age at the time) and Music by Joe Bishop. This pair wrote this song while working with Isham Jones and His Orchestra. A melancholy tune covered by few artists since the first recording by The Casa Loma Orchestra in 1933. Lena Horne covered it in 1947, Judy Garland in 1957 and Nina Simone in 1959.
My favourite version is by Mildred Bailey. Here’s my version. I think this one is a keeper, I will sing it over and over again.
BLUE PRELUDE (G.JENKINS /J.BISHOP) 1933 LInda Carone - Vocals Peter Hill - Piano Ross MacIntyre - Bass Performed at Girls Night Out 120 Diner on Church Street, Toronto, Ontario September 8, 2015
THE STUFF IS HERE (and it's Mellow) is what you would call a REEFER song. Songs about Marijuana, otherwise known as ‘Jive’, ‘Texas Tea’, and ‘Viper’ among a few... were popular in 1930's jazz culture. Weed was legal until 1933 when it was then banned. This music was pretty much considered to be the POP records of the day... short, catchy and sweet. Of course there were songs about other drugs and booze as well. "The Stuff is Here and it's mellow" was written by Walter Bishop Sr., a Jamaican composer and songwriter. His "Swing, Brother, Swing" was recorded by Billie Holiday with Count Basie in the 1939.
There are only a few versions of the song that I've heard, initially it was the Georgia White version, recorded in 1937, that inspired me to interpret it. She was known as a Barrelhouse blues vocalist who recorded risqué blues songs from the 1930s through the early '40s including "I'll Keep Sitting on It" and "Hot Nuts", among a few.
She did sing a more popular tune that we Canadians may recognize being used in a Labbats Blue Beer TV commercial. An advertising campaign that began in the late 1960's through the 70's that was extremely successful for the brand. The song "When You're Smiling, the Whole World Smiles With You", was recorded by Georgia White in 1930 for the Vocalion label with the Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra.
Georgia White (born in Georgia in 1903) was considered a blues revivalist covering the likes of Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey and Lucille Bogan. In the early 1940s the Decca recording label billed her as "The World's Greatest Blues Singer".
A Blues scholar named Paul Oliver said about White "Undeservedly neglected in recent years, Georgia White was one of the most popular of the recording blues singers in the thirties. She had a strong contralto voice with a keen edge to her intonation and was a capable pianist in the barrelhouse house tradition."
Let’s talk a little about one of the songs I’ve chosen to sing for my videos, ‘Baby Get Lost’ a tune written by Leonard Feather and Billy Moore Jr.
Billie Holiday recorded this song With Buster Harding And His Orchestra on Decca Records, 1949.
Not too many vocalists have covered this song, there was of course Dinah Washington who brought it to top of the charts in 1949. More recently, Queen Latifah covered the song on her jazz album… and who just portrayed Bessie Smith ‘Empress of the Blues’ in a film about her Life. More about Bessie Smith and that film… later.
Billie Holiday is the first vocalist I’d ever heard that made me turn my head. It was quite different than what I was listening to at the time…so she opened the door in a way where I found a whole new world of treasures, of discovering jazz and blues…Oh what depth, feeling and artistry she could convey… I listened to her, then others and I sang, oh so quietly to myself, playing with the melodies. I listened to alot of music for a long time, perhaps even making mental notes that I want to learn that… collecting songs to learn…way before I ever got up and sang in front of an audience. My passion for the music and vocalizing lay dormant for quite awhile.
Well, here I am… better late than never!
Hello... and isn't it about time. This is where I will be sharing my passion for the music I love, and the music I love to sing. I hope you stay tuned...