Patrick Bade
Black Divas on the Jazz Scene

Patrick Bade | Black Divas on the Jazz Scene | 02.18.24

Visuals and music played throughout the presentation.

- As you can see, I’m in Paris. You can see from the backdrop, and I’ve been here now for 10 days, and last week had the most fantastic time, leading a group organised by Kirk Holidays. We went to the opera every night and we went to exhibitions and museums in the day and saw some fantastic things. And I fell completely in love with the American singer, Lisette Oropesa. She really is somebody you need to look out for. A beautiful, ravishing voice, amazing technique. And by coincidence, the following evening, I bumped into her in the audience for the next opera we went into. So I rushed up to her and I gushed that she was the toast of Paris. You know, I think everybody who saw her fell in love with her. So anyway, I’ve got another one of those trips coming up in May for Kirker that will be Salamy with the amazing Lisa Davidson. So looking forward to that very much. Right, tonight I’m talking about five Afro American singers.

Four of the five, certainly basically jazz singers, although they sang lots of other stuff as well. So at the top left, we’ve got Ella Fitzgerald, in the middle, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, top right Dinah Washington, bottom left, and Eartha Kitt, bottom right. This is an incredible constellation of talent of singers who are all more or less contemporaries, but it was not an easy story. There’s a lot of tragedy, for all five of them, actually, a lot of struggle. Struggle against the racism that we’ve already heard about with the opera singers, and in various ways struggles with their own background and with personal demons. This is the very young Ella, and she was born in Virginia in 1917, moved to New York as a child, and she started off, well, she was a bright child. She did well at school, but when she was 15, her mother died in an accident and she went through a very dark phase and it seems that she was abused, sexually abused by her stepfather. And she dropped out of school and she fell into delinquency, petty crime. And she was picked up and sent to a reform school.

But singing, for all these singers, again, rather like the classical singers I was talking about recently, childhood experience of singing in church, gospel singing was very important. And another common factor to at least three of the singers I’m talking about tonight was one way forward for singers at this time was to take part in competitions. There were lots and lots of talent contests going on, and if you won a talent contest, you could win a gig at a theatre or with a band. And she did this in 1934. And although initially, ‘cause she was very, apparently very scruffy and rather gauche in appearance, but so she was, in fact, although she officially won a stint in a theatre, they didn’t pick her up on it, but the Chick Webb Band did. And she became a singer with the Chick Webb Band. That was 1934. And four years later, she had her big breakthrough with a song that became a national hit and was constantly heard on the radio. “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” she had a part really creating this song. She was the first person to sing it. And it’s actually a traditional rhyme, I suppose, a kind of nursery rhyme that she jazzed up.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ A-tisket, a-tasket ♪ ♪ A brown and yellow basket ♪ ♪ I send a letter to my mommy ♪ ♪ On the way, I dropped it ♪ ♪ I dropped it, I dropped it ♪ ♪ Yes, on the way I dropped it ♪ ♪ A little girly picked it up and put it in her pocket ♪ ♪ She was trucking on down the avenue ♪ ♪ But not a single thing to do ♪ ♪ She went peck, peck, pecking all around ♪ ♪ When she spied it on the ground ♪ ♪ She took it, she took it ♪ ♪ My little yellow basket ♪ ♪ And if she doesn’t bring it back ♪ ♪ I think that I will die ♪

So she sang a lot of the popular hits of the period. This is of course the era of the big bands. You heard that big band sound behind her on that record. And another popular song. Of course, she wasn’t the only one to sing it. Everybody was singing this one in the late 1930s. And this is “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.” Quite odd, really, I’ve always thought it was rather bizarre that at this time of the rise of the Nazis and antisemitism all over Europe, that this song was such a huge international hit.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Of all the boys I’ve known, and I’ve known some ♪ ♪ Until I first met you, I was lonesome ♪ ♪ And when you came inside, dear my heart grew light ♪ ♪ And this old world seemed new to me ♪ ♪ You’re really swell, I have to admit you ♪ ♪ Deserve expressions that really fit you ♪ ♪ And so I rack my brain hoping to explain ♪ ♪ All the things that you do to me ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon please let me explain ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon means that you’re grand ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon, again I’ll explain ♪ ♪ It means you are the fairest in the land ♪ I could say bella, bella, even sehr wunderbar ♪ Each language only helps me tell you ♪ ♪ How grand you are ♪ ♪ I’ve tried to explain ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪ ♪

