Blanche Thomas

Blanche Thomas (born October 5, 1922 in Orleans Parish , Louisiana, † April 21, 1977 in New Orleans , Louisiana) was an American blues , rhythm and blues and jazz singer .

Blanche's father Sam Thomas was a musician who played bass and trumpet with Kid Howard and Jim Robinson . She first appeared as a fourteen-year-old member of the Kiddies Revue in theearly 1930s at Tic Toc Roof Garden on South Rampart Street; While still a student, she worked as a cloakroom attendant at Club Pelican during the Depression . After leaving school, she performed at the Club Bali on Bourbon Street with Adam Lambert's Six Brown Cats . In case of fire the club, the musicians of the ensemble lost the briefly also Miles Davis was a member, ^[2]all their instruments. An appearance she had in Texas on a USO tour in front of 500 Japanese -born internees. Mid-1940s, she toured with the Dodison's World Circus . After the war, she returned to New Orleans, appeared in nightclubs with musicians such as Alvin Alcorn , Louis Cottrell , Joe Robichaux , Sidney Desvigne and Dave Bartholomew .

On July 3, 1954, Blanche Thomas made her recording debut when she recorded You Is not So Search a Much for Imperial Records , accompanied by Dave Bartholomew's band ; B-side was Not the Way I Love You (IM 743). The R & B song was also marketed on the jukebox label Pelican - with Little Esther's cover version of Hound Dog as B-side (JBJ 1011). Blanche Thomas' style of these recordings recalled the blues-shouter vocals of Big Maybelle Smith and Big Mama Thorntonwho was also successful with this song. Thomas then became a band singer with Dave Bartholomew's band, which had a Dew Drop engagement on Lasalle Street, one of the city's most popular nightclubs at the time, where Joe Tex or Big Joe Turner were the top acts . During the 1950s, Blanche Thomas also appeared in Leon Primate's 500 Club (corner of Bourbon and St. Louis Street). After her involvement with Bartholomew she moved to the Club Mardi Gras Loungeon Bourbon Street, which belonged to the white clarinetist Sid Davilla, who occasionally accompanied Thomas at their performances. The drummer Freddie KohlmanThomas recommended to the club owners Ruth and Bill Reinhardt in Chicago , who there the Club Jazz, Ltd. operated. In the city Thomas also sang in the clubs Show Boat and Pick Collier , with the bandleader Franz Jackson in 1962 at the Red Arrow Club . In 1964, she returned to New Orleans to perform with Art Hodes .

It was shown in 1958 in a short sequence of the music film King Creole with Elvis Presley , who played in the Preservation Hall .they made a series of recordings with the early 1960s, Paul Barbarin ; also in his appearances on US troop entertainment in 1967 in Vietnam and Thailand she participated. In 1965, a recording session took place for Al Clarke's label Nobility ( Am I Blue ), conducted by Albert "Papa" French and with arrangements by trombonist Waldren "Frog" Joseph.In 1968, in an All-Stars band led by Santo Pecoraat Disneyland in Anaheim , California. Around 1970, recordings with Louis Cottrell's band ( Bill Bailey ) followed, and in the same year she had appearances with Al Hirt in clubs in St. Louis. During the 1970s, she regularly appeared in New Orleans Traditional Jazz venues such as Dixieland Hall and Heritage Hall ; In 1974 she appeared with Cottrell in New York's Carnegie Hall . In the early 1970s, she recorded singles for Capricorn Records ( Bald Headed Beulah / Why Do not You Go To New Orleans ). In the summer of 1974, she first traveled to Europe when she was at theGrand parade du jazz performed in Nice ; Another European tour took place in the fall of 1975 at Dick Hyman's New York Repertory Company , where they featured on The Musical Live of Louis Armstrong's standards like The St. Louis Blues or Nobody Loves You When Down in the Call and Response with trumpeter Joe Newman .

Blanche Thomas recorded a total of 31 titles, but only a few of them are on CD. Although she was not considered an outstanding singer (the trumpeter Clive Wilson compared it with Della Reese), but impressed by her vaudeville trained on stage presence.