HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Lena Horne

Birth of Swing Jazz: Lena Horne

Lena Horne

Born on 30 June 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, actress Lena Horne had a wealthy restaurateur for a father but he left the family when she was age three. Her mother was an actress who was always on tour so she was partially raised by her grandparents. At age five she ended up in Georgia where she traveled with her mother and lived with an uncle before returning to New York at age twelve to attend school in Brooklyn. Lena began her professional career at age sixteen as a chorus girl at the Cotton Club in Harlem in 1933, there mentored by Adelaide Hall. Horne was eighteen when she moved into her father's place in Pittsburg in 1935, the same year that she appeared in her first film role with Cab Calloway called 'Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party'. The video below opens roughly halfway into the film which is a short over eight minutes long.

'Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party' Lena Horne w Cab Calloway Short film

Clip opens w Lena to left in white dress w black print. Reappears at 1:39 / 1:48 / 2:51.

1935

IMDb Wikipedia

Tom Lord's Jazzography lists Horne's first of 111 sessions with Noble Sissle in New York City on March 11, 1936, toward 'That's What Love Did to Me' (Decca 778) and 'I Take to You' (Decca 847). In 1940 Lena switched from Sissle's band to Charlie Barnet's orchestra for several years. Her first session with Barnet per Lord's looks like 20 January of 1941 for 'All I Desire' toward Blue Heaven BH-1106. Circle later issued that on the Barnet compilation, '1941', per CLP-65 in 1984 and CCD-65 in 1992.

'I Take to You' / 'Rhythm of the Broadway Moon'

Lena Horne backed by Noble Sissle and His Orchestra

11 March 1936 in NYC Matrices 60892-A / 60893-A Decca 847

5th and 6th tracks of Horne's 1st recording session

Trumpet: Wendell Culley / Demas Dean / Clarence Brereton

Reeds: Chester Burrill / Sidney Bechet / Chauncey Haughton / Gil White / Jerome Pasquall

Violin: Oscar Madera Piano: Harry Brooks Guitar: Jimmy Miller

Bass: Jimmy Jones Drums: Wilbert Kirk

Compositions: Fred Rose Fred Rose / Ed Nelson

'Haunted Town' Lena Horne backed by Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra

23 Jan 1941 in NYC Matrix 60362-1 Bluebird B-11093 / 30-0823

Trumpet: Bernie Privin / Bob Burnet / George Esposito / Lyman Vunk

Trombone: Spud Murphy / Don Ruppersberg / Bill Robertson / Ford Leary

Reeds: Charlie Barnet / Leo White / Conn Humphreys / Kurt Bloom / James Lamare

Piano: Bill Miller Guitar: Bus Etri

Bass: Phil Stephens Drums: Cliff Leeman

Composition: Nigel Altman / Alec Fogerty

'Unlucky Woman' Lena Horne w the Teddy Wilson Orchestra

C Sep-Oct 1941 Film: 'Boogie Woogie Dream' released 6 July 1944

Piano: Wilson / Pete Johnson

Composition: Leonard Feather

IMDb Wikipedia

Horne recorded her first album, 'Moanin' Low', in December 1941, the year she began to lead her own orchestras, Ned Freeman arranging and Lou Bring conducting that year. Horne appeared in her first feature-length movie, 'Panama Hattie', the next year, but would later come to prefer performing in nightclubs to Hollywood, headlining at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles and the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City in the fifties.

'What Is This Thing Called Love' Lena Horne and Her Orchestra

15 Dec 1941 in Hollywood Matrix 061978-1 Victor 27820

See the 1942 10" album 'Moanin' Low' on Victor P-118

Conducting: Lou Bring Trumpet: Manny Klein

Sax: Jack Mayhew / Mort Friedman / Archie Rosati

Piano: Lou Busch Violin: Mischa Russell / Nick Pisani Guitar: Perry Botkin

Bass: Artie Bernstein Arrangement: Ned Freeman

Composition: Cole Porter

'Where Or When' Lena Horne and Her Orchestra

17 Dec 1941 in Hollywood Matrix 061985-1 Victor 27818

See the 1942 10" album 'Moanin' Low' on Victor P-118

Conducting: Lou Bring Trumpet: Manny Klein

Sax: Jack Mayhew / Mort Friedman / Archie Rosati

Piano: Lou Busch Violin: Mischa Russell / Nick Pisani Guitar: Perry Botkin

Bass: Artie Bernstein Arrangement: Ned Freeman

Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Lorenz Hart For the 1937 musical 'Babes in Arms'

