HUMES, HELEN

HUMES, HELEN. Jazz singer (23 June 1913 in Louisville, Kentucky). She studied piano as a child and sang in a church choir. She also sang with the local Booker T. Washington Community Centre Band, which included Jonah Jones and William (Dicky) Wells at the time. About 1927 she began singing professionally in local theaters, nightclubs, and dance halls. She made her recording debut in 1927 and thereafter recorded extensively. In 1936 she went to Buffalo, New York, where she sang...