Beryl Bryden
Beryl Bryden | |
---|---|
Birth name | Beryl Audley Bryden |
Born | Trad Jazz | 11 May 1920
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Instrument(s) | Vocals Washboard |
Years active | 1942-1998 |
Beryl Audley Bryden (11 May 1920 – 14 July 1998) was an English jazz singer, who played with Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan.[1] Ella Fitzgerald once said of Bryden that she was "Britain's queen of the blues".
Life and career
Bryden was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England, on 11 May 1920 and was the only child of Amos and Elsie Bryden. Her enthusiasm for jazz music began during her teenage years. She became a member of the National Rhythm Club when she was 17 and became secretary of the local branch in 1941. An ardent jazz fan she established a Nat Gonella fan club in her teens, before taking up the washboard and singing. Her vocal style was influenced by Bessie Smith but she avoided affectation of an American accent. Bryden was a friend of Black Anna Hannant who ran the Jolly Butchers pub in Ber Street, Norwich.[2]
In 1942 at the age of 22, she moved to Cambridge. In 1945, after the war had ended, she moved to back to London, hoping to start a music career.[3][1] She also worked with Mick Mulligan and George Melly at London jazz venues such as the Cook's Ferry Inn in Walthamstow and became a supporter of visiting American jazz acts when the Musicians Union ban was lifted and befriended amongst others, Buck Clayton, Louis Armstrong, and Bud Freeman with whom she recorded.
In May 1949 Bryden formed her own group called Beryl’s Back-Room Boys and later worked with Mike Daniels. At the same club in 1952 she met the French clarinettist Maxime Saury and sang with his band at The Club Du Vieux Colombier, District of Saint Germain Des Pres, Paris.[4]
In 1955 she joined the
She remained active at the end of the British trad jazz boom, and became particularly popular in Northern Europe, playing with the Ted Easton Jazz Band and The Piccadilly Six. On 13 July, 1979, she headlined the North Sea Jazz Festival with Rod Mason and His Hot Five. In the 1980s she often sang with the New Orleans Syncopators, a Dutch jazz band with whom she recorded an album.
She remained active into the 1990s,[3] playing with the Metropolitan Jazz Band, Digby Fairweather, Nat Gonella and her own Blue Boys. She made her last recording with Gonella in 1998, shortly before her death.[6]
Personal life and death
Bryden was a keen traveller. She was renowned for her flamboyant gowns and sculptured blonde wigs. She travelled widely and practised her hobbies of photography and deep-sea diving. She lived for many years at 166, Gloucester Terrace, Paddington in London. She died from
Discography
- Two Moods of Beryl Bryden (Audiophile, 1994)
References
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
- ^ Beryl Bryden Biography www.allmusic.com Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- ^ ISBN 9780826472342.
- ^ Beryl Bryden Norfolk Women in History www.norfolkwomeninhistory.com
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
- ^ Beryl Bryden Biography www.flickr.com
External links
- AllMusic
- Beryl Bryden and The Piccadilly Six, Elite Special (1975). Liner notes
- cs:Viktor Kotrubenko