[Dixielandjazz] Black & Blue was Lafayette Theater/Harlem Vaudeville

[David W. Littlefield]

Probably the most commonly available version of "Black and blue" that
includes the verse is by Ethel Waters. 2 CDs:
1. "1930's Jazz: The Singers", Columbia; no idea whether it's still in print
2. "Ethel Waters, 1929-1931", Classics--these never go out of print.

And for those of you who aren't familiar with Ethel Waters, she was one of
the truly great OKOM singers. Classics has 7 CDs, starting with 1921-23, up
to 1935-1940.
One of my favorites is her version (accompanied by Ellington) of
Armstrong's "I can't give you anything but love". Her records include some
naughties on a par with Bessie Smith's "Kitchen man".

--Sheik

At 05:54 PM 1/27/2003 -0500, Stephen Barbone wrote:
>There was, and probably still is, color prejudice among black people
>regarding lightness of skin tone. The song "Black & Blue" was originally
>about this occurance. Sung by a dark black man lamenting the intolerance
>of lighter skinned blacks towards him, in a show written by blacks, for
>black audiences.
>
>It was only after Louis Armstrong made "Black & Blue" very famous, that
>it was assumed to be about the intolerance of whites towards blacks.