OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With The Saucy Savannah Churchill!

Greetings, hormigos, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with a li'l Creole spice, and who doesn't want that, amirite? Today's fetching jazz and R&B singer wasn't just born to Creole parents in Louisiana, she was also a gifted songwriter and violinist. And, yes, she slayed in the 1940s and 50s. DJ Li'l Scratch can't wait to play all of her tunes for you tonight, so be sure to swing by "Rim Job," the Manor's after-hours club and car wash. You won't be sorry. Savannah Churchill is that good. 

And get this: unlike most Black singers of her day, Savannah didn't start singing and performing at her church - "Wait, what?" you say - but instead at her school, where she also excelled at the violin. With her stunning beauty and fair complexion, she could have easily passed as white, which surely would have benefited her career. However, she steadfastly embraced her Black heritage. 

It wasn't long before she was wowing Harlem crowds at Small's Paradise, which was no small feat considering this was still the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Sassy, alluring and cool as all get-out, she was soon billed as "The Sex-Sational Savannah." Given that, some thought of her only as a glamour queen - until she opened her mouth and they heard her sing. 

It only got better from there. She went on tour overseas for the troops during WWII with Nat King Cole, and when Ella Fitzgerald was a no-show for an engagement at Washington D.C.'s fabled Howard Theatre, Savannah not only covered for her, but simultaneously took on an additional sold-out gig at another local night spot. Stardom was right around the corner. She next signed with New York-based Manor Records, and her songs, beginning with her debut, self-penned track, "Daddy-Daddy," cemented her status as a true recording star.

She even appeared in a few movies, like "Souls Of Sin," a race film, as they were labeled back then, with wily street hustlers, comedy hijinks and songs performed by the sultry "Miss Regina," or Savannah.

But really, it was the music that mattered for Savannah, and her vocals are both low-down and gorgeously lilting, which means she can be amusingly suggestive in songs like "Fat Meat Is Good Meat," and intimately enthralling, as she is in tunes like "I'm Too Shy." She was frequently mobbed during her engagements worldwide - at The Apollo and London's Palladium, to name just two - and it's not hard to understand why. 

Unfortunately, those enthusiastic crowds could get out of hand, and one time they proved almost deadly. In 1956, while performing at The Midwood Club in Brooklyn, a drunk audience member fell from a balcony - and right on top of her, laying her flat. The result was a shattered pelvis, along with other long-term, near-disabling injuries. She never fully recovered, and after years of rehabilitation she tried for a comeback. But it was too late. The music world had already moved on to rock 'n roll. Though she left us in 1974 at age 53 or 58 - a lady never tells her age and we still don't know what it was - she's well worth discovering or rediscovering. 

You can listen to more Savannah RIGHT HERE!

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

Photo Credits: Alexander Productions; Getty Images