May Alix | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Liza Mae Alix |
| Born | August 31, 1902 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 1, 1983 (aged 81) |
| Genres | Jazz, cabaret |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Labels | Vocalion |
Liza Mae "May" Alix (August 31, 1902 in Chicago, Illinois - November 1, 1983) was an American cabaret and jazz vocalist.
Biography
She began her career as a teenager after winning a talent contest. She performed with the Jimmie Noone band in the clubs of Chicago. Alix later worked with bandleaders Carroll Dickerson, Duke Ellington, and Luis Russell. [1] She earned the nickname "Queen of the Splits" for the dance choreography included in her show, where she would do a split for every dollar thrown by a customer. [2] Soon she joined Ollie Powers as a duo performing in cabarets. In 1926, she recorded with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. One of the recordings, " Big Butter and Egg Man," which they performed at the Sunset Café as a duo, became Armstrong's first chart hit. The song "Big Butter and Egg Man," according to Thomas Brothers, included "an unspoken racial dimension, for part of the humor came from the dark-skinned cornetist acting the part of a big butter and egg man, who was, unquestionably, white in the popular imagination." [3] When performing this number with Armstrong, according to Earl Hines, Alix would "put her arms around him, look at him and sing, 'I need a big butter and egg man,' and he [Armstrong] would stand there and almost melt." [3] She collaborated with Jimmie Noone on half a dozen recordings for Vocalion Records (1929–1930) including "Ain't Misbehavin", "My Daddy Rocks Me", and "Birmingham Bertha/Am I Blue?". During the 1930s and early 1940s, she performed mainly in New York City. [4]
She married and eventually divorced her pianist and songwriter husband, Warley Asher. She left show business in 1941. [1]
Jazz singer Alberta Hunter sometimes recorded under the name "May Alix", with the permission of the real May Alix. [4]
References
- ^ a b Bracks, Lean'tin L.; Smith, Jessie Carney (2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8108-8543-1.
- ^ Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
- ^ a b Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-393-06582-4.
- ^ a b Chadbourne, Eugene. "May Alix". AllMusic.
Further reading
- Komara, Edward (Ed.) (2006), Encyclopedia of the Blues, Routledge
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