So kiss me and say you understand ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon means you’re grand ♪ ♪ It means you’re the fairest in the land ♪ ♪ I could say bella, bella, even sehr wunderbar ♪ ♪ Each language only helps me tell you ♪ ♪ How grand you are ♪ ♪ So kiss me and say you understand ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪ ♪ Please let me explain ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon means that you’re grand ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪ ♪ It means you’re the fairest in the land ♪ ♪ I could say bella, bella, even sehr wunderbar ♪ ♪ Each language only helps me tell you how grand you are ♪ ♪ I’ve tried to explain ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪ ♪ So kiss me and say you understand ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪ ♪ Bei mir bist du schon ♪

So you hear the lovely, smooth quality of her voice and also this ability to scat, which was very one of her characteristics. So when I heard her, I was taken by my friend, Robin Miller, in New York to hear her at Rodeo Musical right at the end of her career. Afraid the legato had gone, she didn’t have that anymore, but she could still do that rapid scat. So she was famous by the end of the 1930s. And when Chick Webb died suddenly, she took over the band and changed its name. It became Ella Fitzgerald and her famous orchestra. And she had a very prestigious residency at the Roseland Ballroom, where she was, broadcast the nation. So millions and millions of people heard her this way. And this is an excerpt from a live broadcast from the Roseland Ballroom in 1940.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Here in the starlit hour ♪ ♪ Oh, heaven is in your eyes ♪ ♪ While the wind is sobbing ♪ ♪ Underneath the stars ♪ ♪ Both our hearts are throbbing ♪ ♪ Like two guitars ♪ ♪ Here in the starlit hour ♪ ♪ Night whispering lullabies ♪ ♪ Let me dream forever ♪ ♪ Underneath the silvery skies ♪ ♪ Will it be just as sweet again ♪ ♪ The glamour, the glory that we know? ♪ ♪ Will I find when we meet again ♪ ♪ The glamour, the glory’s still aglow ♪ ♪ But tonight, let us forget tomorrow ♪ ♪ Here under the midnight blue ♪ ♪ Love will bloom and flower ♪ ♪ In the starlit hour with you ♪

She had a very long career, over many decades, but I think probably she’s best remembered for the songbook albums that she produced after the second World War, devoted to the great American songbook. There were Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Gershwin and so on. So I’m going to play you two from these. And these I suppose, have become in a way the most famous versions of many of these songs. I had a discussion with some of you, some maybe months back now, about how songs have changed and how they’ve evolved.

And so songs from the 1920s, for instance, tend to be quite chirpy. And so once you get to the '50s and '60s, the songs had slowed down quite a lot. And they’re given in these albums incredibly lush and gorgeous orchestral accompaniments. And I imagine she must have taken quite some satisfaction in this, because earlier in her career in the 1940s, many Black singers, there was a kind of a rule that Black singers didn’t get to get, to have strings in their accompanying orchestra, that was reserved for white singers like Frank Sinatra. But certainly, she gets plenty of strings and a very gorgeous orchestration in this version of Cole Porter’s song, “When They Begin The Beguine.”

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ When they begin the beguine ♪ ♪ It brings back the sound of music so tender ♪ ♪ It brings back a night of tropical splendour ♪ ♪ It brings back a memory ever green ♪ ♪ I’m with you once more under the stars ♪ ♪ And down by the shore, an orchestra’s playing ♪ ♪ And even the palms seem to be swaying ♪ ♪ When they begin the beguine ♪ ♪ To live it again is past all endeavour ♪ ♪ Except when that tune clutches my heart ♪ ♪ And there we are, swearing to love forever ♪ ♪ And promising, never, never to part ♪ ♪ What moments divine, what rapture serene ♪ # 'Til clouds came along to disperse the joys we had tasted ♪ And now when I hear people curse ♪

