The "Roaring" 1920s

What was it like to live in the 1920's? Learn about Flappers, Fashion, Music, Politics, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the following Depression years.

Discover what it was like to live under Prohibition or how to dance the Charleston.

View the rapid progress made in transportation by automobiles, trains, ocean liners, airships and aeroplanes. All this and more can be found on 1920-30.com.

The information, taken largely from books and periodicals of the period, captures how life was in the U.S.A and the World during the 1920's - a time that is often referred to as the "Roaring Twenties" - a boisterous period characterized by rapidly changing lifestyles, financial excesses, and the fast pace of technological progress.

Goodnight My Love

Career

Belvin was born in Texarkana, Texas, and moved with his family to Los Angeles at the age of five. In 1950 he joined saxophonist Big Jay McNeely's backing vocal quartet, Three Dots and a Dash, and featured prominently on their record releases. In 1952 he joined Specialty Records. Although his early solo records were unsuccessful, his fourth record, "Dream Girl", credited to Jesse & Marvin and featuring Marvin Phillips on saxophone, reached #2 on the R&B charts in 1953.[1][2][3]
He was then drafted for a spell in the army, but continued to write songs. His composition "Earth Angel", eventually co-credited to Belvin and Hollywood Flames singers Curtis Williams and Gaynel Hodge after a legal dispute, was recorded by The Penguins, and became one of the first R&B singles to cross over onto the pop charts, selling a million copies in 1954/55.[2]
In 1956, he signed a contract with Modern Records, but also continued to sing for other labels under different names. His biggest hit was "Goodnight My Love", which he co-wrote and which reached #7 on the R&B chart. The piano on the session was reportedly played by the 11 year old Barry White. The song became the closing theme to Alan Freed's rock and roll radio shows.[2]
Belvin’s other recordings for Modern were less successful, and in 1958 he recorded on Dot Records with a group, The Shields, who included lead singer Frankie Ervin and guitarist Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Their record, "You Cheated", reached #15 on the US pop charts.[3]
Inspired by his wife and manager Jo Anne to develop his style, he signed to RCA Records in 1959, and immediately had a Top 40 hit with "Guess Who", written by his wife.[4] He also recorded an album, Just Jesse Belvin, developing a more mature and sophisticated sound on ballads. His style was influenced by Nat "King" Cole and Billy Eckstine, and became a model for Sam Cooke and others. He acquired the nickname "Mr. Easy", and the record company began moulding him as a potential crossover star for white audiences.[2]
He recorded a further series of tracks later in the year, with arranger Marty Paich and an orchestra including saxophonist Art Pepper. The songs included soulful covers of standards like "Blues in the Night", "In the Still of the Night", and "Makin' Whoopee", and were issued on the album Mr. Easy.
However, before the album was issued, and shortly after finishing a performance in Little Rock on a bill with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Marv Johnson, Belvin and his wife were killed in a head-on collision at Hope, Arkansas. The concert was the first concert played before an integrated audience in the history of Little Rock, and had been stopped twice by interruptions from whites in the audience, shouting racial epithets and urging the white teenagers in attendance to leave at once. There had been several death threats on Belvin prior to the concert, and there was speculation that Belvin's car had been tampered with prior to the accident, though nothing was ever proved.[5]
See also

27 Club
References

^ Jesse Belvin, Jr. interview
^ a b c d Jesse Belvin at Allmusic
^ a b Jesse Belvin at Soulwalking
^ Honkers And Shouters. The Golden Years Of Rhythm And Blues. Crowell-Collier Press, New York, 1978, pg. 210
^ Jesse Belvin at Findagrave.com
External links

Album sleeve notes by Billy Vera
Jesse Belvin discography
Categories: 1932 births | 1960 deaths | American male singers | African American musicians | Specialty Records artists | Modern Records artists | Kent Records artists | Jamie Records artists | RCA Victor artists | Class Records artists

Tan Magazine Billie Holiday...Comeback Story

Mal Waldron Interview, he remembers Billie, very touching....

Fasinating and so beautiful

Billie Holiday Interview-1949-Very Rare.avi

Rare Billie Holiday Interview Pt. 3

Rare Billie Holiday Interview Pt. 2

This Billie Holiday interview was recorded when Billie was working at a long engagement at the Strand Theater with Count Basie in July -August 1948.

Adriana Evans Surrender New song

I didnt know you in 79 but I love you ill surrender everytime!.....

WHO IN THE HELL WAS CLEO "PATRA " BROWN????

Live and learn!Class is now in session! I adore the obscure and revel in unlocking mysteries of days gone by! I savor a new glint into anyone who I personally adore past.
Whether it be scurrilous or a genuine, unserving good damn deed!

