Once upon a time a female hand singer was described variously as a canary, thrush, mouse, pigeon, chick, chirp, and a few others. Such terms would quickly attract writs and court appearances from the predators who strut their stuff in today's ferocious gender arena.
Mary Ann McCall was born in Philadelphia, May 4, 1919. She was originally an aspiring dancer despite suffering early childhood rickets. After corrective therapy she did make some progress but found that singing was a better alternative for her ambition. She was part of a chorus line at Frank Palumbo's dancehall in Philadelphia and the story goes that Buddy Morrow, who led the houseband, heard her sing and encouraged her.
In fact, Mary Ann's real big break came when she briefly took over from Edythe Wright with Tommy Dorsey's band in late 1938. There are no recordings with Dorsey and only when she moved to the Woody Herman band in April, 1939 did she first put her stuff down on wax. Big Wig in a Wigwam, which was the reverse side of Woodchopper's Ball and here she performs as a "mouse" or "hepchick", singing a rhythm novelty number in the sexually non-threatening style of the day.
McCall quickly attracted the ear and eye of Charlie Barnet whose band at the time was further up the success ladder than Herman. The band enjoyed the clout of being part of the RCA Victor/Bluebird stable that also housed Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller. She remained with Barnet for most of 1940 before being replaced by Harriet Clark who had also caught the leader's eye. The McCall voice at this time has been termed by Will Friedwald in his comprehensive book on jazz singers as 'lightly blue' - a good description.
By the late 30's girl singers were mandatory for band leaders who usually saw them as a kind of bait for male fans, purely decorative or a chance to rest the brassmen's lips. Glenn Miller used Marian Hutton as a vaguely hep singer and a foil for Tex Beneke's Texan drawl while Ray Eberle handled the quality romance numbers. Tommy Dorsey had more sympathy with singers and allowed arrangers Paul Weston and Axel Stordhal to frame Frank Sinatra and latterly Jo Stafford with effective backings. Similarly Helen Forrest had reason to be thankful to both Artie Shaw and later Harry James for providing sympathetic arrangements. And in spite of Goodman's basic antipathy to singers his canary Peggy Lee went on to become world-class largely through the arrangements of Eddie Sauter, and especially Mel Powell who styled her 1942 hit Why Don't You Do Right. Lee is almost unique among singers in being also an excellent composer/lyricist. Barnet too knew the value of good arrangers and Mary Ann benefited by the work of such as Billy May, Billy Moore and Skip Martin and recorded some two dozen sides which helped establish her reputation at least with musicians.
She next worked with clarinettist and bandleader Tommy Reynolds, an Artie Shaw clone, but lacking that leader's originality and purpose. Then she seemed to have disappeared to San Diego for most of the war occasionally appearing with local bands including a year or so with the Allan Kassell Orchestra.
The emotional dislocation of war brought a new style of girl singer to the fore. Assertive chicks like Ella Mae Morse and particularly Anita O'Day were currency but the yearning qualities to be found in the voice of Dinah Shore tapped into the national mood with the overseas serviceman and the girls they left behind. A young Doris Day, the girl next door non pareil, also expressed similar feelings with Les Brown on Sentimental Journey just as hostilities were ending.
In 1946 Frances Wayne, who had been a big success with Woody's First Herd, decided to bow out for motherhood and Mary Ann got the call to rejoin. She had the good fortune to arrive at a time when Ralph Burns' writing for the band was approaching new peaks of invention and modernity. The startling impressionistic intro for In The Dark was in stark contrast to what had preceded the war years and her singing too had matured into one of considerable jazz feeling. Her voice had become a little huskier, smokier blue with an element of sadness that never seemed to leave her sound. One of her last songs with the First Herd, Wrap Your Trouble In Dreams, arranged by Ralph Burns plus some tasty Flip Philips, became a minor hit.
Mary Ann had actually secured a separate recording contract with Columbia in 1947 but only four sides ever saw the light of day. Three uncompromising jazz numbers were made in company with an all star combo directed by Ralph Burns including Dexter Gordon, Willie Smith and Howard McGhee. A little later a fourth title Alec Wilder's Trouble Is A Man with a studio orchestra directed by Carl Hoff was recorded but two other tracks from this session remain unissued.
It has to be said of this time, with the exception of Ella, Lena Home and the superlative Sarah Vaughan, that national success for non-white singers presented socio-political mountains to climb. The status of Billie Holiday remained iconographic almost from the beginning of her career in 1935. This situation remained fundamentally unaltered well into the mid and late fifties when at last the flood gates gave way and a host of African-American vocal talent burst on the scene like Carmen McRae, Nancy Wilson, Abby Lincoln, Diahann Carrol, Dakota Staton and Nina Simone.
Meanwhile in late December 1947, Mary Ann rejoined Woody again and for the next two years or so toured and recorded with the Tour Brothers" band. Herman was especially fond of McCall's cool sound and generously featured her with quality songs arranged by Ralph Bums. In the 1948 DownBeat poll she closely pressed June Christy but was finally squeezed into fourth place behind Christy, Rosalind Patton and Ellington's Kay Davis.
As 1949 progressed and Wood/s band became increasingly bop driven it was clear that Mary Ann, who although sometimes compared with Anita O'Day, was marginalised by the idiom and she decided to go solo. Unlike her contemporaries Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Kay Starr and Fran Warren, she avoided the horrors of major company A&R men who only wanted mainstream pop hits. Columbia released her from her contract as she was clearly unwilling to go that route. So Mary Ann was spared Shrimp Boat, WheelOf Fortune and Come On A My House but also lost out on big sales, fame and fortune.
In late 1948 she was signed by jazz enthusiast and label owner Albert Marx for whom she recorded six of the best sides of her career. Marx had appointed Phil Moore as A&R man for Discovery records and was amply rewarded by the outstanding quality of his arrangements. Moore had been Lena Home's music director before making the music headlines in 1944 with his big hit Shoo Shoo Baby, and the following year went on to breach the all white policy of New York's plush Copacabana night club with a mixed combo. He re-settled in Los Angeles and became a producer/conductor for the short lived independent Musicraft and Black and White labels.
The group that Moore assembled for the McCall dates had been associated with him for some time and included Gerald Wilson, Marshall Royal, Murray McEachern, Tommy Todd, Harry Klee with Lester Young's brother Lee on drums. The recordings were done at Radio Recorders in Santa Monica supervised by Val Valentin who at the time was simply the best soundman on the coast. The scope and detail of the arrangements really gave Mary Ann all that she needed to give the lyrics expression and feeling. Her visibility with Herman plus the Discovery tracks helped her gain first place in the 1949 Downbeat band singers' poll.
Unfortunately the label was not widely distributed and despite rave reviews failed to give Mary Ann that boost to launch a single career nationwide. The next year or so saw her appear in clubs which usually meant there was insufficient money for the superior backing she had enjoyed from Ralph Bums and Phil Moore.
The following year she moved to New York and made two sides with Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five drawn from his current big band. She figured in various jazz polls in the early fifties and continued to enjoy the respect of the best modern jazz players in the city. She made a few albums with such as Charlie Ventura, Ernie Wilkins. Johnny Richards and in 1976 was reunited with Woody for his 40th anniversary in the business at Carnegie Hall. She had meantime returned to Los Angeles where she worked as a secretary, and occasionally went out on gigs with Nat Pierce and other like minded jazzmen. An example of latter day McCall with Nat Pierce and Bill Perkins in concert is to be found on HEP CD 2004. She died on December 14, 1994.
Alastair Robertson
|
