Bea Booze
"Wee" Bea Booze (born May 23, 1920 in Baltimore as Muriel Nichols ; † 1975 ) was an American R&B and jazz singer and guitarist .
Bea Booze began her career as a singer in the New York borough of Harlem in the 1940s , where she appeared as "Wee Bea", "Bee Bea" or "Beatrice Booze". For Decca , she recorded cover versions of Lil Green's songs from 1942 ; her mentor was Sammy Price , as in the war song "War Rationin 'Papa" . Her version of " See See Rider Blues, " first sung by Ma Rainey , reached # 1 on the Harlem Hit Parade (the forerunner of the R&B charts), earning her the nickname The See See Rider Blues Girl . During her performances she also played guitar with her singing, as well as on many of her recordings. In 1944 she sang "These Young Men" with the Sammy Price Trio ; In the late 1940s she recorded as a jazz vocalist with the Andy Kirk Band ( "Alabama Bound" ), in which trumpeter Fats Navarro and pianist Hank Jones also played, and with a jazz quartet with saxophonist George Kelly and the organist Larry Johnson. In the early 1950s she retired from the music business.
Web links
- Eugene Chadbourne : Biography in Allmusic
- Bea Booze at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Whitburn, Joel: The Billboard Book of Top 40 R&B and Hip-Hop Hits . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 2006, p. 55
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Booze, Bea |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Booze, Wee (nickname); Nichols, Muriel (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American R&B and jazz singer and guitarist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baltimore |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1975 |