She died 8 years ago
Born:Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, 30, 1917, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died:09, 2010, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Posted on 05/12/2019 11:01:00 AM PDT by lowbridge
"Stormy Weather" was Lena Horne's signature song as well as a chillingly apt metaphor for her career. Long celebrated for her striking beauty and silky voice, she overcame profound racism on her way to becoming one of the best-known African American performers in the country.
At MGM, she had a seven-year contract in the 1940s when no other African American had such long-term deals. But her movie scenes were filmed so they could be easily excised for release in the Jim Crow South.
As a singer in the 1950s, Horne often performed for white audiences in supper clubs then cursed the audience under her breath as she took her bows, her biographer wrote last year.
The glamorous Horne would go on to be "one of the legendary divas of popular music," jazz critic Don Heckman wrote in The Times in 1997, with a voice that almost caressed "with its warm timbre and seductive drawl,"
Horne, whose career spanned more than 60 years, died Sunday of heart failure at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. She was 92.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
My dad used to refer to Lena Horne as Louis’ little Lena. Her husband was named Louis, I think. Anyway, I am really disappointed to read that she cursed white people, the white people who were paying to see her sing. I always thought she was a classy lady with a gorgeous voice.
she married a white man- claiming it was to advance her career and cross the color barrier- according to wiki
Born:Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, 30, 1917, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died:09, 2010, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Stunning woman.
I always thought Lena could pass for white.
Tom Lehrer’s “National Brotherhood Week” (1965) went,
“But during National Brotherhood Week,
“National Brotherhood Week,
“Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark are dancing cheek to cheek,”
This is an archive article from 2010...… 9 years ago
She died in 2010
I saw her perform Stormy weather on TV when I was a kid. She opened my ears to a sound that was pretty much buried in the early 70’s.
Rest In Peace.
Uh, the comments after the article say she died 10 years ago. I checked and she did die on 5/9/09. Funnily enough some of the comments hit the LAT for publishing it simply to ‘white shame’.
This reminds me of Trump’s 30 year old taxes..its new again LOL
Lena died 8 years ago but anyway I sympathize with her because being of mixed race especially in those times were very difficult. Everyone is vying for you to pick one of the other which is silly all together in my book because people are people first and not just identified as far as race and color of ones skin
Great set of pipes.
Prayers for her and her family.
Which is why today, it tends to be the lighter-skinned blacks that are the most “down wit the shtruggle”.
So beautiful and fantastic voice. RIP
I have an old VFW buddy who played upright bass in her band.
I always thought the musician Alicia Keyes would have been the best to portray Lena Horne in an on screen role.
This was before Alicia became anti-Make Up wearing, as she is today. This was also before I really listened to her.
Alician is a fine pianist, has perfect pitch, but does not really ‘sing’, in my opinion. She more accurately, YELLS and hollers in the correct key, adding energy and personal flourishes to her notes.
I think the correct phrase is Melisma singing; When you sing a single syllable of lyric while moving between several different notes in succession.
Mariah Carey is famous for doing this. As in her first hit;
“I Had A Vision”. Hear the last notes before the coda.
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