Eva Taylor - Not Just The Blues (1996)

Born Irene Joy Gibbons in St. Louis, Missouri, on stage from the age of three, Taylor toured New Zealand, Australia and Europe before her teens. She also toured extensively with the "Josephine Gassman and Her Pickaninnies" vaudeville act. She settled in New York by 1920. There she established herself as a performer in Harlem nightspots. Within a year she wed Clarence Williams, a producer (hired by Okeh Records), publisher, and piano player. The newlyweds worked together on radio and recordings. The couple recorded together through 1930s. Their legacy includes numbers made as the group Blue Five in the mid-1920s, which included jazz clarinetist/saxophonist Sidney Bechet, trumpet virtuoso Louis Armstrong, and such singers as Sippie Wallace and Bessie Smith.
In 1922 Taylor made her first record for the African-American owned Black Swan Records, who billed her as "The Dixie Nightingale." She would continue to record dozens of blues, jazz and popular sides for Okeh and Columbia throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Although she adopted the stage name of Eva Taylor, she also worked under her birth name in 'Irene Gibbons and her Jazz Band'.
She was part of The Charleston Chasers, the name given to a few all-star studio ensembles who recorded between 1925 and 1930. In 1927, Eva Taylor appeared on Broadway in Bottomland, a musical written and produced by her husband, lasted for twenty-one performances. During 1929 Eva had her own radio show on NBC's Cavalcade, then worked for many years on radio WOR, New York (guesting on Paul Whiteman's radio show in 1932). Taylor stopped performing during the 1940s, but returned in the mid-1960s following her husband's death, touring throughout Europe.

Tracks:

01. Of All The Wrongs You've Done Me [0:02:56.52]
02. Everybody Loves My Baby [0:02:35.58]
03. Mandy Make Up Your Mind [0:03:11.50]
04. I'm A Liitle Blackbird [0:03:16.22]
05. Cakewalking Babies From Home [0:03:03.40]
06. Pickin' On Your Baby [0:03:23.40]
07. Papa De Da Da [0:03:04.13]
08. Just Wait 'Til You See My Baby [0:02:50.25]
09. Living High, Sometimes [0:02:33.02]
10. Coal Cart Blues [0:02:53.08]
11. You Can't Shush Katie (The Gabbiest Girl In Town) [0:03:09.47]
12. Shake That Thing [0:03:01.70]
13. Get It Fixed [0:03:07.33]
14. I've Found A New Baby [0:03:07.65]
15. Pile Of Logs And Stone (Called Home) [0:02:38.20]
16. When The Red, Red Robbin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along [0:02:51.12]
17. (There's A Blue Ridge In My Heart) Virginia [0:02:37.23]
18. Nobody But My Baby Is Getting My Love [0:02:59.52]
19. Morocco Blues [0:03:23.70]
20. Candy Lips (I'm Stuck On You) [0:02:40.13]
21. Scatter Your Smiles [0:03:17.02]
22. Where That Old Man River Flows [0:03:06.73]
23. Shout, Sister, Shout [0:02:59.17]

Personnel:

Eva Taylor – vocals
Clarence Williams’ Blue Five
Clarence Williams’ Blue Seven
Clarence Williams’ Morocco Five
Clarence Williams’ Washboard Band