♪ The chance that was wasted ♪ ♪ I know but too well what they mean ♪ ♪ So don’t let them begin the beguine ♪ ♪ Let the love that was once a fire remain an ember ♪ ♪ Let it sleep like the dead desire I only remember ♪ ♪ When they begin the beguine ♪ ♪ Oh yes, let them begin the beguine ♪ ♪ Make them play ♪ ♪ 'Til the stars that were there before return above you ♪ ♪ 'Til you whisper to me once more, “Darling, I love you” ♪ ♪ And we suddenly know ♪ ♪ What heaven we’re in ♪ ♪ When they begin the beguine ♪ ♪ When they begin the beguine ♪

♪ Music Plays ♪

That’s wonderful singing by any standards. It’s such a lovely sound, such a lovely timbre, perfect intonation, wonderful elegant phrasing, and always you feel is a real intelligence behind her singing in the way she presents the text. That of course there, both the music and the words by Cole Porter. Cole Porter was exceptional amongst all the great contributors to the so-called American Songbook for two reasons. One was that he was not Jewish, pretty well everybody else was. And second of course, that he wrote the words as well as the music.

So my other songbook piece that I want to play for you, this from the Jerome Kern songbook, and this is the song, 'A Fine Romance,“ words by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, who wrote the words for many of the most popular songs of the period. She, despite that very Anglo-Saxon name, she was, or her father was an immigrant, a Jewish immigrant from Poland. And she wrote lyrics of dazzling wit and sophistication. And I love the lyrics to this song. And again, Ella puts 'em across so well, all the little emphasis, all the little hesitations and so on. You feel she really, really understands the sophistication and the wit of these lyrics.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ With no kisses ♪ ♪ A fine romance, my friend, this is ♪ ♪ We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes ♪ ♪ But you are as cold as yesterday’s mashed potatoes ♪ ♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ You won’t nestle ♪ ♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ You won’t wrestle ♪ ♪ I might as well play bridge with my old maid aunt ♪ ♪ I haven’t got a chance ♪ ♪ This is a fine romance ♪ ♪ A fine romance, my good fellow, ♪ ♪ You take romance, I’ll take jello ♪ ♪ You’re calmer than the seals in the Arctic Ocean ♪ ♪ At least they flap their fins to express emotion ♪

♪ A fine romance with no quarrels ♪ ♪ With no insults and all morals ♪ ♪ I’ve never mussed a crease in your blue serge pants ♪ ♪ I never get the chance ♪ ♪ This is a fine romance ♪ ♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ With no kisses ♪ ♪ A fine romance, my friend, this is ♪ ♪ We two should be like clams in a dish of chowder ♪ ♪ But we just fizz like parts of seidlitz powder ♪ ♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ With no clinches ♪ ♪ A fine romance ♪ ♪ With no glitches ♪ ♪ You’re just as hard to love as the Isle de France ♪ ♪ I haven’t got a chance ♪ ♪ This is a fine romance ♪

♪ Music Plays ♪

Now of all these wonderfully talented singers I’m playing you tonight, I think my favourite might be Sarah Vaughan. And she just has such an extraordinary voice. It’s not a voice of operatic range and dimensions with incredible high notes, incredible low notes, an amazing ability to colour and modulate it. She was born in New Jersey in 1924 and she also had an early childhood background in church singing, in gospel music. But as a teenager, she dropped out of school in order to moonlight and perform in nightclubs. And she was picked up initially by the Earl Heinz Band and then the Billy Epstein Band before breaking away to develop an independent solo career. And my first excerpt is, it’s a live performance in one of these big nightclubs. And I like this because it really, I think this conveys the kind of rapport that she had with her audiences.

