Bernice Edwards

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Bernice Edwards
Photo of Bernice Edwards.jpg
Background information
Also known asMoanin' Bernice Edwards
Moanin' Bernice
Houston Bernice Edwards
Bernice Duke
Bornc. 1907
Katy, Texas, United States
DiedFebruary 26, 1969
Houston, Texas, United States
Genres Classic female blues [1]
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, pianist
Instrument(s) Piano, vocals
Years active1926–1935
Labels Paramount, Broadway, Vocalion

Bernice Edwards (c. 1907 – February 26, 1969) [2] was an American classic female blues singer, pianist and songwriter. She recorded a total of 21 tracks between 1926 and 1935. [3] Unusually for a female blues performer at the time, Edwards composed some of her songs. Details of her life outside the recording studio are sketchy.

Contents

Life and career

Edwards was probably born in Katy, Texas, and raised in Houston. [2] Although Edwards was not directly related to them, she grew up with a musical family, which included Beulah Belle, George, Hociel and Hersal Thomas. During her time with them she learned to play the piano. [1]

In 1923, she relocated along with George and Hersal Thomas to Chicago, Illinois. [4] Five years later, at two separate recording sessions in February and November 1928, Edwards recorded twelve songs for Paramount Records, which included "Moaning Blues". This title may have led to her being sometimes billed as "Moanin' Bernice (Edwards)". [5] She accompanied herself while singing the mainly slow blues songs, which also included her version of "Long Tall Mama." [1] Her common theme was of the "lowlife" and mean men, typified by the aforementioned plus "Mean Man Blues" and "Hard Hustling Blues." [4] Some of her early recordings were released under the name Bernice Duke. [3]

In 1935, Edwards returned to the recording studio, this time in Fort Worth, Texas for American Record Corporation. Alongside Black Boy Shine, she recorded piano duets including one entitled "Hot Mattress Stomp". [6] The recording included some guitar playing by J. T. "Funny Papa" Smith. Her own piano playing had also gained in dynamics since her first visit to a recording studio. [4]

Her self-penned track "Butcher Shop Blues" (1935), extended the analogy of meat for sexual innuendo, although her vocals on it appeared to be less strong and expressive. Following the Fort Worth session, Edwards apparently got married and joined the church, after which nothing much more is known of her life. [4]

According to researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc, she died in Hermann Hospital in Houston in 1969, aged about 62. [2]

Her work is included on various compilation albums. [7]

See also

Other sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Bogan</span> American blues singer

Lucille Bogan was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. Music critic Ernest Borneman noted that Bogan was one of "the big three of the blues", along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. Many of Bogan's songs have been recorded by later blues and jazz musicians.

Geeshie Wiley was an American country blues singer and guitar player who recorded six songs for Paramount Records, issued on three records in April 1930. According to the blues historian Don Kent, Wiley "may well have been the rural South's greatest female blues singer and musician". Little is known of her life, and there are no known photographs of her. She may have been born Lillie Mae Boone, later Lillie Mae Scott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Washington Thomas</span> American songwriter

George Washington Thomas Jr. was an American blues and jazz pianist and songwriter. He wrote several influential early boogie-woogie piano pieces including "The New Orleans Hop Scop Blues", "The Fives", and "The Rocks", which some believe he may have recorded himself under the name Clay Custer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sippie Wallace</span> American blues singer-songwriter (1898–1986)

Sippie Wallace was an American blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Her early career in tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale". Between 1923 and 1927, she recorded over 40 songs for Okeh Records, many written by her or her brothers, George and Hersal Thomas. Her accompanists included Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams. Among the top female blues vocalists of her era, Wallace ranked with Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lovie Austin</span> American bandleader, musician, composer, and singer

Cora "Lovie" Austin was an American Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, singer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period.

Martha Copeland was an American classic female blues singer. She recorded 34 songs between 1923 and 1928. She was promoted by Columbia Records as "Everybody's Mammy", but her records did not sell in the quantities achieved by the Columbia recording artists Bessie Smith and Clara Smith. Apart from her recording career, little is known of her life.

Charlie Spand was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer, noted for his barrelhouse style. He was deemed one of the most influential piano players of the 1920s. Little is known of his life outside of music, and his total recordings amount to 33 tracks.

