Albennie Jones (November 29, 1914 – June 24, 1989), also credited as Albinia Jones, was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer who recorded in the mid and late 1940s.

Biography

She was born in

Errata, Mississippi Errata (also spelled Erata) is an unincorporated community in Jones County, Mississippi. Errata is located on U.S. Route 11 southwest of Sandersville. Errata is located on the Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway i ...

. Mississippi Blues Trail: Jones County Blues
Retrieved March 10, 2013 She grew up in Gulfport where she sang in the Mount Holy Baptist Church, before moving to New York City in 1932. Her first professional engagement as a singer was at Elk's Rendezvous Club, where she was so successful that she was retained for nine months. She also sang in other clubs, including the Club Harlem, the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jaz ...

and Murrains Café. Biography by Rovi at Allmusic
Retrieved March 10, 2013 She first recorded, as Albinia Jones, for

National Records National Records was a record label that was started in New York City by Albert Green in 1945 and lasted until early 1951. Big Joe Turner was signed at the beginning and remained until 1947. Billy Eckstine was also a big seller for the label as ...

in late 1944, with a band that included electric guitarist

Leonard Ware Leonard Ware (December 28, 1909 – March 30, 1974) was one of the first American jazz guitarists to play electric guitar. Career Ware was born in Richmond, Virginia. He went to college at the Tuskegee Institute and learned how to play the o ...

and pianist Cliff Jackson. The following year, her accompanists also included trumpeter

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, saxophonist

Don Byas Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas (October 21, 1912 – August 24, 1972) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, associated with swing and bebop. He played with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Art Blakey, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others, and also l ...

and pianist

Sammy Price Samuel Blythe Price (October 6, 1908 – April 14, 1992) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and jump blues pianist and bandleader. Price's playing is dark, mellow, and relaxed rather than percussive, and he was a specialist at creating the ...

. She was promoted at the time as the "New Queen of the Blues", and toured widely with

Blanche Calloway Blanche Dorothea Jones Calloway (February 9, 1902 – December 16, 1978) was an American jazz singer, composer, and bandleader. She was the older sister of Cab Calloway and was a successful singer before her brother. With a music career that span ...

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (born Edward L. Vinson Jr.; December 18, 1917 – July 2, 1988) was an American jump blues, jazz, bebop and R&B alto saxophonist and blues shouter. He was nicknamed "Cleanhead" after an incident in which his hair was ...

Tiny Bradshaw Myron Carlton "Tiny" Bradshaw (September 23, 1907 – November 26, 1958) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer. His biggest hit was "Well Oh Well" in 1950, and the following year he record ...

and the

Erskine Hawkins Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914 – November 11, 1993) was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard " Tuxedo Junction" ( ...

Orchestra. As Albennie Jones, she recorded again with Price for

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

in 1947 and 1949. One of her last recordings with Price in February 1949 was a rocking R&B number, "Hole in the Wall", co-written by record producer

Milt Gabler Milton Gabler (May 20, 1911 – July 20, 2001) was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century. These included being the first person to deal in record reissues, the first to sel ...

and featuring the line ''"we're going to

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

at the Hole in the Wall tonight"'', a notably early use of the phrase. Following an onstage fall in the early 1950s, she had to use a

crutch A crutch is a mobility aid that transfers weight from the human leg, legs to the upper body. It is often used by people who cannot use their legs to support their weight, for reasons ranging from short-term injuries to lifelong disabilities. Hi ...

at her club performances, and shortly afterwards retired from the music business. She later suffered from

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. She died in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, New York City, in 1989, at the age of 74.Social Security Death Index 075-18-6433

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Albennie 1914 births 1989 deaths People from Jones County, Mississippi 20th-century African-American women singers American rhythm and blues singers 20th-century American singers Deaths from cancer in New York (state) 20th-century American women singers