Lena Horne

[gvopedz]

Lena Horne now has a Broadway theater named in her honor:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lena-horne-first-black-woman-to-be-honored-with-broadway-theater-new-york/

 

[Gheorghe]

I first heard about her when Ernie Bubbles Whitman announced her sittin´ in with the Billy Eckstine Big Band, I think the tune is "´Deed I do" . Well it is not as boppish as the rest of the recordings, but we always enjoyed it, when that Spotlite album "Together" came out. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Don't tell me you actually EXPECTED Lena Horne and her backing to sound as "boppish" as the Eckstine band on its own?
(But FWIW that particular recording did hint more than just a bit at that "new" big band sound alright IMO)

You never saw the "Stormy Weather" movie?
Not to mention that even the bebop era had its share of (to use period terms) "warblers" and "thrushes" that had a very balladesque repertoire (not least of all Mr B himself). 

As for the subject of the OP, 'bout time for the honors. She was in a class of her own.

 

[Gheorghe]

yeah, Big Beat Steve, I didn´t expect her sounding boppish, but don´t forget the Mr.B. album was the first time I heard her name. 

Sorry to say I didn´t see the movie. 

Ballad and bop as you mention, that´s very important, I love to play ballads and bop is much more than Bird´n Diz or so, besides the voice of Mr. B I always did like the voice of Johnny Hartman, and with some amusement the "slightly doggish" voice of Kenny "Pancho" Hagood. And no question , of course Sarah during that time. 

[gvopedz]

7 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I first heard about her when Ernie Bubbles Whitman announced her sittin´ in with the Billy Eckstine Big Band, I think the tune is "´Deed I do" . Well it is not as boppish as the rest of the recordings, but we always enjoyed it, when that Spotlite album "Together" came out. 

I assume you mean this tune:

 

[Teasing the Korean]

A friend of mine once said that Lena Horne sounds like she's going to come through the speaker and bite your nose off!

[Big Beat Steve]

2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

A friend of mine once said that Lena Horne sounds like she's going to come through the speaker and bite your nose off!

Does your friend go by the name of "Nosey Joe"?

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Does your friend go by the name of "Nosey Joe"?

Nosey Parker.

[Chuck Nessa]

1 hour ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Nosey Parker.

Any relation to Parker Posey?

 

[JSngry]

I would've let Lena Horne bite my nose. Maybe not off, but short of that, yeah.

[jazzbo]

She was a very very lovely woman. . .but not MY nose. I had a nose injury as a teen. . .don't ever want another.

[AllenLowe]

I think we should note that, as a singer, there were two Lena Hornes, in essence. The early one, of RCA and then the Black and White recordings, was a very nice, pure-voiced singer. The later one (not sure when the dividing line was) was very mannered and, to my ears, quite annoying.

[Gheorghe]

17 hours ago, gvopedz said:

I assume you mean this tune:

 

Yeah, this one. That´s what I heard. I love that album. 

[Big Beat Steve]

12 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

I think we should note that, as a singer, there were two Lena Hornes, in essence. The early one, of RCA and then the Black and White recordings, was a very nice, pure-voiced singer. The later one (not sure when the dividing line was) was very mannered and, to my ears, quite annoying.

I have the "Moanin' Low - Torch Songs by Lena Horne" 78 rpm album on RCA. Haven't listened to it in a long time but I see this one is on the right side of her records, then.

[gvopedz]

If you wish to make a comparison, here is Lena Horne singing My Funny Valentine in the mid 1970s:

 

[AllenLowe]

5 hours ago, gvopedz said:

If you wish to make a comparison, here is Lena Horne singing My Funny Valentine in the mid 1970s:

 

I like that one. Not mannered liked she tended in those days.

something like this; in those later years she seemed to pick up a faux Southern accent, as well as other annoying mannerisms:

 

she was from Bed Stuy, so acquiring the accent is a bit of a mystery. I have a feeling that, in those racially charged years of the 1960s and after, she was affected by issues of skin color and speech, and maybe wary of being considered not black enough. Just a theory, but her whole manner of presentation changes, as in her 1981 show.