Search - Victoria Spivey :: Victoria Spivey 1 1926-1927

Victoria Spivey 1 1926-1927
Victoria Spivey
Victoria Spivey 1 1926-1927
Genres: Blues, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (23) - Disc #1

Borrowing innuendo from Bessie Smith and a ragtime piano style from Scott Joplin, Spivey was a popular Texas performer in the late 1920s and an actress and bandleader throughout the '30s and '40s. The first of five Documen...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Victoria Spivey
Title: Victoria Spivey 1 1926-1927
Members Wishing: 3
Total Copies: 0
Label: Document
Original Release Date: 1/1/2026
Re-Release Date: 9/8/2000
Album Type: Import, Original recording reissued
Genres: Blues, Pop
Styles: Chicago Blues, Vocal Blues, Traditional Blues, Acoustic Blues
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 714298531626, 669910108956

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Borrowing innuendo from Bessie Smith and a ragtime piano style from Scott Joplin, Spivey was a popular Texas performer in the late 1920s and an actress and bandleader throughout the '30s and '40s. The first of five Document CDs in this exhaustive career retrospective opens with her first single, "Black Snake Blues," recorded at age 20. It's a blueprint of her playful style--she sings about you-know-what on "Steady Grind" and its repercussions on "Humored and Petted Blues"--and the prolific Spivey deserves more recognition today for her considerable influence. Volumes two through five progress through 1941. --Steve Knopper
 

CD Reviews

A unique blues singer/barrelhouse pianist!!!
Me | 06/19/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Victoria Spivey doesn't sing, she moans, and not heavy like Ma Rainey but hauntingly, and passionately. However "haunting" is the perfect word to describe her unique vocalizing, and her piano playing echoes her voice, and she can play some mean barrelhouse piano. She sang some classic duets with Lonnie Johnson, and played with both blues and jazzmen. A great cd that is full of blues and early swing. Spivey sand rather dark original tunes about death and moaning, making her songs always original and somewhat gothic in many ways. A great cd, once you hear Soivey's voice it never really leaves one's mind, she lingers with you. Haunting and smokey blues singer!!! Great cd of her earliest hits."
Test of endurance...
Sasha | at sea...sailing somewhere | 11/22/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have to say,I LOVE early blues "Queens" specially Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.They were the ones who inspired me to look further and find Mamie Smith,Ida Cox,Sippie Wallace,Alberta Hunter and Victoria Spivey.The reason why Bessie and Ma are still remembered and other women are in their shadow is that "Queen" and "Mother" had special talent which still comunicates with listeners (even through primitive recordings of 20-ies),while magic of other singers depends very much of individual taste and endurance of the listener.Specialised in collecting these ancient recordings in complete volumes,"Documents" have enourmous importance but these CD's are a bit too overwhelming for a casual listener.Victoria Spivey did not posses God's gift like Bessie Smith,Armstrong or Billie Holiday to turn stones into gold,so listening 23 songs through plink-plonking piano,sameness of tempo and ancient technology didnt made me fan for life.When she join forces with a guitar man Lonnie Johnson,things start happening but its already half way through CD and usualy I had enough.Spivey sound much more interesting later in life,on album recorded together with another 2 survivors of 20-ies,Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin (excellent "Songs we tought your mother")around 1961.There is a very interesting chapter about Spivey in a book titled "Black pearls - blues Queens of 1920s" by Daphne Duval Harrison."