Babs Gonzales

Babs Gonzales ( born October 27, 1919 in Newark, New Jersey when Lee Brown; † January 23, 1980 ) was an American singer of bebop.

Life and work

Gonzales learned piano and drums and began in 1939 as a companion and singing groups and also sang himself with Benny Goodman. He also wrote arrangements eg for Lionel Hampton. He became known as Bop established singer in the vocalese style with its Tadd Dameron in 1946 with singing group " Babs Three Bips and a Bop ", with which he, inter alia, " Ornithology " by Charlie Parker, "Weird Lullaby " and " Lullaby of the Doomed, "" Prelude to a Nightmare, "" Professor Bop "or" Oop - Pop -A -Da " ( an original composition, by Dizzy Gillespie recorded) recorded at the Blue Note ( 1946 to 1949 ). His group existed until 1949. Around 1950 he also took on for Capitol ( " Boptionary "). After that, he was a disc jockey, 1950-1953 singer and Road Manager for the saxophonist James Moody. At times, he drove in the late 1940s in Hollywood around, wearing a turban, called " Ram Singh" or " Ricardo Gonsalez " ( not to be discriminated against as a color in hotels) and worked as a chauffeur for Errol Flynn. He took with Art Pepper, Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Smith, Bennie Green (on "Soul Stirrin ', also from Gonsalez, Blue Note 1958), Sonny Rollins ( on its first board in 1949 ), Johnny Griffin, and also appeared even more common in Europe on, for example, one of the first Americans in 1962 " Ronnie Scott 's" in London. He was regarded as an original and tireless promoter of jazz. 1960 appeared on the small label Jaro his album Tales of Manhattan.

Gonzales has published three autobiographies ( " I paid my dues - good times", "No Bread 67 ", " Movin ' on down the line 75 " ) and also tried his hand as a beat poet. He is a cousin of pianist Teddy Brannon.