Showing posts with label Hadda Brooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hadda Brooks. Show all posts

Thursday, August 7, 2025

Hadda Brooks - Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 1994
Time: 58:30
File: MP3 @ 128K/s
Size: 53,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:49) 1. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
(4:18) 2. That's My Desire
(4:37) 3. Don't Go To Strangers
(3:36) 4. Don't You Think I Ought To Know
(4:37) 5. The Man With The Horn
(3:10) 6. But Not For Me
(3:17) 7. Rain, Sometimes
(4:14) 8. Heart Of A Clown
(3:21) 9. Ol'Man River
(4:31) 10. Dream
(2:34) 11. A Foggy Day
(4:18) 12. Trust In Me
(5:00) 13. Please, Be Kind-Am I Blue
(3:55) 14. Stolen Love
(3:06) 15. All Of Me

In the mid- to late '40s, Black popular music began to mutate from swing jazz and boogie woogie into the sort of rhythm & blues that helped lay the foundation for rock & roll. Singer and pianist Hadda Brooks was one of the many figures who was significant in aiding that transition, although she's largely forgotten today. While her torch song delivery was rooted in the big-band era, her boogie woogie piano looked forward to jump blues and R&B. Ironically, the same qualities that made her briefly successful -- her elegant vocals and jazzy arrangements left her ill-equipped to compete when harder-driving forms of rhythm & blues, and then early rock & roll, began to dominate the marketplace in the early '50s.

Brooks got a recording deal through a chance meeting with jukebox operator Jules Bihari, who was looking to record some boogie woogie. The Los Angeles-based Bihari, along with his brother Joe, would become major players in early R&B with their Modern label, which issued sides by B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, Jesse Belvin, and other stars. Brooks actually preferred ballads to boogie woogie, but worked up her style by listening to Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade "Lux" Lewis records. Her first record, the pounding "Swingin' the Boogie," was a sizable regional hit in 1945. Joe Bihari would later tell author Arnold Shaw that the single was instrumental in establishing the Biharis in the record business.

Brooks' first records were instrumental, but by 1946 she was singing as well. She had a fair amount of success for Modern in the late '40s, reaching the R&B Top Ten with "Out of the Blue" and her most famous song, "That's My Desire" (which was covered for a big pop hit by Frankie Laine). Her success on record led to some roles in films, most notably in a scene from In a Lonely Place, which starred Humphrey Bogart.

Brooks briefly left Modern for an unsuccessful stint with major-label London in 1950. After a similarly unrewarding return to Modern in the early '50s and a brief stay at OKeh, she largely withdrew from recording and worked the nightclub circuit. For most of the '60s, in fact, she was based in Australia, where she hosted her own TV show. Her profile was boosted in the mid-'90s by her induction into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, and by the inclusion of her recording of "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" in the film The Crossing Guard. A new album on Point Blank, Time Was When, was released in early 1996.By Richie Unterberger
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hadda-brooks-mn0000548103#biography

Personnel: Piano, Vocals – Hadda Brooks; Bass – "Senator" Eugene Wright; Guitar – Al Viola; Trumpet – Jack Sheldon

Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

Friday, March 1, 2024

Hadda Brooks - City Streets and Cafe Beats - Hadda Brooks' Summertime Stories

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
Time: 47:50
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 111,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:11) 1. That's Where I Came In
(3:03) 2. Take Me
(3:00) 3. This Will Make You Laugh
(2:57) 4. Can't We Be Friends
(2:59) 5. The Best Things In Life Are Free
(3:01) 6. I'm The Lonesomest Gal In Town
(2:59) 7. I Can't Get Started
(3:14) 8. Tomorrow Night
(3:07) 9. This Time We're Through
(3:21) 10. Always
(3:04) 11. Out Of The Blue
(3:23) 12. I Must Have That Man
(3:11) 13. You Won't Let Me Go
(3:51) 14. That's My Desire
(3:23) 15. After You've Gone

Hadda Hapgood was born in Los Angeles in 1916, into a middle-class family: her father was a Deputy Sheriff and her mother was a doctor. Hadda’s musical education began when she attended the opera, and she studied classical piano for twenty years. After college in Chicago, where she picked up a rather different style of music, Hadda began playing piano professionally in LA, pounding out boogies in the style of Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. She was spotted by Saul Bihari and was one of the first artists signed to his Modern label in 1945, scoring a regional hit with her debut record.

The instrumental ‘Swingin’ the Boogie’ was billed under the name Hadda Brooks, a name given by the company. Her keyboard skills got her a lot of session work for the Bihari’s labels: for example she featured on most of ‘Smokey’ Hogg‘s records. After a few more instrumental releases of her own, Hadda was chosen to appear in the movie ‘Out of the Blue’, playing a lounge-singer: the record of the same name was Hadda’s vocal debut and it became her biggest hit. Further movie rôles and hit records like ‘That’s My Desire’ made Hadda something of a celebrity in the late 40s. https://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/hadda-brooks/https://www.allaboutbluesmusic.com/hadda-brooks/

City Streets and Cafe Beats - Hadda Brooks' Summertime Stories

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Hadda Brooks - I've Got News For You (2-Disc Set)

This two-CD set spans Brooks' career from 1945 to 1998 and does a fine job of gathering bits and pieces from the veteran singer/pianist's catalog. Divided into two sections --"Hadda Sings" and "Hadda Swings" -- which unsuccessfully tries to separate essentially similar patterns in Brooks' style and manner, this amounts to a representative, if incomplete, compilation of progressing, artistic achievement. The '90s recordings featured here aren't bad, but it's the late-'40s material -- particularly Brooks' sublime take on "That's My Desire" -- that gives I've Got News for You something to shout about. ~Michael Gallucci

Album: I've Got News For You (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:34
Size: 104.3 MB
Styles: Jazz-blues vocals, Piano blues
Year: 1999

[2:42] 1. That's My Desire
[2:44] 2. I Feel So Good
[3:09] 3. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
[4:05] 4. Dream
[3:13] 5. You Won't Let Me Go
[2:47] 6. Time Was When
[3:35] 7. You Go Your Way And I'll Go Crazy
[2:53] 8. Sometimes I'm Happy (Featuring Carla Bozulich)
[3:24] 9. Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl
[3:12] 10. Who Did You Fool After All
[4:24] 11. Stairway To The Stars (Featuring Charles Brown)
[3:49] 12. How Do You Speak To An Angel
[2:34] 13. Them There Eyes
[2:56] 14. Miss Brown To You

I've Got News For You (Disc 1) mc
I've Got News For You (Disc 1) zippy

Album: I've Got News For You (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:11
Size: 103.5 MB
Styles: Jazz-blues vocals, Piano blues
Year: 1999
Art: Front

[2:48] 1. Swingin' The Boogie
[2:54] 2. Chop Chop Boogie
[2:41] 3. Hip Shakin' Boogie
[3:00] 4. Humoresque Boogie
[2:34] 5. Rock And Roll Boogie
[2:26] 6. Variety Boogie
[2:39] 7. Bluesin' The Boogie
[2:24] 8. Teenage Boogie
[2:41] 9. Boogie Celeste
[2:20] 10. Stompin' The Boogie
[2:40] 11. Honky Tonk Boogie
[6:23] 12. Mama's Blues
[4:20] 13. Misty
[5:14] 14. Rhapsody In Blue

I've Got News For You (Disc 2) mc
I've Got News For You (Disc 2) zippy