Viola Bartlette was an American blues singer [1] and actress, [2] who recorded on Black Swan Records and Paramount Records. She was from Baltimore. [3] Bartlette recorded under the pseudonym Ida Lewis for Silvertone Records. [4]
She often was a backup singer for Lovie Austin [5] and accompanied Lovie Austin's Blue Serenaders band and Blythe's Sinful Five on records. [6] Johnny Dodds accompanied Bartlette on recordings made in the 1920s. Clarinetist Jimmy O'Bryant backed her on session recordings during 1923 to 1926. She also recorded with Kid Ory. [1]
Papa Charlie Jackson was an early American bluesman and songster who accompanied himself with a banjo guitar, a guitar, or a ukulele. His recording career began in 1924. Much of his life remains a mystery, but his draft card lists his birthplace as New Orleans, Louisiana, and his death certificate states that he died in Chicago, Illinois, on May 7, 1938.
"That's All Right" is a song written and originally performed by the American blues singer Arthur Crudup and recorded in 1946. It was rereleased in early March 1949 by RCA Victor under the title "That's All Right, Mama", which was issued as RCA's first rhythm and blues record on its new 45 rpm single format.
King Solomon Hill is the name assigned to a blues singer and guitarist who recorded a handful of songs in 1932. His unique guitar and voice combined to produce a sound that has been described as haunting. After much speculation and dispute, he has been identified as Joe Holmes, a self-taught guitarist from Mississippi.
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.
Bertha "Chippie" Hill, was an American blues and vaudeville singer and dancer, best known for her recordings with Louis Armstrong.
James Louis Blythe was an American jazz and boogie-woogie pianist and composer. Blythe is known to have recorded as many as 300 piano rolls, and his song "Chicago Stomp" is considered one of the earliest examples of boogie-woogie music to be recorded.
Rosa Henderson was an American jazz and classic female blues singer and vaudeville entertainer of the Harlem Renaissance era.
Lottie Kimbrough was an American country blues singer, who was also billed as Lottie Beaman, Lottie Kimborough, and Lena Kimbrough.
David Evans is an American ethnomusicologist and director of the Ethnomusicology/Regional Studies program at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in the University of Memphis, where he has worked since 1978. In 2023 he has been inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame as a non-performer.
Madlyn Davis was an American classic female blues singer, active as a recording artist in the late 1920s. Among her best-known tracks are "Kokola Blues" and "It's Red Hot". She was a contemporary of better-known recording artists, such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Mozelle Alderson, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, and Bertha "Chippie" Hill. Little is known of her life outside music.
Jabo Williams was an American boogie-woogie and blues pianist and songwriter. His total recorded output was a mere eight sides, which included his two best-known "stunningly primitive" songs, "Pratt City Blues" and "Jab's Blues" (1932). Details of his life outside of music are scanty.
Hattie Hart was an American Memphis blues singer and songwriter. She was active as a recording artist from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s. Her best known tracks are "I Let My Daddy Do That" and "Coldest Stuff in Town". She worked as a solo artist and as a singer with the Memphis Jug Band. Little is known of her life outside music.
Freddie Spruell was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer, variously billed as Papa Freddie or Mr. Freddie. He is generally regarded as the first Delta bluesman to be recorded, although Mamie Smith (1920), Ed Andrews (1923) and Blind Lemon Jefferson (1925) predated him in recording the first blues records. Details of his life are sketchy and sometimes contradictory.
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.
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.
Miss Frankie was an American classic female blues singer. She recorded eight sides in 1926 and 1927.
Ivy Smith was an African American vaudeville performer and recording artist in the United States. She used the pseudonyms Ruby Rankin and Sally Sad. She recorded "Sad and Blue" / "Third Alley Blues", "Cincinnati Southern Blues" / "Barrel House Mojo", and "Ninety Nine Years Blues / Too Mean to Cry Blues (1927) at Paramount Records in 1927.
"Shake That Thing" is a song recorded by Papa Charlie Jackson in 1925, one of the earliest blues standards and a forerunner of hokum. Paramount Records issued it on the B-side of the then standard 10-inch 78 rpm shellac record on July 11, 1925. The song is also known as a first hit record where the male singer accompanies himself. The title of the song contains double entendre: at the time "shake it" was a vulgar euphemism for coitus.