Hadda Brooks › Similar Artists

Helen Humes - 41% match to Hadda Brooks

23 June 1909, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, d. 13 September 1981, Santa Monica, California, USA. Coming from a happy, close-knit, musical family, Humes learned to play trumpet and piano. As a child she sang with the local Sunday school band, which boasted future jazz stars such as Dicky Wells and Jonah Jones. In 1927 she made her first records for the OKeh Records label in St. Read more

Annisteen Allen - 40% match to Hadda Brooks

Ernestine Letitia Allen, 11 November 1920, Champaign, Illinois, USA, d. 10 August 1992, Harlem, New York, USA. Raised by her grandmother in Toledo, Ohio, Allen was an exceptionally soulful big-band vocalist who excelled at both ballads and blues. She was influenced by Ella Fitzgerald and discovered by Louis Jordan. He recommended her to fellow band leader Lucky Millinder, wi Read more

Amos Milburn - 37% match to Hadda Brooks

1 April 1927, Houston, Texas, USA, d. 3 January 1980, Houston, Texas, USA. After service in the US Navy in World War II, Milburn formed his own blues and R&B band in Houston in which he played piano and sang, and in 1946 he was offered a contract by the Aladdin label. Between November 1948 and February 1954 he and his band, the Aladdin Chicken Shackers, had an extraordin Read more

Lucky Millinder - 30% match to Hadda Brooks

Pete Johnson - 30% match to Hadda Brooks

25 March 1904, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, d. 23 March 1967, Buffalo, New York, USA. After playing drums when a teenager, Johnson switched to piano in 1926 and swiftly became a leading exponent of the blues. He was also an excellent accompanist to blues singers; especially Joe Turner, with whom he established a partnership that lasted for the rest of his life. In 1936 the ub Read more

LaVern Baker - 28% match to Hadda Brooks

Delores Williams, 11 November 1929, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 10 March 1997, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Baker was a pioneering voice in the fusion of R&B and rock ‘n’ roll in the 50s. In 1947 she was discovered in a Chicago nightclub by band leader Fletcher Henderson. Although still in her teens, the singer won a recording contract with the influ Read more

Julia Lee - 26% match to Hadda Brooks

31 October 1902, Booneville, Missouri, USA, d. 8 December 1958, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Beginning her career as a pianist and singer while in her early teens, Lee joined a band led by her brother, George E. Lee (1896-1958), a popular vocalist whose ‘Novelty Singing Orchestra’ played extensively in and around Kansas City. Despite the musical advances being made Read more

Lil Green - 25% match to Hadda Brooks

22 December 1919, Mississippi, USA, d. 14 April 1954. Growing up in Chicago, Green began to sing in clubs in the mid-30s. By the end of the decade she was appearing regularly at some of the city’s best-known nightspots, and was recording with artists such as ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy, who wrote several songs for her, including ‘Country Boy Blues’ and ‘ Read more

Jimmy Yancey - 23% match to Hadda Brooks

James Edward Yancey, 20 February 1898, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 17 September 1951, Chicago, Illinois, USA. While still a small child Yancey appeared in vaudeville as a tap dancer and singer. After touring the USA and Europe he abandoned this career and, just turned 20, settled in Chicago where he taught himself to play piano. He began to appear at rent parties and informal Read more

Charles Brown - 21% match to Hadda Brooks

13 September 1922, Texas City, Texas, USA, d. 21 January 1999, Oakland, California, USA. Brown’s mother died only six months after he was born and he was raised by his grandparents. Despite learning piano and church organ at the insistence of his grandparents while a child, Brown became a teacher of chemistry. In 1943, living in Los Angeles, he realized that he could ea Read more

Wynonie Harris - 21% match to Hadda Brooks

24 August 1915, Omaha, Nebraska, USA, d. 14 June 1969, Los Angeles, California, USA. This stylish, flamboyant blues shouter enjoyed several R&B hit singles in the immediate post-war period. As a youth Harris played drums in and around his home town before moving to Los Angeles in the early 40s. There he played, danced, sang and worked in several non-musical capacities in Read more

Big Maybelle - 20% match to Hadda Brooks

Mabel Louise Smith, 1 May 1924, Jackson, Tennessee, USA, d. 23 January 1972, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Maybelle was discovered singing in church by Memphis band leader Dave Clark in 1935. When Clark disbanded his orchestra to concentrate on record promotion, Smith moved to Christine Chatman’s orchestra with whom she first recorded for Decca Records in 1944. Three years late Read more

Joe Lutcher - 20% match to Hadda Brooks

Brother of Nellie Lutcher, Joe moved from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to California where he played his alto saxophone with the Nat ‘King’ Cole Trio, the Will Mastin Trio and the Mills Brothers. He then signed for Capitol Records in the summer of 1947 (at the same time as Nellie) and had strong sellers with his ‘Strato Cruiser’, ‘No Name Boogie’ and t Read more

Dorothy Dandridge - 19% match to Hadda Brooks

Ruth Brown - 18% match to Hadda Brooks

12 January 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA, d. 17 November 2006, Henderson, Nevada, USA. Brown started her musical career singing gospel at an early age in the church choir led by her father. In 1948 she was singing with a band led by her husband Jimmy in Washington, DC, when Willis Conover (from the radio show Voice Of America) recommended her to Ahmet Ertegun of the newly Read more