Bea Booze often credited as Wee Bea Booze, was an American R&B and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer most popular in the 1940s.

She was born Muriel Nicholls in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, and made her name as a singer in Harlem. She was signed by Decca Records

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 to cover the songs and emulate the style of Lil Green

Lil Green

Lil Green was an American blues singer and songwriter.-Life and career:Originally named Lillian Green, she was born in Mississippi; after the early deaths of her parents, she went to Chicago, Illinois, where she began performing in her teens and where she would make all of her recordings.Green was...

, and, under the guidance of Sammy Price

Sammy Price

Sammy Price was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and jump blues pianist and bandleader. He was born Samuel Blythe Price, in Honey Grove, Texas, United States. Price was most noteworthy for his work on Decca Records with his own band, known as the Texas Bluesicians, that included fellow musicians...

, first recorded in 1942. Her version of "See See Rider Blues", first recorded by Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey

Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....

, reached # 1 on the R&B chart, after which she was billed as 'The See See Rider Blues Girl'. As well as singing, she played guitar in performance and on many of her recordings.

Later in the 1940s, Booze recorded as a jazz vocalist with the Andy Kirk

Andy Kirk

Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....

 band, which featured trumpeter Fats Navarro

Fats Navarro

Theodore "Fats" Navarro was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, most notably Clifford Brown.-Life:Navarro was born in Key West, Florida, to Cuban-Black-Chinese parentage...

, and also with a jazz quartet that included saxophonist George Kelly

George Kelly (musician)

George Kelly was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, vocalist and arranger born in Miami, Florida, perhaps best-known for his works with Panama Francis first in the 1930s and again in the 1970s, the latter dates representing a newly formed "Savoy Sultans"...

 and organist Larry Johnson. She retired from the music business in the early 1950s to settle first in Baltimore and later in Scottsville, New York

Scottsville, New York

Scottsville is a village in southwestern Monroe County, New York, United States, and is in the northeastern part of the Town of Wheatland. The population was 2,128 at the 2000 census. The village is named after an early settler, Isaac Scott...

, although she recorded with Sammy Price in 1962.

External links

• [ Allmusic]