This past week I listened to Yahoo's
Jazz Christmas Song station. I'd have to say, there were some pretty sophisticated ladies back in our grand parents day :).
Check out theses ladies styles and grace (and what Wipikedia says about them).
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| Lena Horne |
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an
American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.
Horne joined the chorus of the
Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the films
Cabin in the Sky and
Stormy Weather. Due to the
Red Scare and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself
blacklisted and unable to get work in
Hollywood.
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| Billie Holiday |
Billie Holiday (born
Eleanora Fagan[1] April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American
jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner
Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."
[2] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become
jazz standards, notably "
God Bless the Child," "
Don't Explain," "
Fine and Mellow," and "
Lady Sings the Blues." She also became famous for singing "
Easy Living," "
Good Morning Heartache," and "
Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and made famous with her 1939 recording.
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| Dorothy Dandridge |
Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American
actress and
popular singer, and was the first
African American to be nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress.
[1]
She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the
Cotton Club and the
Apollo Theater. In 1954, she was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Actress and a
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for
Carmen Jones, and, in 1959, was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for
Porgy and Bess. In 1999, she was the subject of the
HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. She has been recognized on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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| Ella Fitzgerald |
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as the "
First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American
jazz and song
vocalist.
[1] With a
vocal range spanning three
octaves (Db3 to Db6), she was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable
diction, phrasing and
intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her
scat singing.
She is considered to be a notable interpreter of the
Great American Songbook.
[2] Over a recording career that lasted 59 years, she was the winner of 14
Grammy Awards and was awarded the
National Medal of Art by
Ronald Reagan and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by
George H. W. Bush.
These Women display class.
They are sophistication at its finest.
Check out some of their their songs and let's get sophistication back.
