Eva Taylor (January , â€" October , ) was an American blues singer
and stage actress.Born Irene Joy Gibbons in St. Louis, Missouri, as
one of twelve children. On stage from the age of three, Taylor toured
New Zealand, Australia and Europe before she was in her teens. She
also toured extensively with Josephine Gassman and Her Pickaninnies, a
vaudeville act. She settled in New York City by . There she
established herself as a performer in Harlem nightspots. Within a year
she wed Clarence Williams, a producer (hired by Okeh Records),
publisher, and piano player. The newlyweds worked together on radio
and recordings. They recorded together through s. Their legacy
includes numbers made as the group Blue Five in the mid-s, which
included the jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Sidney Bechet, trumpet
virtuoso Louis Armstrong, and such singers as Sippie Wallace and
Bessie Smith.In Taylor made her first record for the
African-American-owned Black Swan Records, which billed her as "The
Dixie Nightingale." She recorded dozens of blues, jazz and popular
sides for Okeh and Columbia throughout the s and s. She adopted the
stage name Eva Taylor, but she also worked under her birth name in
Irene Gibbons and her Jazz Band.
and stage actress.Born Irene Joy Gibbons in St. Louis, Missouri, as
one of twelve children. On stage from the age of three, Taylor toured
New Zealand, Australia and Europe before she was in her teens. She
also toured extensively with Josephine Gassman and Her Pickaninnies, a
vaudeville act. She settled in New York City by . There she
established herself as a performer in Harlem nightspots. Within a year
she wed Clarence Williams, a producer (hired by Okeh Records),
publisher, and piano player. The newlyweds worked together on radio
and recordings. They recorded together through s. Their legacy
includes numbers made as the group Blue Five in the mid-s, which
included the jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Sidney Bechet, trumpet
virtuoso Louis Armstrong, and such singers as Sippie Wallace and
Bessie Smith.In Taylor made her first record for the
African-American-owned Black Swan Records, which billed her as "The
Dixie Nightingale." She recorded dozens of blues, jazz and popular
sides for Okeh and Columbia throughout the s and s. She adopted the
stage name Eva Taylor, but she also worked under her birth name in
Irene Gibbons and her Jazz Band.
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