Velma Middleton (September 1, 1917 – February 10, 1961)
was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
vocalist and entertainer who sang with
Louis Armstrong's
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
s and small groups from 1942 until her death.
Biography
Middleton was born in
Holdenville, Oklahoma
Holdenville is a city in and county seat of Hughes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 5,771 at the 2010 census, an increase of 22 percent from 4,732 at the 2000 census. ,
and moved with her parents to
St. Louis, Missouri. She started her career as a
chorus girl
A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed.
Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms su ...
and dancer and throughout her career performed acrobatic splits on stage. After working as a solo performer, and singing with Connie McLean and his Rhythm Orchestra on a tour of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
, she joined Armstrong's big band in 1942, and appeared with him in
soundies
Soundies are three-minute American musical films, and each short displays a performance. The shorts were produced between 1940 and 1946 and have been referred to as "precursors to music videos" by UCLA. Soundies exhibited a variety of musical gen ...
.
[Yanow, Scott]
Biography of Velma Middleton, ''AllMusic.com''
Retrieved 15 November 2016
When Armstrong's orchestra disbanded in 1947, Middleton joined his All-Stars, a smaller group. She was often used for comic relief, such as for duets with Armstrong on "
That's My Desire" and "
Baby, It's Cold Outside
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a popular song written by Frank Loesser in 1944 and popularized in the 1949 film '' Neptune's Daughter''. While the lyrics make no mention of a holiday, it is commonly regarded as a Christmas song owing to its winter ...
", and she did occasional features. She also recorded eight tracks as a solo singer for
Dootone Records in 1948 and 1951. Although she was not widely praised for her voice, described by critic
Scott Yanow as "average but reasonably pleasing and good-humored",
[ Armstrong regarded her as an important and integral part of his show.][
Middleton performed on June 7, 1953 with Louis Armstrong and his All Stars for the famed ninth Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at ]Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...
in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr. Also featured that day were Don Tosti and His Mexican Jazzmen, Roy Brown and his Orchestra, Shorty Rogers
Milton "Shorty" Rogers (born Milton Rajonsky; April 14, 1924 – November 7, 1994) was an American jazz musician, one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arrang ...
, Earl Bostic
Eugene Earl Bostic (April 25, 1913 – October 28, 1965) was an American alto saxophonist. Bostic's recording career was diverse, his musical output encompassing jazz, swing, jump blues and the post-war American rhythm and blues style, which he ...
, and Nat "King" Cole.["Jazz Cavalcade will be greatest Sunday, June 7th", ''The California Eagle'', May 21, 1953.]
While touring with Armstrong in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
, she suffered a stroke in January 1961,
References
Further reading
* Forbes, Mike. ''Louis Armstrong's All Stars''. Surrey: J Michael Forbes, 2015.
External links
Velma Middleton at JazzLives
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Velma
1917 births
1961 deaths
Jazz musicians from Oklahoma
People from Holdenville, Oklahoma
20th-century American singers
American jazz singers
American women jazz singers
Dixieland singers
Deaths in Sierra Leone
20th-century American women singers