Lil Greenwood

Lil Greenwood ( born November 18, 1924 in Prichard (Alabama ), † 19 July 2011) was an American rhythm and blues and jazz singer, who is due to their membership in the Duke Ellington Orchestra in memory.

Life and work

Lil Greenwood, daughter of a preacher, her career began in 1949 in California as a nightclub singer. From the early 1950s, she worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and sang for three years at Roy Milton and His Solid Senders. They had also been playing their sessions for Modern Records; In June 1950, the blues song Heart Full Of Pain originated. Other Singles 1952-54 she took for Federal Records, a sub-label of King Records in Los Angeles under the direction of producer Ralph Bass on how My Last Hour, the Monday Morning Blues (1952 ), a vocal duet with Little Willie Littlefield, the ballad I 'll Go ( with the vocal group, The Lamplighters ) or Mercy Me (1954). End of the decade she was engaged by Duke Ellington for a tour. The band leader described her voice in the magazine Ebony as

Your signature tune in the band was the song Walking and Singing the Blues. They can also be heard on several live recordings of the Ellington orchestra from this period, as on the Columbia album Duke 56/62 or Live in Paris 1959 ( Affinity ). In the 1970s, she made ​​guest appearances on American television series; In the late 1970s she moved to Mobile ( Alabama) and was largely forgotten. In the 2000s, she found fame through local groups such as MOJO and appearances on the Gulf Coast Ethnic & Heritage Jazz Festival; her singles from the 1950s were finally wiederververöffentlicht by the British record label Ace on CD. With composer David Amram, and producer Harold " Buz " Rummel was the last album, Back to My Roots. Greenwood died in July 2011 at the age of 86 years on the effects of a stroke.