Hazel Meyers was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 classic female blues

Classic female blues

Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female vocalists accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles, and were the...

 and country blues

Country blues

Country blues is a general term that refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. It often incorporated elements of rural gospel, ragtime, hillbilly, and dixieland jazz...

 singer. She spent most of her career in black

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

 vaudeville

Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

, although on recordings she was billed as a blues artist. Her more famous numbers included "Heartbreaking Blues" and "Blackville After Dark", both sung in her contralto

Contralto

Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

 voice.

Biography

Meyers' recording career composed of a total of forty-one sides, the majority waxed between September 1923 and August 1924. She saw her output released by several record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

s, including Ajax, Brunswick

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

 (issued under the Vocalion

Vocalion Records

Vocalion Records is a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.-History:Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The name was derived from one of their...

 banner) Pathė

Pathé Records

Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...

, Banner

Banner Records

Banner Records was a United States based record label of the 20th century.Banner Records was launched in January 1922 by the Plaza Music Company of New York City. Banner was an extremely popular label in the 1920s, concentrating on popular music of the day. To this day, Banners are often found all...

, Bell, and Emerson

Emerson Records

Emerson Records was a record label active in the United States between 1916 to 1928. Emerson Records produced between the 1910s and early 1920s offered generally above average audio fidelity for the era, pressed in high quality shellac. The fidelity of the later issues compares less...

, with her final couple of releases appearing on Okeh

Okeh Records

Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...

 in June 1926. Meyers had gramophone record

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 releases on six different labels in 1924. Her accompanists variously included Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

, Porter Grainger

Porter Grainger

Porter Grainger was an African-American pianist, songwriter, playwright, and music publisher.-Biography:...

, James "Bubber" Miley, Leslie "Hutch" Henderson

Leslie Hutchinson

Leslie Arthur Julien Hutchinson, known as "Hutch" was one of the biggest cabaret stars in the world during the 1920s and 1930s.-Career:...

 and Don Redman

Don Redman

Donald Matthew Redman was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer.Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009....

, plus on one recording, Fats Waller

Fats Waller

Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...

. Meyers' tracks included the first female vaudeville artist recording of the satirical song, "Black Star Line

Black Star Line

The Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association . The shipping line was supposed to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy...

", released in May 1924. The song was recorded by both Meyers and Rosa Henderson

Rosa Henderson

Rosa Henderson was an American jazz and classic female blues singer, and vaudeville entertainer.-Career:...

 within a twenty four hour period.

One source speculated that Meyers also recorded under the pseudonyms of Mae Harris for Domino, and Louella Smith for Oriole.

Meyers appeared in vaudeville throughout the 1920s. Detailed information is not available, but she did appear in Steppin' High, a variety show staged in Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

, New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where she was backed by the orchestra of Fletcher Henderson. More generally, she is believed to have made regular appearances in the theater until the early 1930s.

However, little is known of life outside of her professional engagements.

Meyers entire recorded work was made available in 1996 by Document Records

Document Records

Document Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...

.

Compilation discography

Year	Title	Record label
1996	Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1923-24)	Document Document Records Document Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
1996	Edna Hicks - Hazel Meyers - Laura Smith Vol. 2 (1923-1927)	Document