Esther Bigeou (1892 – November 15, 1936) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer. Billed as "The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile", she was one of the

classic female blues Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by ...

singers popular in the 1920s.

Biography

She was born in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in about 1892. Several members of her extended family were musicians; the drummer

Paul Barbarin Adolphe Paul Barbarin (May 5, 1899 – February 17, 1969) was an American jazz drummer from New Orleans. Career Barbarin grew up in New Orleans in a family of musicians, including his father, three of his brothers, and his nephew (Danny Barker) ...

was her cousin. Harris, Sheldon (1994). ''Blues Who's Who''. (Rev. ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. p. 48. . In 1913 she began touring in

with the performer and playwright Irvin C. Miller; they later married.Wintz, Cary D.; Paul Finkelman, Paul, eds. 2004. ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K–Y''. Taylor & Francis. p. 793.
/ref> In 1917 Bigeou appeared as a singer, dancer, and recitalist in the revue ''Broadway Rastus'', written by Miller, at the Standard Theater in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, the Lafayette Theater in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and the Orpheum Theater in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. She recorded for

OKeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

in 1921 and 1923 and toured the

Theater Owners Booking Association Theatre Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s. The theaters mostly had white owners, though there were exceptions, including the recently restored Morton Theater in Athens, ...

vaudeville circuit with the Billy King Company in 1923. From 1923 to 1925 and 1927 to 1930, she toured as a single act in the American South, Midwest, and Northeast.

Legacy

The blues writer Chris Smith said that Bigeou was "a singer at the pop end of African-American entertainment" and that she "seems to have retired, aged only 35, to settle in New Orleans, where reports indicate that she died circa 1936".''Esther Bigeou: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1921–1923).'' CD booklet. Document Records DODC-5489. All of her recordings were reissued in 1996 by

Document Records Document Records is an independent record label, founded in Austria and now based in Scotland, that specializes in reissuing vintage blues and jazz. The company has been recognised by The Blues Foundation, being honoured with a Keeping the ...

on the CD ''Esther Bigeou: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1921–1923)'' (DODC-5489).

Recordings

Recorded in New York City for Okeh Records in October–November 1921: *"The Memphis Blues" *"The St. Louis Blues" *"Stingaree Blues (A Down Home Blues)" *"Nervous Blues" *"If That's What You Want Here It Is" Recorded in New York City for Okeh Records in March 1923: *"Agrravatin' Papa (Don't You Try To Two-Time Me) *"Four O'Clock Blues" *"I'm Through With You (As I Can Be)" *"Beale Street Mama" *"Outside Of That, He's All Right With Me" *"The Gulf Coast Blues" *"Beale Street Blues" *"The Hesitating Blues" Recorded in New York City for Okeh Records in December 1923: *"That Twa-Twa Tune" *"

Panama Limited The ''Panama Limited'' was a passenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 between Chicago, Illinois, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of the Illinois Central Railroad, it took its name from the Panama Canal, which in 1911 was three yea ...

Blues" *"You Ain't Treatin' Me Right" *"West Indies Blues"

References

External links

Esther Bigeou
Discography and photographs at Red Hot Jazz Archive Classic female blues singers 20th-century African-American women singers African-American theatre American blues singers Okeh Records artists Blues musicians from New Orleans Vaudeville performers 1890s births 1934 deaths Singers from Louisiana 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American people {{US-singer-stub