UNA MAE CARLISLE

UNA MAE CARLISLE (By Gino A.)

Born 26 December 1915, Xenia, Ohio
Died 7 November 1956, New York City, New York

I first became aware of Ms. Carlisle when I viewed her performances of "I'm A Good Good Woman" and "I Like It 'Cause I Love It" on the VHS collection of "Soundies" performances entitled "Louis Jordan and Friends, 1941-1945." Her coy jiving style fascinated me and I began acquiring what I could of her work and seeking information about her from various sources.

Una Mae Carlisle was born on December 26, 1915, in Xenia, Ohio. She was "discovered" by Fats Waller late in 1932. He invited her to play on his radio show at station WLW in Cincinnati during Christmas week when Una Mae turned seventeen. She was still in High School at the time, and her mother had approved her Christmas vacation in Cincinnati because she was to stay with her elder sister. When her vacation was over, she refused to return home, becoming a professional musician working with Waller at WLW. It has been stated by some sources that she became Waller's Mistress. Fats' contract with WLW expired in 1934 and he left Cincinnati for New York.

Una Mae left America in 1936 to tour Europe, reportedly with the revue "Blackbirds of 1936," though no record has been found to substantiate her being a member of the cast of "Blackbirds," and spent the next three years there, mostly in London and Paris. In London, on May 20, 1938, she recorded three discs that were released on the Vocalion label, including "Don't Try Your Jive On Me." Her backing band for that session included the expert West Indian musicians Dave Wilkins (trumpet) and Bertie King (clarinet and tenor sax).

She became highly successful in England, Germany and France, where she worked at the Boeuf sur le Toit ("The Ox on the Roof"), a cabaret in the Rue du Colisée in Paris [named for the 1920 one-act farce by Jean Cocteau, scored by Darius Milhaud with themes based on Brazilian dance rhythms - a pantomime involving a boxer, a dwarf, a bookie, a woman in a red evening gown, a policeman who gets beheaded and is later revived, and a noisy bar full of people]. While in Paris in 1939, she was one of two pianists in a combo headed by clarinetist Danny Polo (Danny Polo And His Swing Stars) which recorded four sides for Decca.

She then returned to New York where she undertook several successful engagements and record dates, the first of which was a session with Fats Waller in November 1939 for Bluebird in which she and Fats combined to sing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love." She began recording on her own for Bluebird in the summer of 1940. She soon had several hits, including "Walkin' By The River" with Benny Carter; "Blitzkrieg Baby" with Lester Young; and "I See a Million People" with Charlie Shavers and John Kirby.

As early as 1938 Una Mae began suffering with mastoid trouble and in 1941 she was hospitalized for several weeks to treat this condition.

Bluebird dropped her from its roster during the 1942-1944 American Federation of Musicians ban on recording (the "Petrillo Ban"), so she signed with Joe Davis for whom she recorded more than a dozen tracks, one of which was "'Tain't Yours" with ace trumpeter Ray Nance, who had just left Duke Ellington's band. It was during her stay with Davis that she was featured in the "Soundies" which first brought her to my attention.

In between bouts of ill health she played clubs and hotels and appeared on radio shows, including a week-long salute to Fats Waller on WNEW in New York in February of 1945, approximately a year after his death.

Her career kept going into the 1950s when she became involved in films and her own radio and television shows. Her last studio session was for Columbia in New York on May 8, 1950. Later in 1950 she recorded a few "special product" 78's on RCA Victor, which she is believed to have distributed to disc jockeys to keep her name before the public.

She retired due to her illness in 1954 and died in New York on November 7, 1956.

Carlisle sang in a husky, intimate manner, and her warm sensual voice and use of delayed phrasing proved to be as effective on swing numbers as it was on ballads.

Discography:

http://www.geocities.com/doo_wop_gino/unamaed.htm

CDs: THE COMPLETE UNA MAE CARLISLE AND JOHN KIRBY (1940 - 1942) - JAZZ TRIBUNE #64 (Black & White / RCA 2-CD set # ND 89484) - 1992, BMG, France (out of print)

UNA MAE CARLISLE, Maxine Sullivan & Savannah Churchill 1942 - 1944 - (Harlequin CD # HQ CD 19) - 1992, Interstate, UK

UNA MAE CARLISLE - CLASSICS - 1938 - 1941 (Classics CD # 1209) - 2001, Classics, France

UNA MAE CARLISLE - CLASSICS - 1941 - 1944 (Classics CD # 1230) - 2002, Classics, France

UNA MAE CARLISLE - CLASSICS - 1944 - 1950 (Classics CD # 1265) - 2002, Classics, France

All of the foregoing CDs are reviewed on my Web site: http://www.geocities.com/doo_wop_gino/

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