Ida James

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Ida Mae James (born June 1, 1920 in Southbridge , Massachusetts , † September 1986 in Philadelphia ) was an American singer and actress .

Live and act

Ida James attended high school in Philadelphia and began singing at the age of 11. In 1932 she appeared on the WPEN radio station in Philadelphia on the Colored Kiddies Hour , a music show for children. In 1935 she sang in a show at the local Starlight Gardens . After 1936 in New York a competition in the Apollo Theater had won, she joined the jazz - pianist and bandleader Earl Hines on, with whom she recorded in 1937 and 1938. She was briefly with John Kirby in 1938 , and then became a band singer in the orchestra of Erskine Hawkins , with whose orchestra she played titles such as "Knock Me a Kiss", "Jumpin 'in a Julep" and "What Do You Know about Love?" Bluebird Records .

In the mid-1940s, Ida James gained some prominence as a singer and actress; their theme song was the song Shoo Shoo Baby , which led to their nicknames The Shoo Shoo Baby and The Shoo Shoo Girl . Further recordings were made with the Count Basie Orchestra (" After You've Gone ") and Louis Jordan . She also sang with Nat King Cole ( Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby ). In 1944 the song Close to You, recorded with the Cole Trio, was released . During this time, accompanied by the Nat Cole trio, cover versions of the jazz standards “ On the Sunny Side of the Street ”, “Stormy Weather” and “ Honeysuckle Rose ” were created. In 1945, Ida James was voted one of the twenty most popular vocalists in the United States by a music magazine. For Columbia she recorded The Chair Song / Shake Your Can (# 39248) with the Dick Vance Orchestra in 1951. Under her own name, Ida James, accompanied by the Ellis Larkins Trio, played the tracks "You Must Be Blind" and "I Won't." Say I Will but I Won't ”for Decca Records , and in 1947 other titles such as“ Try a Little Tenderness ”and“ Yesterdays ”for Manor. In 1950 James recorded the song "A Rough and Ready Man" with Freddie Washington ; 1951 two more titles for Columbia with a studio orchestra under the direction of Dick Vance. In the field of jazz she was involved in 33 recording sessions between 1937 and 1951.

As an actress, she had her first role in 1939 in the horror film The Devil's Daughter . In Trocadero (1944) she appeared as a singer, accompanied by the Bob Chester orchestra . She then starred alongside Cab Calloway in the race film Hi-De-Ho (1947) and in several short music films such as His Rockin 'Horse Ran Away . In the following years it was forgotten; she worked in a bar in Harlem in the late 1950s .

Discographic notes

  • Big Band Jazz: The Jubilee Sessions (1943-1946)
  • 50 Sublimes Chanteuses de Jazz (1940-1953)

Filmography

  • 1939: The Devil's Daughter (Direction: Arthur H. Leonard )
  • 1944: Trocadero (Director: William Nigh )
  • 1944: Is You Is, or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Short film)
  • 1945: His Rockin 'Horse Ran Away (Soundie, Director: William Forest Crouch)
  • 1947: Hi-De-Ho (Director: Josh Binney )
  • 1949: Adventures in Jazz

Web links

Commons : Ida James  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Marv Goldberg Ida James . According to other sources, she was born in Providence , Rhode Island .
  2. ^ Paul Eduard Miller: Miller's Yearbook of popular music. PEM publications, 1943, p. 57.
  3. ↑ Columbia Discography 39000 series ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.78discography.com
  4. ↑ Ida James accompanied by the John Hunt's Orchestra: Ida James (vcl), with John Hunt (tp), Lawrence "88" Keyes (org), Walter Bishop junior (p), probably John Simmons (b) and Art Blakey (dr) .
  5. ↑ Ida James (vcl), accompanied by Dick Vance (tp), George Dorsey (as), Lucky Thompson (ts), Andrew Brown (bar), Sammy Benskin (p), Al Hall (kb,) Jimmy Crawford (dr) .
  6. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed April 12, 2018)
  7. ↑ Jet, August 20, 1959
personal data
SURNAME James, Ida
ALTERNATIVE NAMES James, Ida Mae
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Southbridge , Massachusetts , United States
DATE OF DEATH September 1986
Place of death Philadelphia