Blanche Calloway was born in Rochester, New York, on February 2, 1902, the daughter of an attorney and a teacher. Her father went progressively, ultimately violently, insane during Blanches childhood, and died in 1910 after a period of confinement. Her extremely conservative, religious mother disapproved of Blanche's penchant for dancing and singing the blues, creating a pattern of conflict. Her family moved to Baltimore after her father's death (this story was related to me in person by her niece Chris Calloway a few years ago).
Blanche was blessed with a strong and assertive personality which marked and shaped her life from beginning to end. She suffered great heartbreak at 16 or 17 when her mother forbade her contact with a boyfriend from the "wrong side of the tracks," and this, combined with her determination to be a blues singer against her mother's opposition, led her to leave home at 17 or 18 to pursue a musical career.
By the early 1920s Blanche was a major player in the "race" or jazz/blues field, recording under here own name with sidemen like Louis Armstrong ("Lazy Woman Blues," "Lonesome Lovesick Blues," both from 1925). These difficult acoustic recordings reveal a strong, easily recognizable voice together with a sense of daring both in content and style. She went on to sing with the bands of Ruben (Reuben) Reeves and Andy Kirk. During this period she introduced her younger brother Cabell ("Cab") to show business and gave him the break that led to his rapid rise to success in 1930-31.
The Reeves material is problematic. Ruben Reeves was a fine jazz trumpeter who was recruited by Vocalion to form a band to compete with Louis Armstrong. Reeves, however, sounded nothing like Armstrong; and his band sounded nothing like Armstrong's either. Moreover, the band was saddled with insipid, white-sounding dance arrangements of vapid Tin Pan Alley material. Blanche's five Reeves sides are illustrative: on three of them she struggles to overcome the material she is given. However, her "Moanin' Low" rises to the occasion, while her powerful "Black and Blue" is better yet. The Depression struck shortly after the Reeves band's formation, dooming it to short life and oblivion; Reeves ended his musical career and spent the rest of his life as a janitor.
A legendary incident in 1930 or 1931, in which Blanche unsuccessfully attempted to steal and take over Andy Kirk's band, led her to take off on her own again.
"Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys" (according to Chris, the double meaning was intentional) remained a viable and modestly successful commercial enterprise lasting through most of the Depression. Blanche shared musical direction with trumpeter Joe Keyes, later Henry Mason and Richard Jones, and her band consistently was rated high among "race" bands. The band consistently played very hot, with more rough spots than one hears in contemporary Ellington or Fletcher Henderson cuts. Fortunately for us, the electric recordings of the Joy Boys era (despite erratic quality) bring Blanches voice into fuller light and strength. To the end she continued her daring and risqué themes in terms of phrasing, content, and even 1930s angst about machine-age uncertainty ("Whats a Poor Girl Gonna Do?," 1934).
"Catch On" (1931) blends old and new; not beautifully recorded, Blanche appears in a charismatic lead role while she and the band exude a loose, late-night feel. The powerful and compelling "Misery" (1931) features Blanche in top form, while her band plays about as low-down as you will ever hear from anybody. "Just a Crazy Song" (1931) was obviously arranged to bore the contemporary censors into not listening to its second half.
"It Looks Like Susie" (1931) is miserably recorded, reflecting the "one-take roulette" often accorded to black bands in the studio. This is probably a stock commercial dance tune: the arrangement sounds whiter than the other Joy Boys material, but is played hotter and rougher. However, it is well worth the effort to take in Blanche's sarcastic second vocal chorus, in which (as in "Just a Crazy Song") she sings on the response phrase.
Blanche's last recordings, from around 1935, show her with an overhauled band now playing much more complex material. She has added something approaching subtlety to her sarcasm ("You Aint Living Right"). A most pleasant surprise is "Line-A-Jive" in which you hear very sophisticated sectional syncopation (not done gently a la Dorsey!) as this high-powered dance number builds relentlessly to a too-sudden climax.
The Depression took its toll, and Blanche lost her band in 1937. She was arrested and jailed in Yazoo, Mississippi, during a band tour, for using a whites-only ladies' room (Chris told us she was in such a rush that she didn't bother to read the sign). While she was in jail, her "main man" in the band absconded with all the money, leaving the band with no source of income, whereupon the men scattered. Blanche emerged from jail, according to Chris, with "nothing but $20 and her yellow Cadillac convertible that she had to sell on the spot."
