Customer Reviews

Ramona & Her Grand Piano

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Ramona Davies(known just as Ramona) was a very good piano player, who often played in Paul Whiteman's band, she had a great and swinging' style, and could sing as "hot" as Edythe Wright, Helen Ward or any other band singer of the era. These sessions were lead by Ramona and feature The Dorsey Brothers, Joe Venuti, Eddie Land, and a list of jazz all-stars that could go on and on. These are all small group sessions and Ramona plays piano and sings while these hot musicians back her up. Essential jazz, definately worth exploring.

"Paul Whiteman presents: Ramona and her Grand Piano". This was printed on Ramona's records that were issued between August 1932 and 1936 when she was employed by Whiteman.
This is a truly delightful collection of thirties' music from one of the forgotten heroines of song, Ramona Davies. A child prodigy, she debuted on the piano when she was twelve. She went professional at age 16 when she became staff pianist at a Kansas City radio station. She was hired by Paul Whiteman in 1932 as a replacement for Mildred Bailey and she remained his featured pianist and girl singer for four years. On this CD she is accompanied by the full Whiteman orchestra (on three titles), by The Whiteman Boys, a small band drawn from the Whiteman band including the Teagardens, Frank Trumbauer and Dick McDonough, by The Whiteman Gang, an even smaller band featuring Bunny Berigan, Roy Bargy and McDonough. Ramona is also heard as her own accompanist on the grand piano. Hers is a lovely alto voice, her delivery is relaxed to the point of casualness, enunciation typically american but fortunately lacking in too strong a drawl. Her piano playing is excellent with, to quote from the booklet, "elements of the Harlem stride ... and an effortless treble octave technique". After she left Whiteman "in a flurry of law suits" (which she lost), she went to Europe for a year (she played at Ciro's in London where she became acquainted with the Duke of Kent and played a royal commandand performance), went back to the States in 1938, but found that a career without Whiteman's support was a lot more difficult than she had imagined. She married a sports reporter and became a devoted wife and mother until she died of cancer at age 63 in 1972. The obituary ran "Ramona Helfer, wife of......". No mention was made of her own accomplishments as a great singer-pianist. This CD is a fitting testament to the delightful artiste she had once been.
As is alway the case with TOM productions, sound quality is top-notch, liner notes are very informative (on both the artist and the song material) and come with complete discographical info. As TOM CDs are getting rare I would advise to order soon while it's still available.

Nb. Contrary to what the other reviewer stated, you will NOT find Eddie Lang (who had already died before Ramona started recording), Joe Venuti or the Dorsey brothers here (they had all long since left Whiteman).