Eva Taylor | |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Irene Gibbons |
| Born | Irene Joy Gibbons (1895-01-22)January 22, 1895 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | October 31, 1977(1977-10-31) (aged 82) Mineola, New York, U.S. |
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Eva Taylor (January 22, 1895 — October 31, 1977) was an Americanbluessinger andstage actress.
She was bornIrene Joy Gibbons inSt. Louis, Missouri, as one of twelve children.[1] On stage from the age of three, Taylor touredNew Zealand,Australia andEurope before she was in her teens.[2] She also toured extensively withJosephine Gassman and Her Pickaninnies, avaudeville act. She settled inNew York City by 1920. There she established herself as a performer inHarlem nightspots. Within a year she wedClarence Williams, a producer (hired byOkeh Records), publisher, and piano player.[3] The newlyweds worked together on radio and recordings. They recorded together through 1930s. Their legacy includes numbers made as the group Blue Five in the mid-1920s, which included the jazz clarinetist and saxophonistSidney Bechet, trumpet virtuosoLouis Armstrong, and such singers asSippie Wallace andBessie Smith.[4]
In 1922 Taylor made her first record for the African-American-ownedBlack Swan Records, which billed her as "The Dixie Nightingale."[5] She recorded dozens of blues, jazz and popular sides for Okeh and Columbia throughout the 1920s and 1930s.[3] She adopted thestage name Eva Taylor, but she also worked under her birth name in Irene Gibbons and her Jazz Band.
She was part of theCharleston Chasers, the name given to a few all-star studio ensembles who recorded between 1925 and 1930. In 1927, Taylor appeared onBroadway inBottomland, a musical written and produced by her husband, which lasted for twenty-one performances.[6] In 1929 she had her own radio show onNBC'sCavalcade.[7] She then worked for many years on radio stationWOR, in New York (guesting on Paul Whiteman's radio show in 1932).[8] Taylor stopped performing during the 1940s. She returned to performing in the mid-1960s, after her husband's death, and toured in Europe.The last one was 1976 to Stockholm, Sweden, where she performed at the Pawnshop together with well known local musicians and mostly sang the famous songs from the start of her career with Clarence Williams Blue Five. At least one performance is recorded (Kenneth Records, Opus3 Records).
Taylor died from cancer in 1977 inMineola, New York. She was interred next to her husband,Clarence Williams, under the name Irene Joy Williams inSaint Charles Cemetery, in Farmingdale, New York.
Their son, Clarence Williams, Jr. (1923–1976) was the father of the actorClarence Williams III.
Their daughter Joy Williams (1931–1970) was a singer and actress, performing under the stage name Irene Williams.
| Year | Title | Genre | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Not Just the Blues | Jazz, blues | Pearl |
| 1996 | Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1922–1923) | Jazz, blues | Document |
| 1996 | Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1923–1927) | Jazz, blues | Document |
| 1996 | Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 (1928–1932) | Jazz, blues | Document |
| 1997 | Edison Laterals 4 | Jazz, blues | Diamond Cut |