♪ Music Plays ♪

• [Sarah] Thank you all. Slower, slower, slower. ♪ I cover the waterfront ♪ ♪ I’m watching the sea ♪ ♪ Will the one I love be coming back to me? ♪ ♪ I cover the waterfront ♪ ♪ In search of my love ♪ ♪ And I’m covered by a starlit sky above ♪ ♪ Here am I patiently waiting ♪ ♪ Hoping and longing, oh how I yearn ♪ ♪ Where are you? ♪ ♪ Are you forgetting? ♪ ♪ Will you remember? ♪ ♪ Will you return? ♪ ♪ I cover the waterfront ♪ ♪ I’m watching the sea ♪ ♪ For the one I love ♪ ♪ But soon come back to me ♪ ♪ Here am I patiently waiting ♪ ♪ Hoping and longing, oh how I yearn ♪ ♪ Where are you? ♪ ♪ Are you forgetting? ♪ ♪ Will you remember? ♪ ♪ Will you return? ♪ ♪ I cover the waterfront ♪ ♪ I’m watching the sea ♪ ♪ For the one I love ♪ ♪ But soon come back to me ♪ ♪ To me, for the one I love ♪ ♪ But soon come back to me ♪

You feel if she’d wanted to, she could have sung "Carmen,” the voice has that richness and depth and variety of colour. She, in the '50s and '60s, she followed in the footsteps of Ella in producing these LP songbook of popular composers. Two wonderful volumes of George Gershwin’s songs that they’d be real desert island for me. And she’s such a virtuoso vocalist, I’m always fascinated by her command of technique. And in the first of the two songs I’m going to play you, “Isn’t It a Pity We Never Met Before,” I’d like you to look out for her use of vibrato, because vibrato, it can be a fault, it can be wobble. You know, in an opera singer, when the voice starts to over vibrate and it’s not steady, it’s not something desirable, but she uses it really as an expressive tool. And you’ll hear in this song how she can, it’s almost like she’s turning a dial and she can exaggerate it or lessen it.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Why did I wander here and there and yonder ♪ ♪ Wasting precious time ♪ ♪ For no reason or rhyme ♪ ♪ Isn’t it a pity? ♪ ♪ Isn’t it a crime? ♪ ♪ My journey’s ended ♪ ♪ Everything is splendid ♪ ♪ Meeting you today ♪ ♪ Has given me a wonderful idea ♪ ♪ Here I stay ♪ ♪ It’s a funny thing ♪ ♪ I look at you ♪ ♪ I get a thrill ♪ ♪ I never knew ♪ ♪ Isn’t it a pity we never met before? ♪ ♪ Here we are at last ♪ ♪ It’s like a dream ♪ ♪ The two of us, a perfect team ♪ ♪ Isn’t it a pity we never met before? ♪ ♪ Imagine all the lonely years we’ve wasted ♪ ♪ Fishing for salmon, losing at backgammon ♪ ♪ What joys untasted ♪ ♪ My nights were sour spent with Schopenhauer ♪ ♪ Let’s forget the past ♪ ♪ Let’s both agree ♪ ♪ That I’m for you and you’re for me ♪ ♪ It’s an awful pity we never met before ♪

My second Gershwin item for you, I think is a real wonder. And this is “A Foggy Day in London Town.” And this is a song that enables her to exploit the wonderful, rich lower depths of her voice. After the opening as she launches into “A Foggy Day,” she plunges into these wonderful, foggy depths at the lower end of her voice.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ I was a stranger in the city ♪ ♪ Out of town were the people I knew ♪ ♪ I had that feeling of self pity ♪ ♪ What to do, what to do, what to do ♪ ♪ The outlook was decidedly blue ♪ ♪ But as I walked through the foggy streets alone ♪ ♪ It turned out to be the luckiest day I know ♪ ♪ A foggy day ♪ ♪ In London town ♪ ♪ Had me low ♪ ♪ Had me down ♪ ♪ I viewed the morning with much alarm ♪ ♪ The British museum had lost its charm ♪ ♪ How long I wondered ♪ ♪ Could this thing last? ♪ ♪ But the age of miracles hadn’t passed ♪ ♪ For suddenly I saw you there ♪ ♪ And through foggy London town ♪ ♪ The sun was shining everywhere ♪

So there’s a huge a range of different ways of singing that we’re going to hear with these five women I’m playing you tonight. We move on to Billie Holiday, who was born in Philadelphia in 1915. You see her as a little child here. It was a familiar story of terrible childhood neglect and abuse. And that later I think, probably set her off on a pattern throughout life of forming very abusive relationships with men. When I saw this picture on the internet, I thought, “Aha, that’s very interesting that she has what looks like a gardenia in her hair.” This, of course, later on became her trademark. And it’s always said, it was actually something that was almost accidental. She’d burned a patch in her hair on one occasion and put the gardenia to cover it up, and then retained it as almost a sort of a trademark for the rest of her career. She has a quite extraordinary ability to improvise.

