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GERTRUDE
SAUNDERS
Blues singer and actress Gertrude
Saunders was born in North Carolina
in 1903. She came up in the Roaring ’20s blues-jazz era, where the
competition among divas was fierce.
Saunders and her blazing charm
made her early footprints on Broadway in Liza, Shuffle Along (alongside
Josephine Baker), and Irvin C. Miller’s
Red Hot Mama. The beauty’s romantic alliance with Bessie Smith’s
husband, producer Jack Gee, caused
an inferno of anguish in Smith, as
Gee siphoned off his wife’s coin into
Saunders’ career, which flowered in
prewar times. Film appearances by
Saunders include Sepia Cinderella,
Big Timers and The Toy Wife. She
passed away in 1987. Discover the
belle with “You Can’t Have It Unless
I Give It to You,” from the Document
Records collection Female Blues
Singers Vol. 13: R/S (1921-1931).
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Blues
ARTIST: Gertrude Saunders
SONG: You Can’t Have It Unless
I Give It to You
ALBUM: Female Blues Singers
Vol. 13: R/S (1921-1931)
MUSIC
HUFFINGTON
01.19.14
HANK WILLIAMS
SIDNEY BECHET
American paramount country crooner
Hank Williams was born Hiram King
Williams in Alabama in 1923, one of
two surviving children to a rail engineer/WWI vet and a boardinghouse
landlady. The untouchable icon of
country music made his professional
mark in his mid-teens at WSFA radio,
and by the late ’30s he founded The
Drifting Cowboys. In the early ’40s,
Hank was a standing-room-only draw
on the local circuit. Music impresarios
Roy Acuff and Fred Rose took to Williams and seasoned him for the attentions of MGM Records. Soon after, in
1947, he had his first chart-topping
hit, “Move It On Over.” The Louisiana
Hayride radio show and scores of hits
followed, including legendary titles
“A Long Gone Daddy,” “Mansion on
the Hill,” “Cold Cold Heart,” and No. 1
“Love Sick Blues,” opening the gate for
his run at the Grand Ole Opry. Years of
hard living took his life at the unsettling age of 29. Williams’ body was
found in the back of his Cadillac en
route to a show in Virginia. Posthumous credits include several hits and
inductions into the Grammy Hall of
Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
and the Country Music Hall of Fame,
as well as a Pulitzer Special Citation.
Revisit “Window Shopping,” from 20
of Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits.
Jazz marvel Sidney Bechet was born
in 1897 in New Orleans, the son of a
shoemaker. Sidney discovered music at age 8, and his genius made its
trajectory to clarinet and saxophone.
By Bechet’s late teens, he set off
to Chicago with Clarence Williams,
then London with Will Marion Cook’s
Southern Syncopated Orchestra.
While overseas, Bechet garnered the
attention of Swiss conductor Ernest
Ansermet, ultimately landing much
of his work in Paris and London. In
the ’30s, Bechet founded The New
Orleans Feetwarmers with trumpeter
Tommy Ladnier. During the ’40s, he
landed in NYC, and by the ’50s, he
moved to France for good and racked
up international hits. Collaborations
include King Oliver, Louis Armstrong,
Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Noble
Sissle, and Bob Wilber. The virtuoso
passed away in 1959. With a bevy of
classics to collect, remember Sidney
Bechet’s 1947 “Love for Sale,” from
The Aristocrat of Jazz: Sidney Bechet.
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Country
ARTIST: Hank Williams
SONG: Window Shopping
ALBUM: 20 of Hank
Williams’ Greatest Hits
BUY: iTunes.com
GENRE: Jazz
ARTIST: Sidney Bechet
SONG: Love for Sale
ALBUM: The Originals–The
Aristocrat of Jazz: Sidney Bechet