Kicha's photos with the keyword: Singers

Black Patti Troubadours was a vaudeville company led by famous soprano Sissieretta Jones aka Black Patti . They toured internationally until 1915, performing operatic arias, and sentimental ballads. The Black Patti Troubadours, as pictured in their souvenir booklet, "Songs as Sung by the Black Patti Troubadours." Was the largest and most prestigious African American minstrel company of the ragtime era, ranked with the landmark black musical comedy companies led by Williams and Walker, Cole and Johnson, etc. The photo dates from 1897-1898, when the roster included both aging minstrel pioneer Sam Lucas, standing in the back row with top hat, and up and coming star Ernest Hogan, seated in the center, surrounded by the ladies of the company. Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933) was a pioneering African American concert singer who established an international reputation during the 1890s. When a critic for the New York Clipper dubbed her “the Black Patti” in reference to famed Italian soprano Adelina Patti, the name stuck. Her extensive tours across the Americas and Europe included performances for three Presidents and the Prince of Wales. In spite of these successes, she was denied many opportunities due to prevailing racial barriers, including a chance to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. Frustrated by such limitations, Jones formed her own traveling revue in 1898, known as the Black Patti Troubadours. The troupe comprised about 40 comedians, dancers, acrobats and singers, and featured such prominent black performers as Bob Cole, Sam Lucas and Ernest Hogan. The Troubadours toured for nearly two decades, presenting Jones’ operatic arias alongside minstrel songs and vaudeville acts, a unique blend of high culture and popular entertainment. Sources: Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," & The Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz by Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff

In back from left to right: Darryl Lewis and Ed Wells. Young man in center, Kenny Sinclair. Young woman to his right Louise Williams and to his left, Beverly Pecot. Finally young lady front and center Trudy Williams. In 1955-56 Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers were the rage. In their wake came The Students on Note, The Youngsters on Empire, The Teen Queens on RPM, The Schoolboys on Okeh and other adolescent black vocal groups whose names played upon their callow youth. One such group was The Sweet Teens on Flip Records, who quickly became The Six Teens and recorded their own song, "A Casual Look," which reached #25 on the national pop charts in the fall of 1956. Ed Wells, one of the group’s members and its songwriter, talked several years ago from his home in San Francisco about those early days. Ed Wells died in early 2001 after a lengthy illness. I was 17 years old, the oldest member of The Six Teens, when our record, "A Casual Look," became a hit. We were caught unawares by that record. We’d never performed professionally before. We had to learn our craft and work out stage routines after the record created a demand for us. Besides me, there were Darryl Lewis, Kenneth Sinclair, Beverly Pecot, and two sisters, Louise and Trudy Williams, who had already been singing as a duo at local functions. We were all from Catholic schools around Los Angeles. When I first put the group together I wanted one or two girls because they’re more dependable than guys and because The Platters had Zola Taylor, whose voice sweetened their music. But when Louise showed up to audition, she brought along her 12-year-old sister, Trudy, and that changed everything around. All of a sudden she was the lead singer and we were doing Frankie Lymon songs, with Trudy changing the pronouns, like "I Want You to Be My Boy." We came up with our name by adding up our ages and dividing it by six to get an average, which was sixteen. Max Feirtag thought "Teen Age Promise" was the A-side, but the deejays had the sense to turn it over and play "A Casual Look." We were all still in school so we could only do shows on weekends, around California. We couldn’t do any real traveling until summer [1957], and then we went to Hawaii. When we arrived in Honolulu, our second record, "Send Me Flowers," was number-one there. The Hawaiians were crazy over the opening line, mocca locca. It sounded to them like some Hawaiian slang that was slightly obscene. For our third record, I wrote "Only Jim" because Max Feirtag wanted a song about a sailor. In "A Casual Look" Trudy was singing about her boyfriend in the Army, so Max figured we’d have another hit if we sang about the Navy this time. It did okay in some places. After that, the song "Arrow of Love" came out. I would have gone with the other side, "Was It a Dream of Mine." That was really my favorite of all the songs I wrote. After that, they just got worse and worse. We were going for the kid market. We kept the lyrics clean and simple. Remember, we were Catholic kids. Trudy wasn’t soulful and she couldn’t do [vocal] slurs, so there wasn’t much else I could do but write those dumb songs. I can’t believe I wrote "Stop Playing Ping Pong With My Little Heart" and can’t believe Max Feirtag recorded it. Not long ago I heard "Only Jim" on the radio and I thought, "Oh my God, that’s horrible." I’m surprised those old records did so well. When I hear them now it’s like somebody else wrote them. But I enjoy getting the little checks. Unlike some other groups, we never had a problem with our royalties because, since we were underage, the courts had to supervise our contract. I did pretty well with "A Casual Look." It was a big hit, and Gale Storm [on Dot] covered it, and Little Clydie & The Teens [on RPM] covered it, and The Orlons [on Cameo] recorded it later. I went off to college, so I wasn’t around all the time. Louise went into a convent for a couple of years to become a nun and we replaced her with Diane Smith. Then Trudy got married and had a baby and we replaced her with my sister, Maydiea Cole. Finally I left Los Angeles and moved to New York around 1968, and that pretty much ended The Six Teens. Those times were fun but I don’t really dwell on them. That was a long time ago. We were just children then. A Casual Look (1956) www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjhRVoIyvkE Source: The Doo-Wop Society by Jim Dawson

