Victoria Spivey – Moaning The Blues (1996)
Victoria Spivey – Moaning The Blues (1996)
The Blues Collection Vol. 65
1 Moaning The Blues 3:09 2 Black Snake Blues 3:14 3 Dope Head Blues 3:22 4 My Handy Man 3:05 5 T-B Blues 3:15 6 Organ Grinder Blues 3:13 7 Murder In The First Degree 2:55 8 How Do You Do It That Way? 3:22 9 Funny Feathers 3:19 10 Blood Hound Blues 2:37 11 Toothache Blues - Part 1 2:46 12 Dirty T-B Blues 3:09 13 Black Snake Swing 3:02 14 Detroit Moan 2:51 15 One Hour Mama 2:43 16 Down Hill Pull 3:04 17 Good Cabbage 3:12 18 Hollywood Stomp 3:09 Accompanied By – The Chicago Four (tracks: 14, 18), Clarence Williams' Blue Five (tracks: 4, 6), Original Victoria Spivey And Her Hallelujah Boys(tracks: 13) Alto Saxophone – Charlie Holmes (tracks: 15) Banjo – Mancy Carr (tracks: 8, 9) Bass – Pops Foster (tracks: 1, 10, 12, 15) Clarinet – Albert Nicholas (tracks: 15), Omer Simeon (tracks: 4, 6) Cornet – King Oliver (tracks: 4, 6) Drums – Zutty Singleton (tracks: 8, 9) Guitar – Eddie Lang (tracks: 4, 6), Lonnie Johnson (tracks: 3, 5, 7), Will Johnson (2) (tracks: 1, 10, 12) Leader – Victoria Spivey (tracks: 13) Piano – Clarence Williams (tracks: 4, 6, 11), Gene Anderson (2) (tracks: 8, 9), John Erby (tracks: 5), Luis Russell (tracks: 1, 10, 12, 15), Porter Grainger (tracks: 3, 7), Victoria Spivey (tracks: 2) Soprano Saxophone – Charlie Holmes (tracks: 1, 10, 12) Tenor Saxophone – Jimmy Strong (tracks: 8, 9), Teddy Hill (tracks: 1, 10, 12) Trombone – Eddie Durham (tracks: 4, 6), Fred Robinson (tracks: 8, 9), J.C. Higginbotham (tracks: 1, 10, 12) Trumpet – Henry "Red" Allen (tracks: 1, 10, 12, 15), Louis Armstrong (tracks: 8, 9), Randolph Scott (tracks: 13) Trumpet, Piano, Drums – Unknown Artist (tracks: 16, 17) Vocals – Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson (tracks: 11) Track 1, 10, 12. - New York, 1 October 1929 Track 2. - St.Louis, 11 May 1926 Track 3. - New York, 28 October 1927 Track 4, 6, 9. - New York, 12 September 1928 Track 5. - St.Louis, 27 April 1927 Track 7. - New York, 1 November 1927 Track 8. - New York, 10 July 1929 Track 11. - New York, 17 October 1928 Track 13. - Chicago, 7 July 1936 Track 14, 18. - Chicago, 15 October 1936 Track 15. - New York, 12 March 1957 Track 16, 17. - Chicago, 8 July 1937
Victoria Spivey got her start in music at age twelve when she began playing piano in a movie theatre in Houston, Texas. From there she expanded her musical career to playing in saloons and whorehouses. She was was a big fan of the Blues singer Ida Cox and modeled her own career after Cox's. In 1926 at the the age of twenty she travelled to St. Louis where Okeh records was on a field trip looking for new acts to record. She recorded her own songs Black Snake Blues and Dirty Woman Blues which became a best selling record. Over the the next two years she was quite a hot item and recorded records almost once a month, often with the accompaniment of great Jazz musicians like Lonnie Johnson, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Clarence Williams, Luis Russell and many others, including her sister Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey. In 1929 she played a small role in King Vidor's early film musical "Hallelujah".
As the Blues craze and the record industry in general hit the skids in the early 1930s, Spivey somehow managed to keep recording and performing unlike almost all of the other Classic Blues singers. She expanded into playing in vaudeville musical revues, including the acclaimed Hellzapoppin' Revue in New York City and recorded and toured with Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. Spivey was constantly working, playing countless one-night stands throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but by the l950s, Spivey had left show business, but continued singing in the church choir in her home in Brooklyn. Victoria returned to show business in 1962 when she formed her own record company, Spivey Records. Her first record on the label featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist. So, Spivey's career began again in the early 1960s; she began performing in folk and blues festivals and in nightclubs in and around New York City and continued to record for the rest of her life.
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