OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With That Classy Lassy, Lee Wiley!

Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with heavy dollops of sass, class and brass from a pioneering jazz songbird who overcame several jaw-dropping life challenges and obstacles, yet remained as upbeat as the day she was born. Tonight you can revel in her tunes with DJ Li'l Scratch at the Manor's exclusive "Find 'n Grind!" after-hours saloon. You'll want to stop by, I swear. 

Also, dear lord, we're in the midst of September, nearing October and Halloween, then there's Thanksgiving, which means it's almost time for a gaggle of December holidays, and then New Year's and then - what? January bloat? A zombie apocalypse? One of those "Eat! Drink! Paint!" events at Applebee's? Kill me now. Or rather, don't. Let's hope our music will get us through the rough spots.

Lucky us, since classy-lassy Lee Wiley can always be trusted to whisk away the blues no matter the time of year. Consider her frenzied life: born in 1908, she ran away from her Oklahoma home to become a jazz singer at just 15 years of age; shortly after, she endured serious disfigurement and temporary blindness when she was bucked from a horse; a tumultuous married life to Jess Stacy, the famed jazz pianist; and a freewheeling, unstoppable lust for the night life. She was a Southern wild child let loose in the big city and she wasn't about to leave any stone unturned.

Lee hasn't the renown she so richly deserves. This is probably due to the fact that there's no decent footage of her performing. Nothing. And this despite the fact that she launched the whole concept of "songbook" recording collections - in which a singer explores the work of a single songwriter or songwriters - performed alongside the best jazz artists of her era, such as Fats Waller, Bunny Berigan and Eddie Condon, co-wrote the lyrics to several enduring jazz classics, like "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," and following her recovery from tuberculosis, was a regular on CBS and NBC radio programs, including "Saturday Night Swing."

All that we have are her gloriously chic recordings. Her CD, "Lee Wiley Sings Rogers & Hart and Harold Arlen" combines two of her LPs from the 1940s. Trust me, they're ever-so eleganza and essential.

In the late 1950s, she had a massive career resurgence and released several best-selling, must-have LPs, including "A Touch of the Blues," my personal favorite LP of hers. It's brassy, elegant and superb for cocktail parties where everyone will surely ask you, "Oh, my God, who is this?"

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

Photo Credits: Columbia Records, Getty Images