I mean, of all these singers, she’s, I suppose, the great jazz singer. And her vocal technique was very much based on the technique of jazz instrumentalists. And I’m going to play you her version of Cole Porter’s song “Night and Day,” of course, that was originally written for Fred Astaire in the film, “The Gay Divorcee.” And it was written specifically for Fred’s very, very narrow vocal range, but also the fact that that much of the song is one note, “Da da dum dum dum dum dum, Da da dum dum dum dum dum.” And it never actually deviates very much from that. It goes just above it or just below it. And this, I think is also to convey a sense of obsession that in the film that Fred is feeling for Ginger. So I’d be quite interested to see how you react to what Billie Holiday does with this song. She completely transforms it. She completely rewrites it.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Night and day, you are the one ♪ ♪ Only you beneath the moon and the sun ♪ ♪ Whether near to me or far ♪ ♪ It’s no matter, darling, where you are ♪ ♪ I think of you ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪ ♪ Day and night, why is it so? ♪ ♪ That this longing for you follows wherever I go ♪ ♪ In the roaring traffic’s boom ♪ ♪ In the silence of my lonely room ♪ ♪ I think of you ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪ ♪ Under the hide of me ♪ ♪ There’s such a hungry yearning ♪ ♪ Burning inside of me ♪ ♪ And its torment won’t be through ♪ ♪ 'Til you let me spend my night ♪ ♪ Making love to you, night and day ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪ ♪ Under the hide of me ♪ ♪ There’s such a hungry yearning ♪ ♪ Burning inside of me ♪ ♪ And its torment won’t be through ♪ ♪ 'Til you let me spend my nights ♪ ♪ Making love to you, day and night ♪ ♪ Night and day ♪

I think probably the song most associated with her is “A Strange Fruit.” And this is one of the most famous, one of the greatest protest songs of the 20th century, inspired by the photograph that you see on the top left of the screen of a lynching. Lynchings were increasingly frequent in the southern states in the first half of the 20th century. And this image shocked the composer, who wrote the words and the music, and his name was Abel Meeropol. You see his, his image bottom left, who was not Black. He was actually a Russian Jew. And we’ve talked before about this interesting and very creative symbiosis between Afro Americans and Jewish immigrants. Very important for American culture. You can say, you know, American popular music, which conquered the world in the 1930s and onwards was a result of this symbiosis, you could say, of two persecuted peoples. So Billie Holiday recorded this song several times, and it was a staple of her repertoire, and I think extremely powerful in its impact.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Southern trees bear strange fruit ♪ ♪ Blood on leaves ♪ ♪ And blood at the root ♪ ♪ Black bodies swinging ♪ ♪ In the Southern breeze ♪ ♪ Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees ♪ ♪ Pastoral scene of the gallant South ♪ ♪ The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth ♪ ♪ Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh ♪ ♪ Then the sudden smell of burning flesh ♪ ♪ Here’s a fruit for the crows to pluck ♪ ♪ For the rain to gather ♪ ♪ For the wind to suck ♪ ♪ For the sun to rot ♪ ♪ For the trees to drop ♪ ♪ Here’s a strange and bitter crop ♪

Despite her success and popularity, her life was a tragic one, as I said, a series of very abusive relationships. And she sank increasingly into drug addiction. This is a mugshot taken of her in 1947 when she was arrested for the possession of drugs. And she served a prison sentence, but continued her career afterwards. But her personal downward path, here she’s prematurely aged in her early 40s and she died age 44. It’s a terrible story. She was actually, the police came to the hospital to arrest her again, for possession of drugs, as she was dying, she was handcuffed to her hospital bed and died at the age of 44. And apparently there was only 70 cents left in her bank account.

