Hadda Brooks

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Hadda Brooks
Birth name Hadda Hopgood
Also known as Queen Of The Boogie
Born October 29, 1916(1916-10-29)
Origin Flag of the United States Los Angeles, California, USA
Died September 11, 2002 (aged 86)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Genre(s) Blues, Boogie woogie, Jazz, Torch songs, R&B
Occupation(s) Pianist, Vocalist and Composer
Instrument(s) Piano
Years active 1940s – 2000s
Label(s) Modern, Crown, Virgin, Point Blank

Hadda Brooks (October 29, 1916 – November 21, 2002), was a noted American pianist, vocalist and composer. Her first single, "Swingin' The Boogie", which she composed, was issued in 1945. She was billed as "Queen Of The Boogie."[1] Highlights of her life included singing at Hawaii's official statehood ceremony in 1959 and being asked for a private audience with Pope Pius XII.[2]

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[edit] Life and career

She was born and raised in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, by her parents, who had migrated to California from the South. Her mother Goldie Wright was a doctor, her father John Hapgood a deputy sheriff. Her grandfather, Samuel Alexander Hopgood, moved to California from Atlanta, Georgia, and proved to be an enormous influence on Brooks. He introduced her to theater and the operatic voices of Amelita Galli-Curci and Enrico Caruso. In her youth she formally studied classical music with an Italian piano instructor, Florence Bruni, with whom she trained for twenty years. She attended the University of Chicago, and later, returned to Los Angeles. She came to love the subtle comedy of black theater and vaudeville entertainer and singer Bert Williams. Brooks began playing piano professionally in the early 1940s at a tap-dance studio owned by Hollywood choreographer and dancer Willie Covan. For ten dollars a week, she played the popular tunes of the day while Covan worked with such stars as Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and Shirley Temple. Brooks was married briefly during this period to a Harlem Globetrotter named Earl "Shug" Morrison in 1941. She toured with the team when they traveled. Morrison developed pulmonary pneumonia, however, and died about a year after they were married. It was Brooks's only marriage.

Brooks actually preferred ballads to boogie-woogies, but worked up her style by listening to Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis records. Her first record, the pounding "Swingin' the Boogie," for Jules Bihari's Modern Records, was a sizable regional hit in 1945, and another R&B Top Ten with "Out of the Blue," her most famous song.[3] It was Jules Bihari who gave her the recording name Hadda Brooks.[4] Clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman recommended Brooks to a film director friend of his who placed her in the film "Out of the Blue" in 1947.[5] Encouraged by orchestra leader Charlie Barnet, Ms. Brooks practiced singing "You Won't Let Me Go," and the song became her first vocal recording in 1947. She usually played the small part of a lounge piano player in films, and often sang the title song. "Out of the Blue" became a top hit for Brooks, "Boogie Woogie Blues" followed in 1948, and she appeared in "In a Lonely Place" (1950) starring Humphrey Bogart,[6] and in "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) with Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas.[7] Brooks became the first African-American woman to host her own television show in 1957. "The Hadda Brooks Show",[8] a combination talk and musical entertainment show, aired on Los Angeles' KCOP-TV. The show opened with Brooks seated behind a grand piano, cigarette smoke curling about her, and featured "That's My Desire" as her theme song. She appeared in 26 half-hour episodes of the show. She commuted to Europe in the 1970's for performances in nightclubs and festivals, but performed rarely in the United States, but reemerged in the late 1980s playing nightclubs regularly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, receiving rave reviews.

In 1993, Ms. Brooks was presented with the Prestigious Pioneer Award by Bonnie Raitt on behalf of the Smithsonian-based Rhythm and Blues Foundation, at the Hollywood Palace.[9] Brooks was in Jack Nicholsons film "The Crossing Guard" (1995),[10] directed by Sean Penn, a situation brought about by the fact she was a long-time favorite of both star and director. Three years later she made a film appearance in "The Thirteenth Floor" (1999),[11] her last appearance in film was in "John John in the Sky" (2000)[12]

Her 1996 album Time Was When, was with Al Viola (Guitar), Eugene Wright (Bass), Richard Dodd (Cello), she wrote three songs on the album "You Go Your Way and I'll Go Crazy" and "Mama's Blues." She began playing at hip night clubs like actor Johnny Depp's Viper Room, New York's Algonquin Room, and at Hollywood haunts like Goldfinger's and the Cinegrill. Her eightieth birthday party was held at the Depp's Viper Room, and included such guests as actors Uma Thurman, and Jack Nicholson.[13]

In 2000, the Los Angeles Music Awards, the largest and longest running awards show and showcase series in the world for independent artists, honored Hadda Brooks with the "Lifetime Achievement Award."[14]

Hadda Brooks died at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles, following open-heart surgery at age 86.[15]

In 2007 a documentary "Queen of the Boogie", 72 mins, directed by Austin Young & Barry Pett was introduced to the Los Angeles Silver Lake Film Festival.[16]

Her most famous songs include:

[edit] Discography

Year Title Genre Label
2002 Romance in the Dark Jazz, Blues Ace
1999 I've Got News for You Jazz, Blues Virgin
1996 Time Was When Jazz, Blues Virgin
1999 I've Got News for You Jazz, Blues Virgin
1994 Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere Jazz, Blues DRG
1963 Sings & Swings Jazz, Blues Crown
1958 Boogie Jazz, Blues Crown
1956 Femme Fatale Jazz, Blues Modern

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Populat Music, Guinness Limited, page 563, (1995) - ISBN 1561591769
  2. ^ Hadda Brooks, the 'Queen of Boogie'
  3. ^ Vladimir, Bogdanov. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues, Backbeat Books, page 68, (2003) - ISBN 0879307366
  4. ^ Cohassey, John F. Toast of the Town: The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson, Wayne State University Press, page 156, (1998) - ISBN 081432696X
  5. ^ imbd: "Out of the Blue" (1947)
  6. ^ imdb: Lonely Place (1950)
  7. ^ imdb: "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952)
  8. ^ imdb: "The Hadda Brooks Show" (1957)
  9. ^ Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards
  10. ^ imdb: "The Crossing Guard" (1995)
  11. ^ imdb: "The Thirteenth Floor" (1999)
  12. ^ imdb:"John John in the Sky" (2000)
  13. ^ E-notes: Hadda Brooks Biography
  14. ^ L.A. Weekly Music Awards 2000
  15. ^ Billboards To Day in History
  16. ^ "Queen of the Boogie"

[edit] External links