[Dixielandjazz] Mildred Bailey - Spokesman Review

[Marek Boym]

As far as I am concerned, Mildred Bailey and Billie Holiday were the
greatest jazz singers.
cheers

On 23 April 2012 02:04, Robert Ringwald <rsr at ringwald.com> wrote:
> Embracing a Legend
> Coeur d'Alene Tribe launches effort to celebrate jazz great Mildred Bailey's reservation
> roots
> by Jim Kershner
> Spokane (Washington) Spokesman Review, April 1, 2012
> The roots of swing -- or at least, the roots of Mrs. Swing, jazz legend Mildred Bailey
> -- reach deep into the Coeur d'Alene Reservation.
> Bailey -- born in 1900 in Tekoa and raised in Desmet, Idaho, and Spokane -- was once
> described by the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz as "the first white singer to absorb
> and master" the sounds of her jazz-singing black contemporaries.
> The only problem with that description? The "white" part.
> The Coeur d'Alene Tribe, with a big boost from the Idaho Legislature, has launched
> a new push to recognize Bailey's background as a Coeur d'Alene tribal member as well
> as her significant place in jazz history. On March 23, the Idaho Legislature approved
> a resolution honoring Bailey as a "jazz pioneer." Coeur d'Alene Tribal Chairman Chief
> J. Allan, who helped introduce the resolution, said the tribe is "happy to see others
> recognizing what a special talent she was."
> Her father, Charles Rinker, was of Scots-Irish descent. Her mother, Josephine Lee,
> was an enrolled Coeur d'Alene tribal member. That meant that Mildred and her brothers
> were tribal members as well. Mildred Rinker grew up on a farm near Desmet on the
> Coeur d'Alene Reservation. The family moved to Spokane's North Central neighborhood
> in 1912 or 1913.
> Her Native American heritage was not exactly a secret. After the Rinkers moved to
> Spokane, people sometimes referred to them as "breeds," according to relatives quoted
> recently by the Associated Press. Her Associated Press obituary, in 1951, specified
> that she was "part Indian."
> And over recent decades, her tribal background has been often noted and documented.
> She was once quoted as saying, "I don't know whether this (Indian) music compares
> with jazz or the classics, but I do know that it offers a young singer a remarkable
> training and background."
> Spokane historian Jim Price, who is researching a biography of Bailey, said that
> Bailey "applied the influences of her Native American mother and the Coeur d'Alene
> Tribe's music to the emerging product of Tin Pan Alley."
> Yet when she broke onto the national jazz scene in the late 1920s, the most significant
> part of her racial heritage was simply this: She wasn't black. This made her different
> from almost every jazz and blues singer of any significance until then.
> Here's a brief primer on Mildred Rinker Bailey and her undeniable impact on jazz
> and popular music:
> Josephine Rinker was a fine musician who taught her daughter how to sing and play
> the piano. Bailey and her mother also taught music to her brother, Al Rinker, and
> probably even his friend, Harry Lillis (Bing) Crosby.
> Bailey left Spokane when she was a teenager and had a brief marriage in Seattle to
> a man named Bailey. She ended up in Los Angeles in the mid-1920s, singing at Hollywood
> speakeasies and cabarets. She specialized in the kinds of bluesy tunes popularized
> by Ethel Waters.
> Bailey's musical career and connections emboldened brother Al Rinker and Bing Crosby
> to embark for Hollywood in a jalopy in 1925. They stayed with Bailey for weeks. She
> arranged their first audition -- an audition that launched the pair as a vaudeville
> team and Crosby, in particular, on one of the biggest entertainment careers of the
> 20th century.
> Crosby and Rinker returned the favor in 1929, by making sure that their bandleader,
> Paul Whiteman, got a chance to hear Bailey sing at a party. Whiteman hired her on
> the spot and put her on his radio show the next week. She was the first "girl singer"
> to front a major big band.
> By 1930, she was the highest-paid performer in Whiteman's band and became, in the
> words of jazz historian Gary Giddins, "an instant favorite of the jazz elite."
> She soon became a hit-making singer, most notably with a Southern-tinged Hoagy Carmichael
> tune, "Rockin' Chair." She earned the lifetime nickname, "The Rockin' Chair Lady."
> She had numerous entries on "Your Hit Parade" -- the 1930s equivalent of the Top
> 10. There were some weeks in 1937 and 1938 in which four of the Top 10 songs in the
> nation were sung by Spokane singers, either Crosby or Bailey. (Now there's a Spokane
> record that will never be surpassed.)
> She married jazz xylophone star Red Norvo in 1933. They were billed for years as
> Mr. and Mrs. Swing. She divorced Norvo in 1945.
> Her career began to trail off during the 1940s. Bailey, a diabetic, had developed
> heart problems. When she was hospitalized in 1949, she was nearly broke. Among those
> who helped out with her medical bills were Crosby, Frank Sinatra and songwriters
> Jimmy Van Heusen and Alec Wilder.
> She died of a heart ailment in 1951, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The organist at her funeral
> played "Rockin' Chair."
> Crosby later called Bailey "a genuine artist with a heart as big as Yankee Stadium."
> He wrote that he was lucky to have known such a great jazz singer at such a young
> age.
> In 1994, the U.S. Postal Service honored her (along with Bessie Smith and Billie
> Holiday) with her own 29-cent stamp. A young Spokane jazz singer, Julia Keefe (a
> Nez Perce tribal member) has recently performed tributes to Bailey around the country,
> including at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.
> The recent Idaho state Legislature resolution, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hammond, Rep.
> Bob Nonini and Rep. Eric Anderson, is partly aimed at convincing another influential
> institution to give Bailey her due. They are encouraging the Jazz at Lincoln Center
> Hall of Fame in New York to nominate Bailey and induct her.
> Whether that happens or not, the Idaho resolution has at least brought new attention
> to Bailey's legacy and her Coeur d'Alene heritage.
> "More than just a great singer, Mildred was a pioneer," said the tribe's Allan. "She
> paved the way for many other female singers to follow."
> "Her standards for focus on the lyric, timing and diction show up in the work of
> singers from Ella Fitzgerald to Tony Bennett," said Price, "and far overshadow the
> recognition she once had herself."
> ___________________________________
> Letter, Spokane Spokesman Review, April 21, 2012
> Jim Kershner did his usual superb job of laying out a story that is important to
> Spokane in his profile of Mildred Bailey. Kershner noted an interesting fact: There
> were some weeks in the 1930s in which four of the top 10 popular songs in the country
> were sung by a Spokanite -- either Mildred Bailey or Bing Crosby. It's an amazing
> story.
> I think Spokane is missing a bet by not offering tourists a museum on 20th-century
> entertainment, as seen from its local origins. Mildred Bailey's story could represent
> the jazz and blues tradition. Bob Crosby, who sang with the Dorsey Brothers and whose
> own band, the Bobcats, was one of the major swing orchestras, could introduce the
> topic of Big Bands. Bing's career pretty much covers the rest of 20th-century show
> business.
> Bill Stimson, Spokane
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