So this is Dinah Washington, as you can see, and also very short-lived. She died of a accidental drug overdose, age 39, born in 1924 in Alabama, moved as a child to Chicago, similar background of church and gospel. And like Ella and Sarah Vaughan, she won a talent contest. Again, a troubled woman, I would say. I mean, nobody knows quite how many husbands she had. If you try and look her up on the internet, the estimates vary between six and nine husbands. That’s some going, I would say, to have between six and nine husbands, by the age of 39. It’s a very distinctive sound, wonderfully seductive. And I’m going to play you my own favourite Dinah Washington record. I’m sure it’s very, very familiar to you.

It’s “Mad About the Boy.” This was written in the '20s by Noel Coward. And it’s usually said to be an expression of his own crush that he had on the film star Douglas Fairbanks Jr., which of course was not reciprocated, but he wrote it really as a comic song. It’s performed by comedians like Bea Lillie and Joyce Grenfell. And in the original, there are two verses that are sung in different English accents. One is a cockney school girl and the other is a rather posh young lady. And of course Bea Lillie and Joyce Grenfell were very good at doing those different accents. But here, it’s not a spoof at all. And it’s not really a comic song. It’s quite a serious one in its way.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ Mad about the boy ♪ ♪ I know it’s stupid to be mad about the boy ♪ ♪ I’m so ashamed of it ♪ ♪ But must admit the sleepless nights I’ve had ♪ ♪ About the boy ♪ ♪ On the silver screen ♪ ♪ He melts my foolish heart in every single scene ♪ ♪ Although I’m quite aware that here and there ♪ ♪ Are traces of the cad ♪ ♪ About the boy ♪ ♪ Lord knows I’m not a fool girl ♪ ♪ I really shouldn’t care ♪ ♪ Lord knows I’m not a school girl ♪ ♪ In the fury of her first affair ♪ ♪ Will it ever cloy ♪ ♪ This odd diversity of misery and joy? ♪ ♪ I’m feeling quite insane and young again ♪ ♪ And all because I’m mad ♪ ♪ About the boy ♪ ♪ So if I could employ ♪ ♪ A little magic that would finally destroy ♪ ♪ This dream that pains me and enchains me ♪ ♪ But I can’t, because I’m mad about the boy ♪

I’d love to know if Noel Coward ever heard that and what he would have thought of this total transformation of his little comic song. So I’m finishing with Eartha Kitt, the woman that Oswald described as the most exciting woman in the world when he cast her as Helen of Troy in a play. Again, parallels. Born in South Carolina in 1927. She had a childhood of neglect and abuse. When her mother took a new lover who was Black, he rejected her because her skin was too pale. So I suppose racism based on colour of skin is not something that is an exclusively white phenomenon. She started off her career very brilliantly, but it came for a while to a jaggering halt in 1968.

Famous incident, I think I’ve got the photograph of it here, yes. She was invited to a lunch at the White House. This was during the Vietnam War. And she had a real rant against about how pointless this was and sending young Americans to their deaths. I think with hindsight we can see, of course, she was absolutely right. But this is the First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, who was so distressed by Earth Kitt’s outburst that she burst into tears. And for a while after this, Eartha Kitt was pretty well unemployable. But her career picked up and she actually had a long and very varied and successful career. But I’m going to finish tonight with Eartha Kitt in her best sex kitten mode.

