Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters

Photo: Carl Van Vechten

Launching the jazz song portion of HMR is Ethel Waters. As Waters introduced a few of the songs in The Great American Songbook it is well to know that The Great American Songbook is more a phrase than a book, generally referring to American music standards rising out of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and Hollywood largely bulked from 1920 to 1960, thus including jazz standards. But you can write your own version of The Great American Songbook and exclude jazz if you like. Or you can compile a group of songs and publish them as 'The Great American Songbook' as did Not Now Music in 2007 per Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. There are versions of The Great American Songbook online, one called the Gold Standard Song List. Standards like 'Dinah', 'I'm Coming Virginia', 'Stormy Weather' and 'Taking a Chance on Love' were first dropped by Waters.

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on 31 October 1896, Waters ("Blackbird") began her career majoring in blues, became a Broadway and jazz superstar, then ultimately a gospel vocalist. She is credited as the first black female singer to make her name on Broadway. Having married at age thirteen, he was abusive, to which she preferred to become a maid in Philadelphia. At age 17 she attended a nightclub costume party at which she was requested to sing a couple songs. That led to her first professional gig at Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore. Ten dollars a week, with tips thrown on stage by the audience taken by the managers, after which she began touring the vaudeville circuit. She experienced success in such to the tune of joining that class of highest paid vaudeville performers who earned from $3000 to $4000 a week [Travalanche]. She eventually settled in Harlem where she played the clubs and began recording in 1921, initially 'The New York Glide' and 'At the New Jump Steady Ball', followed by 'Oh Daddy' and 'Down Home Blues'. The latter were for Black Swan Records run by Harry Pace. Recording for Black Swan until circa June of 1923 made Waters the highest paid black recording artist at that time [Broadway Buzz].

'The New York Glide'   Ethel Waters w Albury's Blue And Jazz Seven

Recorded 21 or 22 March 1921   Issued on Cardinal 2036-B

Composition: Geo Thorne   1878

'Oh Daddy'   Ethel Waters w Cordy Williams' Jazz Masters

Recorded April or May 1921   Black Swan 2010-A

Composition: Ed Herbert / William Russell

'Down Home Blues'   Ethel Waters w Cordy Williams' Jazz Masters   Violin: Williams

Recorded April or May 1921   Black Swan 2010-B

Composition: Tom Delaney

Waters introduced the standard, 'Dinah', at the Plantation Club on Broadway with her Plantation Orchestra in 1925:

'Dinah'   Ethel Waters w Her Plantation Orchestra

Recorded 20 Oct 1925    Columbia 487-D

Music: Harry Akst   Lyrics: Sam M. Lewis / Joe Young

'Heebie Jeebies'   Ethel Waters w Her Jazz Band

Recorded 29 July 1926    Columbia 14153-D

Cornet: Thornton Brown   Trombone: Edward Carr   Piano: Lorence Faulkener

Composition: Boyd Atkins

'Guess Who's In Town'   Ethel Waters   Piano: James Johnson

Recorded 21 Aug 1928    Matrix 146872-2   Columbia 14353-D

Music: James Calvin Johnson   Lyrics: Andy Razaf

'My Handy Man'   Ethel Waters   Piano: James Johnson

Recorded 21 Aug 1928    Matrix 146873-1   Columbia 14353-D

Composition: Andy Razaf

IBDb lists Waters on Broadway as early as 1927 for the production of 'Africana'. Her first film appearance is thought to have been 'On With the Show' in 1929 in which she introduced the jazz standard, 'Am I Blue?'. She recorded it a couple times in NYC on the same date as 'Birmingham Bertha' (14 May). The first track was issued on Columbia 1837-D, the second on CBS CL2230, Columbia C3L35 and CBS (E)BPG-62547.