Eddie Anderson took time off from playing “Rochester” on the Jack Benny Program to appear with Katherine Dunham in Star Spangled Rhythm, a 1942 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures. The number is titled "Sharp as a Tack." Edward Anderson Eddie "Rochester" Anderson was born in Oakland in 1906. His father, Big Ed Anderson, had been a minstrel performer; his mother, Ella Mae, had been a circus tightrope walker until an accident ended her career. Eddie Anderson started out in vaudeville and had appeared in a number of films when he debuted as the voice of a Pullman porter on Jack Benny's popular radio show in 1937. Audiences responded with such enthusiasm that the canny Benny soon made Rochester his man Friday and inseparable sidekick, and the duo starred together on radio, in movies and on television for twenty-three years. He was born in Oakland, California, on September 18, 1905. As a child, Anderson sold newspapers on a street corner and permanently damaged his vocal cords (he had to yell loudly to attract attention), leading to his trademark "raspy" voice. Anderson began his show business career at age 14 in a song-and-dance act with his brother Cornelius and another performer. They billed themselves as the Three Black Aces. He began his career in Radio and in 1937, Anderson made what was supposed to be a one-shot appearance on the The Jack Benny Program. The audience loved his droll humor and he became a regular member of the cast and the first black performer to acquire a regular part on radio. The show easily made the transition to early television and as "Rochester van Jones" (known simply as "Rochester") Anderson constantly deflated Benny's pomposity with a high-pitched, incredulous, "What's that, boss?" As a legacy of blackface minstrelsy, the pairing of Benny and Anderson was based on comedy routines of the White master and his slave Uncle Tom. The high esteem in which the two actors held each other was evident upon Benny's death in 1974, in which a tearful Anderson, interviewed for television, spoke of Benny with admiration and respect. By 1942, he was earning $100,000 a year and for a time was the highest-paid Black actor in Hollywood. Anderson invested his money wisely and became extremely wealthy. In addition to his partnership with Benny, Anderson appeared in over sixty motion pictures, including Uncle Peter in Gone with the Wind, Cabin in the Sky, and as one of the taxi drivers in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He reprised his Rochester role in Topper Returns, this time as Cosmo Topper's valet (though he jokes about 'Mr. Benny' in the film). Anderson died in 1977 due to heart disease at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Eddie Anderson was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001. Source: Blackface!, Ken Padgett The above number Sharp as a Tack: vimeo.com/167177450

Aida Overton Walker pictured along with her hubby George A Walker in a publicity photo depicting their version of the famous Cakewalk in the 1903 play In Dahomey performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. The play was written by Will Marion Cook, Jesse A Shipp and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Synopsis: A musical comedy about a fraudulent scheme to return discontented Blacks to Africa. It was performed by a cast of about one hundred African American actors, and made a huge impact not only on the theatre but on fashion. Its display of dances such as the 'Cakewalk' and 'Buck and Wing' helped them become the latest dance hall crazes in the UK. Despite the show’s misrepresentations of Africa, it was a milestone because it was created and performed by an all-black cast and was the first to introduce an African theme to the musical genre. A few historical facts about the play In Dahomey : It was the first African American musical play. It was created and performed by an all African American cast. The show had 53 performances in New York,. Had a seven month run in England. The play ran between the years 1902 and 1905. All music and lyrics were written by African Americans, Will Marion Cook and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Source: V&A Theatre Collection

Consisted of Yvonne DuBarry, Bill Forrester, Bert Hall, and Bobby Smith. They were a vocal/instrumental group with Yvonne on the conga drums and the Three B's playing guitar, bass and piano. They recorded at least two songs for Savoy records in Columbus, Ohio at the WCOL studios on January 27, 1949, and released in March 1949; "Grieving for You" and "Buzzin' Around." There were two additional songs recorded in this session but not released. They were with Davis-Claiborne Records in 1948. The group originally formed in Baltimore, Maryland but later moved to Columbus. Grieving For You: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-E_D3zLI6k Source: Columbus African American Collection