So, of course you can imagine my glee as I was hanging out on the net I read that they wanted Billie to sing a bit more like Cleo Brown. Of course in my ignorance I was aghast "How dare this writer defame MY Billie! But, something said "Google the name" and I read it for myself.

Now of course we are all familiar with John Hammond and the mysterious powers that be wanting Holiday to resurrect a bunch of Ethel Waters, Clara Smith tunes of the 20's and her classic reply "I don't wanna sing that old shit man its 1935!" Funny now right? But when she walked into the Columbia studios for the now famous "Miss. Brown to you and What a little Moonlight can do sessions they wanted her to sing more in the Cleo Brown "goodtime style which personally, this blogger loathes tho it was the great depression and Im sure they ( like us today) could use a bit o damn cheer! she (Cleo) sounds so goddamn dated I almost expect to hear applause and then see Al freakin Jolson come out and do a Black Bottom dance in full black face.

However Billies record (what a little Moonlighht can do" actually charted #12 in 1935 and the flip side charted at 20. That made the big guys leave her alone and she soon began fronting her own studio orchestra ( which was actually a ad hoc group of some of the greatest musicians that were in NYC at the time).

Cleo Brown? Who the hell is Cleo Brown? Often referred to as Cleo Patra brown ( aint that some smess? well....With the exception of an album that she made in 1987, 1935-1951 is all anyone has heard of the recordings of pianist-singer Cleo Brown. Brown, who has sometimes been cited by Dave Brubeck as an early influence (although the musical connection really cannot be heard), was an excellent pianist and a personable good-time singer. She recorded four sessions for Decca during 1935-36, in which she is backed by guitar, bass, and drums, performing such numbers as "Lookie, Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie," "The Stuff Is Here And It's Mellow," "Mama Don't Want No Peas An' Rice An' Cocoanut Oil" and the unusual "When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan." In addition, she romps on the solo "Pelican Stomp," her part from a Decca All Star Revue is included, and there is one session apiece from 1949, 1950, and 1951. It seems odd that she never became a big star. Needless to say, this CD is the perfect way to obtain and enjoy this lost legend's recordings. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide Im still investigating this woman who because of her tiny body of work is NEVER even discussed these days and once again thanks to Billie another diamond has been found in the ghetto wasteland of obscure music....Jahlaune Hunt 2011

TRUE URBAN HAVOC ENTERTAINMENT HOUR PRESENTS: HARLEM REVISTED

SNEAK PEEK FOR OUR BLOG READERS AND FOLLOWS. THIS IS OUR NEW FORMAT WE WILL BE EXPLORING THE MORE OBSCURE ARTISTS OF THE HARLEM RENASANCE AND HOPEFULLY LATER ERAS. HOPING YOU ENJOY THIS LABOR OF LOVE FOR ALL THINGS HARLEM AND OBSCURE


E TO

Who was Monette Moore? 1902-1962

Other than being the host at Monettes on w.133rd Street where a young Billie Holiday wowed John Hammond what else did she do? That ran thru my mind for years! How awful to have your own sucessses overshadowed by someone elses. So I had to do a little digging!

Monette Moore was never a star but she led a rich and varied life in show business. She began her career accompanying silent films in Kansas City and then toured the vaudeville circuit as a pianist and singer. In the early 1920s she made her way to New York and became active in musical theater. Her recording career began in 1923. Many of her early records were released under the pseudonym of Susie Smith. In 1925, Monette was in the cast of the musical revue "Lucky Sambo". She sang with Charlie Johnson's Orchestra at Small's Paradise Club (229 1/2 7th Avenue at 135th Street) and Connie's Inn (2221 Seventh Avenue at 131st Street) in New York and made some wonderful recordings with the band in 1925. In 1927 and 1928 she was singing with Walter Page's Blue Devils in the mid-West. She returned to New York in 1929 and was very active in musical theater and cabaret work until the late 1930s. In the early 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles and performed in clubs, recorded with Teddy Bunn and the Harmony Girls and had small parts in a couple of films. From 1951 to 1953 she appeared on the Amos 'n Andy television program and recorded with George Lewis. In 1960, she began performing with the Young Men of Dixieland at Disneyland and appeared in the Disney television programs "The Wonderful World of Color" and "Disneyland After Dark".

Unsung Black Beautys Of Another Era

THE SNAKES CRAWL AT NIGHT by CHARLEY PRIDE

My mother use to say " thats one handsome Cat!"

