Lovie Austin

Infobox musical artist
Name = Lovie Austin

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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth_name = Cora Calhoun
Alias =
Born = birth date|1887|9|19|mf=y
Died = death date and age|1972|7|10|1887|9|19|mf=y
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Origin = Flagicon|USA Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
Instrument = Piano
Voice_type =
Genre = Jazz blues
Occupation = Pianist
Composer
Bandleader
Years_active = 1920s – 1972
Label = Paramount
Associated_acts =
URL
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Lovie Austin (September 19, 1887 – July 10, 1972) was an American popular Chicago bandleader, session musician, composer, and arranger during the 1920s classic blues era. She and Lil Hardin Armstrong are often ranked as two of the best female jazz blues piano players of the period. [Santelli, Robert. "The Big Book of Blues", Penguin Books, page 20, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453] Mary Lou Williams cites Lovie Austin as her greatest influence. [Dahl, Linda. "Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams", Pantheon Books, page 29, (2000) - ISBN 0375408991]

Life and career

Born Cora Calhoun in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she studied music theory at Roger Williams University and Knoxville College in Nashville, Tennessee. [Santelli, Robert. "The Big Book of Blues", page 20, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453] In 1923, Lovie Austin decided to make Chicago her home, and she lived and worked there for the rest of her life. A fancy dresser and a well-liked person, she was often seen racing around town in her Stutz Bearcat with leopard skin upholstery, dressed to the teeth. Her early career was in vaudeville where she played piano and performed in variety acts. [Zieff, Bob. "Lovie Austin." in Kernfeld, Barry. ed. "The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Edition, Vol. 1." London: MacMillan, page 93, (2002)] Accompanying blues singers was Lovie's specialty, and can be heard on recordings by Ma Rainey ("Moonshine Blues), Ida Cox ("Wild Women Don't Have The Blues"), Ethel Waters ("Craving Blues"), and Alberta Hunter ("Sad 'n' Lonely Blues"). [Laird, Ross. Moanin' Low: A Discography of Female Popular Vocal Recordings, 1920-1933, Greenwood Press, page 110, (1996) - ISBN 0313292418] ] She led her own band, the Blues Serenaders, which usually included trumpeters Tommy Ladnier, Bob Shoffner, Natty Dominique, or Shirley Clay on cornet, trombonist Kid Ory or Albert Wynn on trombone, and Jimmy O'Bryant or Johnny Dodds on clarinet, along with banjo and occasional drums. Austin would work with many of the other top jazz musicians of the 1920s, namely Louis Armstrong. Austin's skills as songwriter can be heard in the classic "Down Hearted Blues," a tune she co-wrote with Alberta Hunter. Singer Bessie Smith turned the song into a hit in 1923. [Cullen, Frank. Vaudeville, "Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America", Routledge, page 48, (2006) - ISBN 0415938538] Austin was also a session musician for Paramount Records.

When the classic blues craze began to wither in the early 1930s, Austin settled into the position of musical director for the Monogram Theater, at 3453 South State Street in Chicago where all the T.O.B.A. acts played. She worked there for 20 years. After World War II she became a pianist at Jimmy Payne's Dancing School at Penthouse Studios, and performed and recorded occasionally.

In 1961 she recorded "Alberta Hunter with Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders", as part of Riverside's Living Legends series. Austin's songs included "Sweet Georgia Brown," "C-Jam Blues," and "Gallon Stomp." She died on July 10, 1972 in Chicago.

elective discography

Footnotes