Bessie Tucker was an American classic female blues, country blues, and Texas blues singer and songwriter. Little is known of her life outside the music industry. She is known to have recorded just twenty-four tracks, seven of which were alternate takes. Her songs include "Penitentiary" and "Fryin' Pan Skillet Blues".

Catherine Brown, known as Kitty Brown, was an American classic female blues singer. She sometimes used the pseudonyms Bessie Williams, Jane White, Dixie Gray, Rosa Green, and Mazie Leroy. Brown was active as a recording artist from 1923 to the mid-1930s. Songs she recorded include "I Wanna Jazz Some More" and "It's De-Lovely". Little is known of her life outside music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavelle White</span> American blues singer and songwriter

Lillia Lavell "Lavelle" White is an American Texas blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. After performing most of her adult lifetime, White released three albums, the first of which was issued in 1994, when she was aged 65.

Bertha Idaho was an American classic female blues singer. She recorded four songs in 1928 and 1929. Little is known of her life outside music.

Edmonia Henderson was an American classic female blues singer. She was active as a recording artist in the mid-1920s, recording at least 14 songs between 1924 and 1926. She later became an evangelist.

Elzadie Robinson was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She recorded 34 songs between 1926 and 1929. Unusually for the time, she composed or co-composed most of her work. Few details of her life outside the recording studio are known.

John T. Smith, variously known as the Howling Wolf, "Funny Papa" Smith, "Funny Paper" Smith, and Howling Smith, was an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Little is known about Smith, and some reported details of his life may be apocryphal. He was a busking street musician in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma; Smith played at parties, juke joints, and fish fries. He released around ten singles in his own name, or variants thereof. He also recorded with Bernice Edwards, Black Boy Shine, Magnolia Harris, and Dessa Foster. His best-known song was "Howling Wolf Blues", of which several variants were recorded. Many of his original recordings were unreleased at the time; he had a brief recording career with Vocalion Records. All are now available on compilation albums.

Eliza Brown was an American classic female blues singer and recording artist, who also went by the alias Ozie McPherson and after marriage as Ozie Ware. She was active in the late 1920s, when she recorded several tracks for Columbia Records including "Get On Out of Here" and "Stop Laying That Stuff On Me". Little is known about her outside of her recordings. She married the entertainer Sonnie Ware.

Lavinia Turner was an American classic female blues singer. Originally a vaudeville vocalist, Turner recorded 10 songs in 1921 and 1922, making her one of the first female blues singers to be recorded.

Fannie May Goosby also known as Fannie Mae Goosby was an American classic female blues singer, pianist and songwriter. Ten of her recordings were released between 1923 and 1928, one of which, "Grievous Blues", she recorded twice. Goosby was one of the first female blues musicians to record her own material. She also was one of the first two blues singers to be recorded in the Deep South, the other being the dirty blues singer Lucille Bogan.

Ida May Mack or Ida Mae Mack was an American classic female blues, country blues, and Texas blues singer and songwriter. She recorded eight songs in 1928, four of which she recorded twice. Six of these tracks were released at the time.

Black Boy Shine was an American Texas blues pianist, singer and songwriter. Little is known of his life outside of his recording career. He was part of the 'Santa Fe Group', a loose ensemble of black blues pianists who played in the many juke joints abutting the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Black Boy Shine recorded almost twenty tracks between 1936 and 1937 for Vocalion and Melotone Records. Two of his tracks, "Hobo Blues" and "Ice Pick and Pistol Woman Blues", depicted the more lurid and potentially violent lives of Shine and his listeners.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Layne, Joslyn. "Bernice Edwards: Biography". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  2. 1 2 3 Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues: A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. p. 393. ISBN   978-0313344237.
  3. 1 2 "Bernice Edwards: A Discography". Honkingduck.com. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Edwards, Bernice, 'Moanin''". The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Tshaonline.org. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  5. ↑ Laird, Ross (1996). Moanin' Low: A Discography of Female Popular Vocal Recordings, 1920–1933. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 158. ISBN   9780313292415 . Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  6. ↑ Komara, Edward, ed. (2006). Encyclopedia of the Blues. Psychology Press. p. 297. ISBN   9780415926997 . Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  7. ↑ "Bernice Edwards: Credits". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.