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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZHUMES, Helen(b 23 June 1913, Louisville KY; d September 1981, Santa Monica CA) Singer. The only child of an attorney father, schoolteacher mother; she played piano and organ in church, sang and played in band at the Booker T. Washington Community Center with Jonah Jones and Dicky Wells; recorded 'Black Cat Blues'/'Worried Woman's Blues' for OKeh '27 while still in school. Later worked in a bank; sang with an Al Sears band on trip to Buffalo NY, joined full-time '37, worked at Cincinnati Cotton Club, where Count Basie heard her. Recorded with mixed group led by Harry James '37-8, then joined Basie '38 at $35 a week. Sides with Basie included 'Thursday', 'Dark Rapture' '38; 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy', 'Sing For Your Supper', beautiful 'Blame It On My Last Affair', 'If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight', 'Bolero At The Savoy', 'Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea' all '39; 'All Or Nothing At All', 'It's Square But It Rocks' '40. She quit due to the hardship of the road, began a solo career in NYC clubs '41-3, toured with a Clarence Love band '43-4 and settled on the West Coast, where she joined Norman Granz for JATP tours and played solo gigs. An R&B hit with Bill Doggett 'Be-Baba-Leba' '45 on Philo label led to similar sides for Aladdin, Modern, Mercury, Decca, other labels into early '50s; a live recording from an L.A. Shrine concert, 'Million Dollar Secret', had a saucy lyric and made no. 6 on the R&B chart '50. She contributed to film soundtracks Panic In The Streets and My Blue Heaven '50, toured Hawaii '51 and '52, made a syndicated TV film with Basie Showtime At The Apollo '55 and went to Australia with Red Norvo '56: popular there, she returned three times, staying ten months in '64. She appeared in show It's Great To Be Alive in L.A. '57, the Newport Jazz Festival '59, toured the world '59-67. She retired on death of her mother '67 until persuaded to sing at a Basie concert '73; then there was another flood of dates: Montreux Jazz Festival (live LP On The Sunny Side Of The Street for Black Lion '74); NY Cookery New Year's Eve show, etc. She was given the Keys to the City of Louisville '75, did the Nice Jazz Festival that year and again '78. A singer of quality ballads, she said, 'The blues never did interest me very much'. Downbeat ranked her with Ella Fitzgerald and Mildred Bailey as one of the best singers of the Big Band Era. Other LPs included Swingin' With Helen with Wynton Kelly on Contemporary '61, two others on that label; Helen And The Muse All Stars on Muse '79-80. |