[Dixielandjazz] Chippie Hill

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Some notion seems to have developed long ago that there were Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.... 

There were lots of lady singers, and the actual blues-ness of respective ones varied. 
Chippie was a blueswoman and like I imagine a number of people I first heard her voice on a Riverside LP PIANO, BRASS AND BLUES or something of the sort... 

And immediately before I heard her voice there was the intro to the number, Trouble in Mind, with the full majesty of Lee Collins. 
Forget any relationship you might suppose she had to Ma Rainey, this was a mighty performer, of direct intense phrasing, 
a voice that could be hard as nails, and alas a body which insisted on walking in front of cars. The impact which killed her was not the first. And she was only 45.