Helen Ward (singer)

Helen Ward ( born September 19, 1916 in New York City; † April 21, 1998 in Arlington / Virginia) was an American singer of Swing.

Life and work

Helen Ward was self-taught as a singer; of her father, she began piano lessons. After high school, during which she worked, inter alia, with the composer Burton Lane, she sang at the beginning of her career in the 1930s in various dance orchestras, such as Nye Mayhew and the sweet bands of Eddy Duchin, Eric Madriguera, David Rbinoff and Will Osborne. She was known primarily for her work in Benny Goodman's first book, which she belonged from 1934 to 1936. In January 1935 Ward had a hit with Blue Moon, who came with the Goodman orchestra on rank 2 of the hit parade. Goodman and John Hammond had been chosen because they had specialized in that average to fast 4/4-Tempo, which almost always applied the tape. " She seems so sure that it sounds unpleasant, when she sings something different with quarter notes, diatonic intervals, " wrote Will Friedwald.

She left the band at that time regularly going on tour, because in 1937 the jazz impresario Albert Marx married. However, they continued to take on with Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, Bob Crosby and Joe Sullivan. 1941 and again in 1944 she appeared with Harry James; 1942 to 1943 it belonged to Hal McIntyre Orchestra and took with Red Norvos Overseas Spotlite tape. 1946 and 1947 she worked as a producer of music programs, a New York radio station. In the 1950s, she worked again with Benny Goodman, with whom she toured one last time, but also worked with Wild Bill Davison and Peanuts Hucko. They also took up records with Larry Clinton and Hucko.

In 1960, she retired from the music scene, but had in the late 1970s, a short comeback. She sang in 1979 in various clubs in New York City; in 1981 they released their album The Helen Ward Song Book.

The author Will Friewald called Helen Ward because of the role they had in Benny Goodman, as a role model for a generation of band singers of the 1930s; " Its lively appearance not only inspired their younger colleagues in the other bands, but also those who came before her, such as Ivie Anderson, singer of the Ellington band. " Both singers who Helen Ward most indebted, were the song stylists Martha Tilton and Edythe Wright, but never were serious competitors.

Auswahldiskographie

• The Eddie Condon Floor Show, Vol 1 ( includes footage of Helen Ward with Peanuts Hucko, and Bobby Hackett And His All Stars )
• Roy Eldridge: Heckler 's Hop (Hep, 1936-39)
• Benny Goodman: The Complete Small Combinations, Vol 1/2 ( 1935-37, " All my life ", " Too good to be true"); Planet Jazz - Benny Goodman ( RCA)
• Harry James: 1941 ( Classics )
• Gene Krupa: 1935-1938 ( Classics )
• Joe Sullivan: 1933-1941 ( Classics )
• Teddy Wilson: 1935-1936, 1942-1945 ( Classics )