1925-1926

Ethel Waters

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 19, 1996)
• Original Release Date: 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Classics
• ASIN: B000001NMR
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #654,800 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
While Ethel Waters's years of fame as a singer coincided with those of Bessie Smith and the other classic blues singers, Waters's style and delivery were utterly different, even when she was singing similar material. Her voice was significantly lighter and more flexible, and there's an early grasp of jazz phrasing that often appears in these recordings from August 1925 to July 1926. It's particularly marked on "Dinah" and "Bring Your Greenbacks." Although Waters was an immensely popular and influential singer, she's better remembered today for the stage and film career of her later years. That theatrical gift is often apparent here. Along with her sophisticated jazz phrasing, Waters sings with superb diction, and she's far better at delivering narrative lyrics and the requisite comic banter than her contemporaries. Waters is accompanied here by a variety of pianists, including Pearl Wright, Fletcher Henderson, and Maceo Pinkard. Louis Hooper is particularly good on the blues of "Refrigeratin' Papa." Waters is sometimes joined by larger bands. Cornetist Joe Smith adds fine obbligatos and a solo to "I've Found a New Baby," joining with Henderson for the best jazz backing in the collection. A young Coleman Hawkins appears briefly as well, supplying bass lines on an unwieldy bass saxophone. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutly wonderful..., January 18, 2000

By	ab (ca) - See all my reviews

The best jazz/blues singer of the 20's, is highly influenced by Louis Armstrong, yet she has one of the sweetest, most appealing and swinging voices of the era. Of all the volumes in the classics labels reissue this is the one to start with, though all of theem are recommended highly.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavenly singing by a real jazzed angel!!!, September 25, 2000

By	roarin20sGuy - See all my reviews

Ethel Waters had the most beautiful voice ever, when she sang the angels danced in heaven. I mean this woman's phrasing was completely jazzy, yet her voice was pure and sweet. Always a dicty singer, at times very white sounding, and theb the next minute she's be scattin' away, but always in high browl sophistocated style. This CD has her mostly singing the blues of the "20's blues craze", with just James P. Johnson, King of the stride piano(the CD would be worth picking up alone for James P. Johnson's piano playing). There are also a few soon to be jazz standards here "Heebie Jeebies" and the classic "Sugar" as well as the classic blues "Loud Speakin' Papa." This is the difinitive 20's Ethel Waters CD.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talk about phrasing, March 5, 2003

By	Jahlaune Hunt "Jahlaune Hunt" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

Ethel waters enuctuation and phrasing are excellant. If you like early Billie Holiday you will love her forerunner and arch enemy Ethel Waters. For her time she had such perfect timing and phrasing and each word is clear and precise though at times she tends to veer in the vaudevillian opretic style that was prevelant in her day. This is a good "old testemant to anyone considering to be a singer phrasing and enuuation is what makes a singer last! A great CD!