♪ Music Plays ♪

♪ I used to fall in love with all those boys ♪ ♪ Who call on young cuties ♪ ♪ But now I find I’m more inclined ♪ ♪ To keep my mind on my duties ♪ ♪ While tearing off a game of golf ♪ ♪ I may make a play for the caddy ♪ ♪ But when I do, I don’t follow through ♪ ♪ 'Cause my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ If I invite a boy some night ♪ ♪ To dine on my fine fin and haddie ♪ ♪ I just adore his asking for more ♪ ♪ But my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ So I simply couldn’t be bad ♪ ♪ Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ So I want to warn you, laddie ♪

♪ Though I know you’re perfectly swell ♪ ♪ But my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ 'Cause my daddy, he treats it so well ♪ ♪ There was a dame that a football game ♪ ♪ Made long for the strong undergraddie ♪ ♪ I never dream of making the team ♪ ♪ 'Cause my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ So I simply couldn’t be bad ♪ ♪ Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ Da da da da da da da da ♪ ♪ So I want to warn you, laddie ♪ ♪ Though I know you’re perfectly swell ♪ ♪ But my heart belongs to Daddy ♪ ♪ 'Cause my daddy, he treats it so well ♪ ♪ So well ♪

Well, it seems to be an enormous number of comments tonight. So let’s see what they are.

Q&A and Comments

The name of the wonderful opera singer is Lisette Oropesa, O-R-O-P-E-S-A. Look her up, you can see her performing on YouTube. She’s just the business, she’s absolute perfection in every way.

Q: “What about Lena Horne?” A: Yes, I could have included her, could have, I suppose for quite a few more, I could have included Lena Horne. I mean, I did talk about her briefly, of course. And I played her in the context of the Harlem lecture. And of course, yes, Lena Horne is not a jazz singer, but then neither really is Eartha Kitt.

Right, some discussion about whether she’s jazz or not. Yeah, I guess there is the great purity, isn’t it? That lovely creamy, pure sound that Ella has. Although as I said, I think there’s more range and more colour in Sarah Vaughan. Yeah, Burnett, I agree with you. Earth Kitt is not a jazz singer by any standard. And I’ve not included, well, I’m sure there are, everybody’s going to have their favourites that I haven’t included, of course. Francine, I’m glad you like my choice. Samara Joy. I haven’t come across her. I will look her out. Nina Simone could have been included and I mean, if I put in everybody then there wouldn’t have, you know, it would’ve been ridiculous, really. It has to be a selection and a choice. Of course, it’s going to be a personal one.

Q: “How were these not very rich artists able to finance their costume?” A: Well, I think they actually were earned pretty well. That, Maria, that is a question that was a very important question in the 19th century for actresses and classical singers who had to provide their own costumes, you know, for the opera. And often led them actually into prostitution in order to pay.

Q: Who wrote the lyrics of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon?” A: You you can find that out very easily. It’s on the internet. Oh, Jacob Jacobs. Yes, you’re quite right. And Sammy Khan and Sean Chaplin in English.

Alice, you saw the wonderful Billie Holiday in Toronto. Small venue. You were able to talk, how interesting, you were able to talk to her in the interval. And Carmen McCray. Gloria, in Toronto in the '40s and early '50s, Black singers did not stay at the Royal York Hotel where they performed. Yes, and that’s something I didn’t really go into tonight, but there are so many stories of all these singers being forced, you know, to take the service lift when they were performing in hotels and so on, you know, dreadful humiliation that they were, that they suffered in the 1940s and into the '50s. And of course their audiences were white, yes. There were no strings attached to their recordings, yes. I see what you mean.

“She was saved by Norman Gantz as she got into just singing bop, he produced the range of Great American songbook albums, which steered her away from just singing bop.” I think you’re talking about Ella here. She always sang her version of “How High the Moon,” which features her improvisational skills. “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon.” Yes, thank you again for that. “Ella evidently had no idea how good and important she was. She also had to buy her house in the name of her manager. Manager owned her colour.” Yes, so many of these terrible stories of that period. Thank you Ella, Sarah, Joe Williams. “No scat from Ella.” Yeah, I’m sorry, an hour is very short for.. Ewa Podles. Oh, she died. Wonderful singer. Also, I mean, you could say actually Ewa Podles was a kind of operatic equivalent of Sarah Vaughan, a singer with a huge range and an absolutely extraordinary technique.

Thank you, Naomi. And I’m glad you like the same singers that I do. And this is Bernard who heard Sarah at the Flamingo Club in London in the early '50s and your wife helped her zip up her dress. This is Margaret who agrees about Sarah Vaughn.

