Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon

In the late 20's and all of the 30's, blues and innuendo seem to go hand in hand, and from the gay perspective that perfectly fit Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon. He was "Half-Pint" as he was 5'2" and he started honing his craft as a teenager, joining a touring company when he was only 15 (in 1910). By 1919 he was in demand for producing revues at the Apollo Theatre, and during this time he started performing as a female impersonator, which would be incorporated into his act throughout his career. By 1927 he ended up in Chicago, his base for the next thirteen years.  On one of his first recording sessions (1927) he demonstrated his versatility with the song "I'm Gonna Dance Wit De Guy Wot Brung Me," in which he sang both the guy and girl parts in a dancehall sketch.

Listen to "I'm Gonna Dance Wit De Guy Wot Brung Me" (Gennet 6244, 1927)

Jaxon recorded extensively, for the labels Decca, Vocalion, and others and also sang vocals on a number of recordings for blues great Tampa Red. Naturally, my interest is drawn to the tracks where he plays a woman, as the sexual innuendo and double entendres come to the surface from a gay angle. I picked two more for you to check out:

Listen to "How Can I Get It" (Vocalion 1257,1928)

Listen to "Operation Blues" (Vocalion,unissued, 1929)

You'll note that "Operation Blues" was at the time not released, for good reason. It features Jaxon playing the "female" patient and the "examination" turns into doctor/patient sex. Subtlety was not brought into this operation.

There are many Frankie Jaxon songs on YouTube, and that's where I found my favorite by him, and the double meanings are loud and clear. It's one he sang vocals on for Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band, in 1929, "My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll."

View the Video

QMH Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon Tribute Pages

for Lots More Information

and also see

Jaxon on RedHotJazz Site
 

Sissy Man Blues

 

I wish I had a better image of this rare 78 rpm record, or even that I owned a copy. 
It's "Sissy Man Blues," written and sung by Kokomo Arnold, in early 1935. It has a special place in the history of "gay" blues songs, with its famous line, 

"Lord, if you can't send me no woman, 

please send me some sissy man." 

It became a popular song with three other versions recorded within the next two years, by Josh White (then known as Pinewood Tom), George Noble, and Connie McLean's Rhythm Kings. The lyrics may have varied a bit between the four recordings, but the punch like was always there. You can compare the lyrics exactly, and hear all the versions, and find more info on this page of my site:

QMH Sissy Man Blues Tribute Page

 

Just one of the many compilations featuring versions of the song

Ramil - Believe in Love

Okay, I stumbled upon this artist and while I can't tell you much about him (his site is in Spanish) I Can tell you he's got a terrific voice. He's Ramil and all you need to do is hear him sing "Believe," and you'll agree. It's the official song for 2012 for Pride Barcelona. He was an openly-gay contestant on Spain’s Operación Triunfo, which has been the country’s top musical talent show.

 View the Video

As they say on late-night TV, but wait, there's more! The first image above is from his site where you can hear an orchestral version of the song, which showcases his voice even more...it's on the home page, a little down on the right.

Ramil's Website

 

While you're at his site, don't miss the Video page of Covers, especially 

Elton John's "Your Song" and Björk's "Venus as a Boy"

Facebook Page

Christine Jorgensen Enjoyed Being a Girl

Christine Jorgensen's "I Enjoy Being a Girl" album

On my radio show and website, QMH, I love to feature transgender performers and history, and there could not be better history than Christine Jorgensen (1926 - 1989). While she was not the first person to have sexual reassignment surgery, she certainly was one of the first to get worldwide attention for it, especially in the U.S. This was in late 1952 when she traveled to Denmark for the operation and returned to  front-page headlines all over the world. Her celebrity essentially became her career, with speaking and night club engagements, for the rest of her life.

 

Many people know of her LP "Christine Jorgensen Reveals," in which Nipsy Russell does an awkward interview, and to me I found her articulate responses full of amazing poise, especially considering this was 1958. Discovering that LP was probably the start of my admiration and fascination with her, and I have set up several pages of my site in tribute to her, at the link below.

QMH Christine Jorgensen Tribute

In December of 2006, a piece of history was restored and given back to us, in the form of a very rare night club show by Christine Jorgensen. Prior to this the only recording released to the public was the 1958 interview album. While she made herself a career in show business for most of the rest of her life, no recording of her performances had surfaced, until this "new" release. The album is comprised of two of her shows in Los Angeles, one done in late 1982 and the other in early 1983. In this recording she does some singing, tells stories about celebrities and does some impressions.

Listen to Christine Jorgensen intro her act and sing "I Enjoy Being a Girl"

below, ad for engagement similar to the ones on the album

The album is only available in digital format, at iTunes. I was blessed to have been able to interview the album's producer, David Cunard, who sadly passed away in October of 2011. That interview can be found on my May 2007 QMH show.

Disappear Fear - Get Your Phil

Last year Disappear Fear released a CD that I feel has just not received enough exposure. Now, first off, I don't want anyone to be confused about Sonia and her many releases. She and her sister Cindy began as Disappear Fear around 1988 and for the first ten years they were billed that way. Then Cindy wanted to step away from performing and for a few years the releases were just by Sonia. Starting around 2005 Cindy would at times guest in the studio, but just as often there was a backing band, and the CDs were then by Sonia & Disappear Fear. But this latest CD is special. As it harkens back to the beginning, with both Sonia and Cindy harmonizing and doing very special material, this one is billed just as by Disappear Fear.

Gee, that was a longer explanation than I intended, but then, Sonia's story is one I want newcomers to know. Okay, what is special about this latest CD? It honors Phil Ochs, an American folk hero, whose political songs became a background of the unrest in the 1960's. Sadly, he died in 1976, but his songs just kept being the voice of protest and have remained timely, with one of his most known ones being "I Ain't Marching."

The music of Phil Ochs has spoken to Sonia since high school, and she has already included two of his songs on earlier albums, "Is There Anybody Here" and "No More Songs." On "Get Your Phil" he gets the full tribute.

View the Video

On a personal note, I've known Sonia for at least ten years and am blessed to count her as an "artist friend" who is also a "friend." I did an extensive "career interview" with her in 2010, and she humored me by allowing me to dig deep into her music history. Also a year ago I got another blessing, I was in Albany for a music fesitval and my hosts (from the Quest of Life show, on WRPI) took me to their station to record an interview. I walked in and was very surprised to meet Sonny Ochs, Phil's sister, who was doing her radio show Mostly Folk, and sitting on her console was a copy of "Get Your Phil," so Sonny and I hit it off immediately. I was surprised how much I remembered from my days of following folk music in the 60's, and I remembered that my favorite song of Phil's was "Changes," (in that case, by Ian & Sylvia).

View the Video

Disappear Fear. Com

Stephan Nance & "A Trouble Piece of Fruit" CD

Per the website of Stephan Nance, he is Oregon's foremost awkwardly charming vegan straight-edge queer alternative piano folk rock musician. I would add a dash of quirky to that mix, and he’s been on my radar for a while. I happen to love quirky and he’s been working on his full-length CD for several years now, by releasing a couple preliminary EPs with a few of the ultimate tracks. The new CD is finally here, and (see what I mean) he named it “A Troubled Piece of Fruit.”

While he does not yet have professional videos, his utter charm more than makes up for that, and I encourage you to check out these two tracks. First, “Song for Losers”…

View the Video

And then the delightful “Cuddlefish”

View the Video

You can hear a lot more clips at the links below...

 http://stephannance.com

http://www.reverbnation.com/stephannance

https://www.facebook.com/StephanNance