Ivie Anderson

Considered one of the finest singers of the golden age of jazz, Ivie Anderson was a fluent vocalist who impressed many with her blues and scat phrasings. Most impressed was Duke Ellington, who kept her on as vocalist for eleven years and would have kept on for more had she not retired due to health problems.
Born in California, young Ivie received vocal training at her local St. Mary's Convent and later spent two years studying with Sara Ritt in Washington, DC. Returning home she found work with Curtis Mosby, Paul Howard, Sonny Clay, and briefly with Anson Weeks at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in Los Angeles. She also found work in vaudeville, touring the country as a dancer and vocalist in the Fanchon and Marco revue, starring Mamie Smith, and with the Shuffle Along revue. She was featured vocalist at the Culver City Cotton Club before leaving to tour Australia in 1928 with Sonny Clay. Returning after five months down under she organized her own show and toured the U.S. In 1930 she found work with Earl Hines. It was while appearing with Hines that Ellington first heard her sing. He hired her in February 1931, and she quickly became a fixture of the orchestra's sound. She gave voice to some of the band's most memorable tunes of the era, ''I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good,'' ''It Don't Mean a Thing,'' ''Stormy Weather,'' and ''Rose of the Rio Grande.'' She was also featured in the 1939 Marx Brothers' film A Day at the Races, singing ''All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm.'' Retiring in August 1942 due to chronic asthma she opened her own Chicken Shack restaurant in Los Angeles. Though continuing to sing regularly in West Coast nightclubs her medical condition kept her from recording or touring extensively and ultimately led to her early death. Ivie Anderson passed away in December of 1949.