'Am I Blue?'   Ethel Waters

Film: 'On With The Show' released 28 May 1929

Music: Harry Akst   Lyrics: Grant Clarke

'Birmingham Bertha'   Ethel Waters

Recorded 14 May 1929    Columbia 1837-D

Composition: Harry Akst / Grant Clarke

Waters' considerable success in the twenties continued throughout the thirties. In 1930 Minto Cato introduced the public to 'Memories of You' in Lew Leslie's 'Blackbirds of 1930' which Waters recorded that year. 'I Can’t Give You Anything but Love' had been introduced by Adelaide Hall in January of 1928 at the Ambassadeurs Club in New York per Lew Leslie's 'Blackbird Revue', which Waters recorded in latter 1932. The thirties brought a major a shift along Waters' path which catalyst was her introduction of 'Stormy Weather' with Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club in 1933. Authored by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, they had intended 'Stormy Weather' for Waters and Cab Calloway but the latter hadn't made himself available on the roster. The Cotton Club is one of the biggest names in jazz. It began as boxer, Jack Johnson's, supper club called the Deluxe in 1920. It was made a speakeasy in 1923 upon purchase by bootlegger, Owney Madden. Moved out of Harlem in 1936, its demise arrived in 1940 for tax evasion. Keeping doors open at all during the Prohibition (1920-33) was a local versus federal issue. You make it back home from World War I to be told you can't have a beer. Huh? Armies had been running on beer, mead and the like for centuries. Making alcohol illegal created a nation of hungover rebels who made the Roaring Twenties out what the feds had tried to angle into a clear-headed sober decade. Afropunk has Waters becoming the highest paid Broadway singer about the time the Prohibition ended, being about the time she performed on radio for CBS with Jack Denny in 1933, that after recording 'Stormy Weather' for the first time in 1933 with the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Per below, 'Porgy' refers to the 1925 novel by DuBose Heyward, 'Porgy', of which he and Dorothy Heyward made an opera which premiered on 10 Oct 1927 at the Guild Theatre in New York City. The Heywards' 'Porgy' is also the source of George Gershwin's famous 'Porgy and Bess' of 1935.

'Porgy'   Ethel Waters

Recorded 1 April 1930    Columbia 2184-D

Music: Jimmy McHugh   Lyrics: Dorothy Fields

'Memories of You'   Ethel Waters

Recorded 29 Aug 1930 in NYC   Columbia 2288-D

Music: Eubie Blake   Lyrics: Andy Razaf

'I Can’t Give You Anything But Love'   Ethel Waters backed by Duke Ellington

Recorded 22 Dec 1932 in NYC   Brunswick 6517

Composition: Eubie Blake   1930

'Stormy Weather'   Ethel Waters w the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra

Recorded 3 May 1933   Brunswick 6564

Composition: Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler

'Miss Otis Regrets'   Ethel Waters

Recorded 20 Aug 1934   Decca 140

One of two versions at the same session both of which issued as Decca 140

Composition: Cole Porter

'Georgia on My Mind'   Ethel Waters

Recorded 15 Aug 1939   Bluebird B11028

Composition: Hoagy Carmichael / Stuart Gorrell  1930

First recorded by Carmichael in 1930

Another first in the entertainment industry was Waters' own television show in 1939, a variety hour called 'The Ethel Waters Show'. The next year she introduced the standard, 'Taking a Chance on Love' in the musical, 'Cabin in the Sky. She recorded it with Max Meth and His Orchestra on 7 November 1940 toward issue on Liberty Music Shop L310. Waters also starred in the film, 'Cabin In the Sky', of 1943:

'Taking a Chance On Love'   Ethel Waters   Film: 'Cabin In the Sky' released 9 April 1943  

Music: Vernon Duke   Lyrics: John La Touche / Ted Fetter

'Summertime'   Ethel Waters   Piano: Reginald Beane   Chicago 1947

Composition: From 'Porgy and Bess'   1935

Music: George Gershwin   Lyrics: DuBose Heyward / perhaps Ira Gershwin

It was Waters career in decline which gave her time to publish an autobiography through Doubleday in 1951 titled 'His Eye Is on the Sparrow'. Troubles with financial advisors apparently wrought her hounding by the IRS in 1955 as it began to confiscate royalties for unpaid taxes [America Comes Alive]. Sometime before 1957 [my estimate] Waters was robbed by a guest on extended stay of $45,000 worth of cash and jewelry, that perhaps the lowest period of her life. The next year she met Billy Graham at Madison Square Park in NYC, rededicated her life to Christ, and began touring with the Billy Graham Crusade [Billy Graham Library].

'His Eye Is on the Sparrow'   Ethel Waters   Live performance: Billy Graham Crusade 1965

Music: Charles Gabriel   Lyrics: Leo Robin

1972 saw the publication of Waters' memoir, 'To Me, It's Wonderful'. She died in Chatsworth, California, on September 1, 1977, 80 years of age.