1929-1932

This is the first volume in the Classics label's chronological profile of vocalist Mildred Bailey. It documents the beginning of her recording career with 24 titles she waxed for the Parlophone, Okeh, Brunswick and Victor labels between October 5, 1929 and August 11, 1932. She was born Mildred Rinker on a wheat farm inside of an Indian reservation near the Idaho panhandle in Tekoa WA on February 27, 1907. Mildred and her family were members of the First Nation Coeur d'Alene or Schitsu'umsh tribe. Mildred's mother Josie Rinker was an accomplished pianist who specialized in ragtime. In 1913, the family moved to Spokane, where Mildred and her brothers befriended a boy named Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby. By the age of 17, Mildred was living with relatives in Seattle and working as a singer demonstrating songs in a sheet music store. She entered showbiz using the surname of her first husband, Ted Bailey. After developing her skills by singing in speakeasies and over the radio in the Northwest, Mildred Bailey married a bootlegger named Benny Stafford and moved to Los Angeles where she began attracting a lot of attention by singing in nightclubs on the Sunset Strip. (Legend has it she also operated her own highly acclaimed illicit microbrewery.) In 1925, Bing Crosby and Al Rinker dropped out of college, hopped in a Model T and drove from Spokane to Hollywood where Mildred Bailey showed them around and hooked them up with her best showbiz contacts. By October 1926 Crosby and Rinker were working for society bandleader Paul Whiteman. Teamed with Harry Barris in a trio nationally recognized as The Rhythm Boys, they eventually expressed their gratitude by introducing Mildred Bailey to Whiteman in 1929. Whiteman hired her at once; her voice was soon heard on national radio broadcasts and by 1930 she was his highest-paid performer. (The ethical nadir of her discography occurred on November 30, 1931 when Whiteman had her sing "That's Why Darkies Were Born.") Apart from four attractive sides cut with the Casa Loma Orchestra in September 1931, most of the recordings making up this segment of Mildred Bailey's chronology involve either the Paul Whiteman Orchestra or smaller ensembles largely composed of musicians who were affiliated with the self-styled "King of Jazz." Mildred's first two session bands were led by guitarist Eddie Lang and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, with cornet passages by Andy Secrest that were carefully patterned after the style of Bix Beiderbecke, who had made his last recording with the Whiteman orchestra only weeks earlier on September 13, 1929. Beiderbecke's combined absence and presence are eerily evident. It's obvious why Mildred Bailey caught on so quickly as a vocalist; all of her best traits -- sweetness, charm, passion and poise -- were evident from the very beginning. Tougher than Annette Hanshaw and gutsier than Ruth Etting, sometimes Mildred let loose like a sassy American girl; on "I Like to Do Things for You" she even sounds like Helen Kane. At her best, Mildred Bailey was a gifted interpreter of ballads and topical amusements; her superb abilities as a jazz and pop vocalist are well represented by this first volume of her complete recorded works. ~ arwulf arwulf|