PLAYING AROUND WIT OLD PICS FOR TUH

 

Wanda Sykes on Gay Marriage

Many thanks to our listeners

Im always presently surprised when one of our listeners pops up on my yahoo IM (jahlaune is my yahoo messenger name) and never moreso than today. Just as I was diggin thru the archives ror a episode for this weekend Bayou popped on explaining how long it took to download our show 3 hours and hes overseas in Africa. This was the third complaint about the lengthy time our show takes to download and since I was the only person on deck today (as I am every saturday) I took the time to see if it could be remastered and set to a FM bandwith.
I am listening and I thank you for your sugguestions.
Anthony McCowan i would like to thank you for sharing our Sunday gospel show with so many people on Face Book! The "Just A Closer Walk" Series is close to my heart and yes! I promise to keep the praise and worship at least twice a month on our roster...
Many thanks to our legions of jazz fans! WQe have indeed covered the waterfront the last season with the likes of Mamie Smith, Noble sissle, Count Basie, Ahmad jamal and more and I thank each of you for your kind remarks from our "Live at the Mars Club" PLEASE!!!! Remember that is a virtual club LOL with a really truly name !
I love you all so much and without you I would have given up long ago!

Jahlaune K Hunt

Underneath A Harlem Moon: the Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall

by
IAIN CAMERON WILLIAMS
with a foreword by Dame Cleo Laine

The first major biography of Adelaide Hall


Often seen as the most important and influential female star of Harlem’s Renaissance, Adelaide Hall dynamically pushed down the barriers that had previously prevented black entertainers from reaching mass recognition. Though she will always be associated with Harlem’s famous Cotton Club and her wordless vocals on some of Duke Ellington’s most famous tunes, it was the astounding media attention Adelaide Hall received on both sides of the Atlantic during her two year starring role in Lew Leslie’s Broadway revue “Blackbirds of 1928″ that turned her into what can only be termed the first modern-day international black female superstar.

With fame came controversy. Her Broadway performance incited a riot. The persecution she encountered from her racist neighbours after purchasing an exclusive estate in Larchmont, a predominantly white suburb in Westchester County, hit national headlines.

Iain Cameron-Williams takes the reader on a fascinating roller-coaster ride from the birth of Adelaide in Brooklyn and her humble childhood in Harlem, through her triumphs on Broadway to the glamour of Paris’ Moulin Rouge, appearances at the most sophisticated and celebrated nightclubs in the world and across two continents on a ground-breaking eighteen month RKO tour. By the end of 1932, Adelaide had performed to millions and in the process had become one of America’s wealthiest black women.

Adelaide’s celebrity status afforded her the privilege of befriending many stars from the world of showbusiness. The book includes many accounts of such friendships including her encounter with Rudolph Valentino, her close acquaintance with Maurice Chevalier, her stormy relationship with the Broadway impresario Lew Leslie, her meetings in Chicago with Al Capone, her amusing account of an evening she spent in the company of Gloria Swanson, her exciting visit to Douglas Fairbanks house “Pickfair” in Beverly Hills and accounts of all the famous black stars she knew from the Harlem Renaissance including Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Sam Wooding, Bojangles, Aida Ward, Florence Mills, Lottie Gee, Valaida Snow etc. The book also explains in depth the continual rivalry and hostility Adelaide received from Josephine Baker. For the first time ever in print the book dates exactly when, where and how Adelaide discovered the blind pianist Art Tatum and also explains Adelaide’s lifetime claim that it was she who helped name New York the “Big Apple.”

In 1935, Adelaide and her husband moved to Europe and set up home in Paris where her career continued to flourish. Here, she opened her own nightclub “La Grosse Pomme” and employed Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s Quintette du Hot Club de France as the resident in-house band. Not content with being dubbed the Parisian “Queen of Montmartre” Adelaide set her sights on conquering Britain. The book concludes with her mysterious disappearance in November 1938, which until now has never been publicly explained.

Iain Cameron-Williams
Underneath A Harlem Moon is Iain Cameron-Williams’ first biography, having previously worked as a musician, producer and composer. He released three records under various stage names and co-wrote the song ‘Give Me One More Chance’ which represented the United Kingdom in the 1990 International Song Festival. He was a close friend of Adelaide Hall from 1971 until her death in 1993. He live’s in London’s Notting Hill Gate.

Underneath A Harlem Moon by Iain Cameron-Williams is published by Continuum, 428pp, 75 illustrations, Hardback price ?20.00. ISBN 0826458939. Available from all good bookshops.

From the vaults "Rod Stewart" Gasoline Alley

 

From The Vaults! Rod Stewart "Have I told You lately?"

 

From the vaults Bette Midler "Wind Beneath My Wings"