Q: Did she have coaching? A: I think it was a fantastic natural talent. She’s obviously a very intelligent woman and I think she must have really worked hard on that technique.

Oh, please don’t worry. I’m happy to, I love to be corrected and it’s all, for me, it was always one of the great joys of teaching at the LJCC and my very dear friend, Truda Levy, she was always correcting my pronunciation of things. I never mind it, it’s good to learn. And thank you, Thelma. Yes, I suppose all singers do. There are very great singers, great opera singers, who continue to have coaching right the way through their careers. And it’s a great help to hear other singers. I mean also people, these singers, of course they also had the advantage. They came from a generation where they could learn from other singers. I can’t remember which one of these singers I was reading who learned a great deal from listening to Bessie Smith. Now there’s somebody you could have a whole lecture on the wonderful Bessie Smith. Vibrato.

Yes, Michael, I absolutely, this is singers today. They strain themselves, they push themselves. I’m talking about opera now, not the kind of thing we’d be listening to tonight. So unsteadiness, wobble has become a real pain, I would say, in today’s opera houses. Yes, well, we did get a cup because those songbook versions usually do include the intros. And I, like you, Francine, I absolutely love them. I’m sure that, no, I think a lot of that stuff came from the singers themselves. I don’t think that was all written out, those changes in the vocal line. I think it was something instinctive with the singers. And I agree with you that Ella obviously had an amazing ear. She had such perfect intonation, you know, it’s always banging in tune. Right. Yeah, good, you can certainly follow up a lot of this on by Googling, going on YouTube. Thank you very much, Hannah. Oh, and I haven’t been to that show yet at the VA, but I should try and get to it when I get back to London next month if it’s still on. And thank you, Judith.

Ella’s Duke Ellington songbook is fabulous. Well, you know, everything she touched is gold, isn’t it? She’s just a magic singer. Thank you, Ruth. “'Night and Day,’ the best so far, clever singer.” Yeah, I have mixed feelings about that “Night and Day.” Well, of course I’m so absolutely smitten with Fred’s version. Ultimately, I think it’s the best. Of course it was written for him. That’s interesting that Meeropol, I remember that does ring a bell that Meeropol and his wife helped to raise the two Rosenberg boys after their parents’ execution. Thank you very much, Hannah. And it’s very kind of you to say that, but of course I am a bit outside my comfort zone with this kind of thing. I’m more at home in the opera house. I love all of this, but I wouldn’t claim an enormous in depth knowledge. Thank you, Catherine. Yeah, thank you. “Billie Holiday’s the only real jazz singer.” Yeah, maybe. I mean, we could get into endless arguments about that, all people could. Important to remember that Abel Meeropol and his wife are thank you, yes, for confirming that.

Barry, thank you very much. “Autumn in New York.” I don’t know who wrote that. And thank you, Alice. Mildred Bailey is widely acknowledged as the first important big band female jazz vocalist. And yes, it’s true, she’s not a very familiar name anymore. And Martin, well, I’m sure that they did not conventional vocal training as an opera singer would have, but I’m sure that they went to coaches. Washington’s husband was a famous football player. David Garfield. Says Washington’s husband was, yep. Thank you, Rita. And thank you all for your nice comments. And Hannah has heard the wonderful Lisette. Yeah, I’m officially joining her fan club. Ella and Oscar, yeah, there’s there’s so much more I could have done, of course. But you know, we need a whole series of lectures. “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.”

This is Ron, introduced by Mary Martin. It’s funny, I can’t think of Mary Martin as very sexy, but you know, there’s no accounting for taste, is there? Saw Ella at the Gomont state, Kilburn. Well, I think the photos probably, whether they really looked that Black or not, I’m sure there at the time that many of the photographers would try to make them look less Black. Diana Ross. I don’t, she for me belongs to a later generation, not to the group that I was talking about tonight. Yeah, nothing worse than a wobbly opera singer. I so agree. Right. And that seems to be all the questions and comments.

Thank you very much. I appreciate them, and I don’t mind being disagreed with, and I don’t mind being corrected. Thank you. See you again on Wednesday, where I’ll be in rather more familiar territory.