Lena Wilson

Lena Wilson (1898 – 1939)[1] was an American blues singer in the classic female blues style. She recorded "Chiropractor Blues" and "Love Ain't Blind No More,".

Life and career

Wilson was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.[1] She was an adopted child.[2] About 1918–1920 she sang with her brother Danny Wilson as a vaudeville act on the TOBA circuit in the South.[2] Together with Danny's wife, Edith Wilson, they sometimes performed as a trio.

Her major recordings were made between 1922 and 1924, and in 1930. She variously worked with the Nubian Five, Perry Bradford's Jazz Phools, Conaway's Rag Pickers, Fletcher Henderson, Johnny Dunn's Jazz Hounds, Danny Wilson and Edith Wilson.. Additionally, she recorded under her own name with an ensemble called the Jazz Hounds, featuring Gus Aiken on trumpet, Garvin Bushell on clarinet, Herb Fleming on trombone, John Mitchell on banjo, and Porter Grainger and Cliff Jackson on piano.

Wilson sang in many Harlem musical revues throughout the 1920s. She married the violinist Shrimp Jones in the 1930s,[1] and remained a regular performer in New York City into the mid-1930s. She died, reportedly of pneumonia, in New York in 1939.[3][1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed November 1, 2011
  2. ^ a b Harris 1994, p. 583.
  3. ^ Harris 1994, p. 584.

References