'Moanin' Low' Lena Horne and Her Orchestra

17 Dec 1941 in Hollywood Matrix 061988-1 Victor 27817

See the 1942 10" album 'Moanin' Low' on Victor P-118

Conducting: Lou Bring Trumpet: Manny Klein

Sax: Jack Mayhew / Mort Friedman / Archie Rosati

Piano: Lou Busch Violin: Mischa Russell / Nick Pisani Guitar: Perry Botkin

Bass: Artie Bernstein Arrangement: Ned Freeman

Composition: Ralph Rainger / Howard Dietz

'Just One of Those Things' Lena Horne Film

From the film 'Panama Hattie' released Sep 1942

Composition: Cole Porter

IMDb Wikipedia

'Stormy Weather' Lena Horne Film

From the film 'Stormy Weather' released 21 July 1943

Composition: Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler

IMDb Wikipedia

In addition to acting and music, Horne was a great civil rights activist, refusing to perform for segregated audiences. The USO, however, was not yet integrated during World War II. There were shows for white soldiers, then shows for black soldiers. Horne reportedly quit the USO at a show in Arkansas in January 1945 upon being confronted with a seating arrangement of black soldiers seated behind German POWs seated behind white soldiers. Horne is said to have left the stage in anger, then returned to take a spot with the POWs to her back and only black troops before her. Details of any performance are unclear, but she dumped the USO that day and did tours for military personnel herself, most famously at the Tuskegee Airbase in Alabama.

'Love' Lena Horne Film

From the film 'Ziegfeld Follies' released 13 Aug 1945

Music: Hugh Martin Lyrics: Ralph Blane

IMDb Wikipedia

Horne stayed with Barnet into 1946, the year she signed on with Benny Goodman, her first recordings with his orchestra about January of 1946 for a couple of AFRS (Armed Forces Radio Service) broadcasts (#166 and #168) from Hollywood: 'More and More' et al. Horne began making television appearances in the fifties. Also highlighting the fifties was her 1957 album, 'Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria'. The sixties saw Horne emphasizing television appearances, topping the decade in 1969 when she recorded 'Lena & Gabor' with guitarist, Gabor Szabo, for issue the next year.

'Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man' Lena Horne Television

9 Sep 1951 on 'The Ed Sullivan Show'

Music: Jerome Kern Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II 1927

'Come Running' Lena Horne

Lennie Hayton conducting the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra

20 Feb 1957 See the album 'Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria' on RCA LS01028

Composition: Roc Hillman

'Honeysuckle Rose' Lena Horne

Lennie Hayton conducting the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra

20 Feb 1957 See the album 'Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria' on RCA LS01028

Composition: Thomas Fats Waller / Andy Razaf

'I Love to Love' Lena Horne

Lennie Hayton conducting the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra

20 Feb 1957 See the album 'Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria' on RCA LS01028

Composition: Herbert Baker

'It's All Right With Me' Lena Horne Television

24 Feb 1957 on 'The Ed Sullivan Show'

Composition: Cole Porter for the 1953 musical 'Can-Can'

'Paradise' Lena Horne

Summer 1961 See the album 'Lena On the Blue Side' on RCA 2465

Composition: Gordon Clifford / Nacio Herb Brown

Yet emphasizing television throughout the seventies, in May 1981 Horne began to star in the theatre production of 'Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music'. After 333 performances on Broadway the show then toured the States, Canada and London, finishing in Stockholm in September 1984.

'Tony and Lena' Lena Horne w Tony Bennett

July 1973 in London

Television special for Associated TeleVision (ATV) of ITV (Independent Television)

'From This Moment On' Lena Horne

1981 See the album 'The Lady and Her Music' on Qwest 2QW 3597

Composition: Cole Porter

Horne gave her final performances in 1994 at Carnegie Hall and the Supper Club in New York City. The 1995 album, 'An Evening with Lena Horne', was recorded live at the Supper Club. In April 1999 Horne recorded 'Singin' In the Rain' for the soundtrack to the film, 'Lulu On the Bridge' [Discogs]. Tom Lord has her with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in November to put away a few titles toward the album, 'Classic Ellington Conducted by Simon Rattle': 'Maybe', 'You're the One' and 'Something to Live For' [Discogs]. Lord lists her one last time at an unknown venue in 2000 performing the same songs as for 'Classic Ellington' except now with differing personnel which may correspond to the 2006 compilation, 'Seasons of a Life' [Discogs]. Unless Lord has personnel confused then Horne's final tracks would seem to be those three songs recorded twice.