Search - Sidney Bechet :: Sidney Bechet 1945 1946

Sidney and stella

mark weiss | Palo Alto | 09/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This cd is notable for the appearance on the final six tracks of vocalist Stella Brooks. Brooks was from the West Coast, became popular as a jazz singer in New York's Greenwich Village in the 1930s and 1940s, and then returned to San Francisco and ultimately lived a humble quiet life until she died recently at 90 years of age. She was known to be the spunky sidekick of Billie Holliday, and also befriended Woody Guthrie and Marlon Brando. Smithsonian Folkways also has these six tracks on a cd of vocalists of the 1940s, actually a split cd with Greta Wright, an Austrian diva of the day. Stella's trademark song was "I'm A Little Piece of Leather" ('...very well put together...') although this song seems to be credited variously to her or other composers. (It appears on a Peattie Wheatstraw cd which makes me want to guess that it's an old blues and predates them both...the Beatles covered about 45 seconds of it in some early unreleased BBC tapes...)



Stella Brooks seems too interesting to disappear completely into history. (She's also on some re-released Stuff Smith sessions...)

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