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Lizzie Miles

About Me

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Lizzie Miles was the stage name taken by Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (1895 - 1963), an African American singer.
Miles was born in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, in a dark skinned Francophone Creole ("Creole of Color") family. She traveled widely with minstrel and circus shows in the 1910s, and made her first phonograph recordings in New York City of blues songs in 1922-- though Miles did not like to be referred to as a "Blues Singer", since she sang a wide repertory of music.
In the mid 1920s she spent time performing in Paris before returning to the United States. She suffered a serious illness and retired from music in the 1930s. In the 1940s she returned to New Orleans, where Joe Mares encouraged her to sing again-- which she did, but always from in front of or beside the stage, since she said she had vowed in a prayer not to go on stage again if she recovered from her illness. Miles was based in San Francisco, California in the early 1950s, then again returned to New Orleans where she recorded with several Dixieland and traditional jazz bands and made regular radio broadcasts.
In 1959 she quit singing except for gospel music. She died of a heart attack in New Orleans on March 17, 1963.

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Member Since: 20/11/2006
Influences: Miles used her beauty and her huge voice to create a sophisticated, urbane style that was more suited for settings like the Cotton Club in Harlem than the tent shows of the South. Miles began her career singing in front of New Orleans bands that included such noted jazz musicians as King Oliver and Kid Ory, though, in her youth, she had worked Southern vaudeville shows and even joined up with a circus.
Miles sang pop ballads, vaudeville standards, and jazz-colored blues, both in French and English. During her prime, she attracted the same kind of audience that made Edith Wilson, Alberta Hunter, and Lucille Hegamin stars. Never dubbed a classic blues woman, when she sang the blues, she sang them with conviction.
From The African American Registry (Reference: Nothing But the Blues The Music and the Musicians Edited by Lawrence Cohn)
Record Label: Unknown Major
Type of Label: Unsigned

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