OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With Tiny Irvin!
That's Tiny Irvin, for those in the know. Tiny's talent was huge. She was only a wee teenager when she began singing on tour for Dizzy Gillespie's band. And her voice? She once very accurately compared her vocal style to "Billy Eckstine. I love the deep tonal qualities of his voice (and) the rhythmic hitting and missing of sounds."
Yet mass-market fame was not in Tiny's future - and by her own design. She was intensely private by all accounts. After she toured with Dizzy, and performed with the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr., amongst other stars, she returned to hometown Pittsburgh and continued singing at a variety of local clubs for decades, and became a weekly regular at the legendary "Eileen's Zebra Room" before retiring in the late-1980s.
I love that she did it her way. She resisted many calls to tour in the U.S. and abroad. She just wanted to stay in her hometown, raise a family and sing. Lucky for us, just before she retired, she recorded her only album in 1983, entitled "Tiny Irvin With The Carl Arter Trio" for Earwig Music, a vanguard indie blues and jazz label based in Chicago from the 1970s through the early 2000s. In the opening track, "You Don't Know What Love Is," she delivers swooning anguish with stunning technical prowess. And, trust, that's just the start. Just wait till you hear "Moanin'. She'll lay you flat.
You can listen to her complete album by clicking HERE.
What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾
Photo Credits: Orchard Enterprises/Getty Images
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