1940-1953

• Artist: Valaida Snow
• Rating:
• Release Date: April 20, 2004
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Jazz

Review

When Valaida Snow made a handful of hot records in Copenhagen during October of 1940, she had no idea that her recording career was about to be violently interrupted for nearly five years by people working for Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany had already occupied Denmark when these "degenerate" jazz records were surreptitiously created in violation of the Nuremberg laws. In a horrible twist of fate, Snow was arrested by the Gestapo, charged with theft and drug use -- two activities at which the Nazis themselves excelled -- and spent many months in a concentration camp before being rescued by influential friends and sent back to the U.S. weighing about 70 lbs. Everything she'd owned had been confiscated, including the gold trumpet given her by Queen Wilhelmina. It took Snow several years to recuperate and gather her strength for a comeback. Her last two authentic swing records are placed at the beginning of this disc. These are amazingly gutsy performances of nice old songs, and she scats beautifully during "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny." The contrast between this pair of pleasant, cheerful stomps and the rest of the material in the chronology -- beginning with the Apollo session of 1945 -- is startling. Recording in New York for the first time since 1933 and sounding at times like young Dinah Washington, Snow sings three torchy ballads and a novelty bounce backed by Bobby Smith, his alto sax and orchestra. The bounce in question is called "Around the World" and features two harmonizing Valaidas in an early example of overdubbing. Her next couple of recording dates took place in Los Angeles, where prevailing pop production values seem to have infected the atmosphere alarmingly. Eight sides issued on the Bel-Tone label prove that Snow was a powerful singer who could flourish in front of any ensemble, even the huge orchestra with strings, flutes, and a keening vocal group billed as the Daydreamers. Snow prevails throughout, especially on "Lonesome Road," where her passionate singing transcends the entire ungainly production menagerie. On the second Bel-Tone session, Snow navigates well through the "exotic" orchestral score of "Caravan." Her ominously paced version of "Solitude" makes for an interesting comparison with Billie Holiday's approach to this Ellington opus. After a pokey, pouty, and slightly insane-sounding lament bearing the almost too-appropriate title "Frustration," Snow sails into "I Must Have That Man." With a brassy big band behind her, the singer sounds more at home than on any of the previous seven selections. From here on out Valaida Snow's story shifts into R&B territory. Recording for the Derby label in January of 1950, she was backed with a rocking jump band led by Jimmy Mundy, spiked with the fiery presences of baritone saxophonist Dave McRae and hot trumpeter Jonah Jones. "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone" is the cooker. "Chloe" begins with bass clarinet tones and delivers an incredible emotional charge as Snow belts out the lyrics with theatrical intensity. "Coconut Head" is a calypso novelty number, somewhat of a trend in 1950 -- even Sarah Vaughan did a number like this back then. The saga of Valaida Snow tapers off abruptly with two exciting R&B performances recorded in Chicago in 1953. "I Ain't Gonna Tell," a funky baritone sax rocker, is a tantalizing taste of further developments the world would never get to hear from this tough little woman. Underappreciated and grievously underpaid, she struggled to establish herself as a performer in a country where the public had never been all that aware of her existence. Following a performance at New York's Palace Theatre she was felled by a stroke and passed away at the age of 50 in a Brooklyn hospital on the 30th of May 1956. ~ arwulf arwulf, Rovi

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