OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With The Heavenly Helen Humes!

It's time to jump, jam and jive, and there's no cat around who can do that better than DJ Li'l Scratch, am I right? Tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Cake Shake Lounge," Li'l Scratch will be spinning tunes from the smoothest jazz vocalist around. Can you guess? I'll give you a hint. Who has the vocal smoothness of Etta Jones with the rhythmic snap of Della Reese?

If you guessed Helen Humes, you were right. "For who - and for what?" you might also ask. Let me explain, first by pointing out that Cincinnati once had its very own popular Cotton Club nightspot. "Wait - really? Shut up!" you exclaim. I will not shut up, and for reals, it did. And get this: that's where the incomparable Helen Humes truly kicked off her career in the early 1930s.

"Saucy," "rousing," "classy" and "swingin'" are just a few of the adjectives that were used to describe Helen during her heyday, though later, "groundbreaking" and "legendary" were added, too. All of them fit. Her career, stretching from the mid-1920s to 1980 - an astonishing run by any measure - encompassed jazz, blues, pop, ballads and swing, the latter which she helped define.

With her lithe, remarkably elastic vocals, she was able to zero in, or slyly curve around, any given note in a song. Technically, she was top-notch, but what really put her across was her unvarnished pleasure in delivering a tune. It's infectious.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Helen was approached after one of her early performances by none other than Count Basie, who asked her to replace Billie Holiday in his touring show - and she turned him down. Scandal! It was all about the greenbacks, or rather, that yawning canyon between what Helen felt she deserved and what the Count's band was willing to pay.

Just a few short years later, after she'd moved to New York City and cut several hit LPs, she finally joined his band, touring with them for four years - and for a whole lot more than what she was originally offered. Let this be a lesson, kiddies. Know your worth.

She was called "the human trumpet" given her ability to swing and phrase like a good horn blower. She didn't stray far from the melody - no wild improvisations for her - but instead, used the rhythm and her sharp intonation, toying with a song's lyric for her own intent (in this way, she very much prefigured Della Reese). Present day "hipsters" (shudder) have supposedly re-discovered Humes, but you and I were onto her long before, weren't we (say "yes")?

One of her first LPs was "Songs I Like To Sing" from 1960, and it highlights her gorgeous, buttery-smooth vocals. Just listen to her let it rip in "St. Louis Blues" and you'll be won over.

You can listen to the rest of Helen's album RIGHT HERE.

What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Contemporary Records/Fantasy, William Claxton, Getty Images