Blanche rose, Phoenix-like, and slowly established another career as club manager, impresario, and Democratic ward committeewoman in Tioga, near Philadelphia. Cab, an outgoing and generous personality himself and already a major star, helped support Blanche during those rough early years; he would feature her in his shows, and I am told he occasionally lent her his band to record so that she would earn the profit that would otherwise have gone to him. In the early 1950s she worked as a nightclub manager in Washington, D.C., where she "discovered" singer Ruth Brown.
During the later 1950s or 1960s Blanche moved to Miami and continued her political activism. She was a disc jockey and musical director at radio station WMBM in Miami. Ever the entrepreneur, in the 1960s she founded and operated Afram House, the first company to market cosmetics exclusively to black women. This enterprise proved successful.
Late in her life, according to Chris Calloway, Blanche's old boyfriend, her first love, the man from the wrong side of the tracks, now a millionaire retired funeral director, sought Blanche out and found her in Miami. They married and moved to Baltimore. Thus was she apparently able to spend her last few years in the company she would have preferred so many years earlier. She died in 1978 after a long battle with breast cancer.
I attended the University of Miami from 1966-69. This was during the time that Blanche Calloway operated Afram House. Even at that age I was an experienced swing fan and scholar who spent many spare hours in the university music library listening to its notable collection of 78s. One of my hobbies was combing junk shops in Miami's more dismal neighborhoods looking for (and finding) good records. I had already long been a Cab fan, and had heard Blanche vaguely alluded to, but that was all. If only I had known more! - if only I had known that Blanche lived within ten miles of me! Chris, who is my age, spent her summers with "aunt Blanche" during that time
Blanche's 78 rpm records are all very scarce and command bids on eBay that prevent participation even by an intrepid collector like me, leaving us mere mortals in a state of bemused observation, nothing further. I know of three CDs, none easy to find: one Blanche Calloway, one Ruben Reeves, one Andy Kirk.
Most of society, Eastern and Western, has operated for many centuries under a paradigm of male superiority. This is manifested by the relatively rapid and progressive disappearance of women, as compared to men, from all phases of history, including but certainly not limited to politics, religion, academia, and the arts. Why is it that Bing Crosby, a fairly talented singer and actor, survives familiar to all (well, to most!) while Connie (Connee) Boswell, who has so profoundly influenced so many phases of music up to this day, remains a cult figure? How many other Emily Dickinsons left never-discovered shoe boxes full of written treasure when they died? Was Mary Magdalene a spiritual leader, or not? What else is lost to us that we should have known?
Blanche Calloway typifies the disappearing female artist: at this point she is a little-known and much revered cult figure, and is lucky to be that. Her charismatic and assertive personality, combined with her ability to repeatedly resurrect herself, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of defeat, represents a powerful threat to the male-dominance paradigm; and it is no wonder that some would just as soon she disappear.
Blanche lived with daring, with an open mind ready to challenge paradigms, living openly with her sexuality and ambitions in a way severely disapproved of by contemporary "moral" leaders: thus has she subtly and deliberately been "lost" to subsequent generations, thanks to those who would rather not young people (or anyone, for that matter) be exposed to ideas and lifestyles such as Blanche's. Cab survived to prosperous and acclaimed old age: he was male and, although his material was often risqué, his sexual innuendo was subtler and more disguised.
Think honestly, now: how many young artists (of either gender) have you known who have pursued their heart, spirits and values against powerful opposition? Its often a daunting task to proceed. How many have died?
I would like to thank Chris Calloway for her interest and engagement during a long, late-evening conversation following her show in 2003. She devoted many years of effort to keep Blanche and her memory alive for us. Lena deserves considerable thanks and credit for her encouragement and technical assistance. I also want to thank several of my students who, in researching Blanche Calloway's life for class projects over the last couple of years, have provided information that has helped round out my too incomplete information about this strong and remarkable artist.
"Ticklin' The Strings" by Sweet Hollywaiians
Amazing Japanese hot string band playing 1920's, 30's, 40's style hawaiian, swing, calypso, blues, italian music and originals,featuring vintage instruments.3 songs with Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus(from Robert Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders)
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Thanks so much for your friendship! I'd love to speak with you more about classical musicians of color. We have over four (4) centuries of documented history. The limited definition of "Black music" gets even bigger. All the best in your career. :)
