Results for "Jo Stafford"

Jo Stafford

Born: November 12, 1917

Jo Elizabeth Stafford, the third of four sisters, was born November 12, 1917 on a tract of land known as "Lease 35" in Coalinga,California. Her mother, Anna York Stafford,a distant cousin of World War I hero Alvin York was known as one of the finest five-string banjoists in Gainsboro, Tennessee. Her father, Grover Cleveland Stafford, had come West to work in the California oil fields.

Jo's professional debut was with the Stafford Sisters, a trio in which Jo, upon graduation from Long Beach Poly High, joined her sisters Christine and Pauline. They had their own weekly radio show on KHJ radio, were regular performers on David Broekman's California Melodies, the Crockett Family of Kentucky shows, and performed both solo and group vocal work for all the major motion picture studios.

Hilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines

by John Chacona
March 29, 2024

It might be hard for the young'uns to believe, but there was a time when movie houses and television screens were filled with westerns. Tales of cowpokes and their trusty horses, outlaws, dogies and tumblin' tumbleweeds were so popular that various sub-genres of westerns flourished as brand extensions. One of these featured the singing cowboy trope, ...

Vanessa Racci: Jazzy Italian

by Richard J Salvucci
September 11, 2023

Vanessa Racci describes herself a jazz / cabaret singer of Italian-American descent with a passion for retro jazz and music made famous by Italian Americans. She has a previous album, entitled Italiana Fresca (2017, self-produced), and currently performs several shows that celebrate American jazz composers, Italian American music and contributions to jazz and pop in the ...

Kay Starr

by Carol Sloane
August 26, 2023

It was probably on a popular television variety program such as The Ed Sullivan Show. Or it could have been the cover of a magazine I bought faithfully once a month which contained all the lyrics to the popular songs of the day. I was just fourteen years old in 1951, and Kay Starr had a ...

One of the Boys in the Band: Discovering my Dad

by George Gozzard
July 21, 2023

George Gozzard was the baby of a pretty large family the jazz trumpeter Harry Roy Gozzard raised. Harry was one of those great working musicians we heard about in the 1930s and through the 1950s who played jazz and dance band gigs interchangeably. These were the days of months long (if not longer) engagements musicians would ...

Michelle Lordi: Career Evolution

by R.J. DeLuke
May 12, 2020

Some artists are blessed to be born into situations where opportunities are at the ready. Education and training are easily obtainable. Maybe they have connections to the professional world, via their lineage or other friends. Even so, it's still up to them to produce and deal with the inevitable vagaries of their choice to pursue music ...

George Shearing: Quintet Xmas

December 12, 2019

At JazzWax, 12 is the number of years I've posted annually on my selection for the JazzWax Vintage Holiday Album Hall of Fame. The point of this is to offer up perfect holiday music that conjures up feelings of a time long past or is just superbly executed seasonal music. Combined on your iTunes or Spotify ...

Joni Mitchell Turns 75; Remembering Roy Hargrove

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 1, 2018

This post-election broadcast celebrates the new wave of women in the House and Senate -also remembering Roy Hargrove (1969-2018) in the second hour plus a special 75th birthday tribute to Joni Mitchell in the third hour. Playlist Roxy Coss “Nevertheless She Persisted" from The Future Is Female (Posi-Tone) 00:00 Ethel Ennis “If Women Ruled ...

2017: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 5, 2018

A year of achievements, challenges to gender inequality, scandal and losses The year 2017 was quite something for the jazz world. Incidents or discussions of misogyny and sexual misconduct bubbled up even before the #MeToo phenomenon developed. Beyond that, woman musicians made significant contributions to the genre. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage ...

Meet Tom Wells

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
October 2, 2017

Born and raised in that other “capital of jazz"--jny: Kansas City, birthplace of Charlie Parker--Super Fan Tom Wells, along with long-time jazz date, his wife, Geri St. Clair (a future Super Fan--stay tuned!), is a huge supporter of the local scene. How huge? Well, Tom and Geri once followed the University of Missouri Kansas City's Jazz ...