Marion Abernathy, once advertised in Los Angeles as "the Blues Woman," began making records in 1945, her music appearing on the Bel-Tone, Melodisc, and Juke Box labels. Her big hit on Juke Box, "Voo-It! Voo-It!" is said to have made enough money for
Art Rupe, owner of Juke Box, to invest in jump-starting his famous Specialty label.
Marion Abernathy was a beautiful woman with a striking, smoothly textured voice. This excellent compilation focuses exclusively upon the recordings she made for the King label. Four sides waxed in New York during August of 1947 have a backing band led by saxophonist
Paul Bascomb. It is a pleasure to listen to
Marion Abernathy, whether she's handling her usual blues-based material or crossing over ever so slightly into jazz territory as she does on her unique study in rhythmic blues scat singing, "Scroogli-Oli-Re-Bos." One might compare her with
Dinah Washington or
Helen Humes, with
June Richmond or
Donna Hightower. There's also something about her jazz-like undercurrents that seem to recall the records
Alice Roberts made with
Dizzy Gillespie in 1946, or presage
Iona Wade's hot vocals with
James Moody in 1954. Yet
Marion Abernathy was a blues singer first and foremost. On December 23, 1947, she waxed 12 tunes at the King studios in Cincinnati, supported by trumpeter
Oran "Hot Lips" Page and a first-rate band fortified with two tenor saxophonists -- the great
Hal Singer and the mighty
Tom Archia. Note that "Nobody Wants You When You're Down and Out" is a completely different song from
Ida Cox's magnum opus, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." This is a shame, as it would have been nice to be able to hear what
Abernathy would have done with
Cox's ever-pertinent archetypal blues. Her brisk two-minute version of
Charlie Shavers' "Undecided" is delightful. It's as fast-paced as the original 1938 recording by
John Kirby's Sextet, yet poignant as the slowly rendered 1939 version by
Fats Waller & His Rhythm.
Abernathy's last session for King Records took place in Los Angeles on March 26, 1949. The excellent band led by pianist
Gerry Wiggins featured some of the top musicians in the area at that time, including trumpeter
Joe Newman, trombonist
Henry Coker,
Marshall Royal on clarinet and alto sax, a sensuous sounding
Bumps Myers on tenor sax, and even young
Chico Hamilton behind the drums. According to the scant extant biographical information,
Marion Abernathy only returned to the recording studio once -- in 1961 -- and is believed to have passed away in 1977. What you have on this one disc are some of the best recordings she ever made.