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(SOME) QUEER BLACK JAZZ

Featuring Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Billy Strayhorn, Gladys Bentley, and Alberta Hunter

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Billie Holiday (1915 – 1959)

  • Singer known for haunting vocals and relaxed, easy singing style
  • Performed with Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw
  • Openly bisexual: married thrice and reported to have had relationships with women while in prison; romantically linked to, among others, Tallulah Bankhead and Orson Welles
  • Died tragically young after harsh FBI investigation related to drug charges

Portrait of Billie Holiday and her dog, Mister Dog, New York, N.Y., ca. June 1946 (Bill Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress)

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“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1936)

Recorded with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra

Cover of a single from the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast, Blackbirds of 1928

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Ethel Waters (1896 – 1977)

Portrait of Ethel Waters, New York, N.Y.(?), between 1938 and 1948 (Bill Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress)

  • Popular singer and dancer, performed on Broadway and had her own TV show
  • Recorded a version of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” with Duke Ellington’s band in 1933, for the first-ever full Broadway soundtrack recording
  • Achieved mainstream white success: first African American ever to be nominated for Emmy and second African American ever to be nominated for Academy Award
  • Openly bisexual, sometimes made Chicago newspaper society pages when out on a date

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“Old Man Harlem” (1941)

Recorded with Ed Mallory and His Orchestra

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Billy Strayhorn (1915 – 1967)

  • Prolific composer and pianist who was a mainstay in Duke Ellington’s band, starting in 1938
  • Composed “Take the A Train” on the subway ride, taking the A Line, on his way to Duke Ellington’s house for the first time
  • Openly gay and active in the Civil Rights Movement, was a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Ellington sometimes took credit for Strayhorn’s compositions to protect him from public scrutiny, though more frequently gave him named credit later in his career

Portrait of Billy Strayhorn, New York, N.Y., between 1946 and 1948 (Bill Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress)

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“Just A-Sittin’ and A-Rockin’” (1941)

Performed by the Blanton-Webster era Duke Ellington Orchestra

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Gladys Bentley (1907 – 1960)

Gladys Bentley by unidentified photographer, ca. 1940 (National Museum of African American History and Culture)

  • Extremely popular blues singer and pianist
  • The Clam House, a popular Harlem venue, was sometimes called “Gladys’s Clam House,” despite her not owning or managing it
  • Openly lesbian and butch, would perform in tuxedo and top hat and flirt with women in the audience as part of her act
  • Tried to open a Broadway show but frequently received death threats and shutdowns by the police
  • Unfortunately renounced lesbianism in the 50s to avoid the ire of McCarthyism

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“Juneteenth Jamboree” (1952)

Never officially released, so no information on the band playing with her

Gladys changed her stage name to Fatso Bentley in the 50s to distance herself from her old career

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Alberta Hunter (1895 – 1984)

  • Popular singer and songwriter who toured Europe in 1917 and sold songs to singers like Bessie Smith, while holding down her own prolific recording contracts
  • Openly lesbian and lived with Lottie Tyler, a niece of the famous comedian Bert Williams, for many years
  • Was friends with Ethel Waters and sometimes went on double dates, which would be reported on in Chicago papers’ society pages
  • Retired as a singer in 1957 after her mother’s death to become a nurse, un-retired in 1976 after the hospital she worked at forced her to retire

The jazz singer Alberta Hunter in 1982. (Paul Natkin/WireImage, found on the New York Times website)

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“My Castle’s Rockin’” (1981)

Performed live during a residency at The Cookery in New York – in her 80s!!

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Additional Resources!