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"At 101 years of age, Louise Tobin is one of the last surviving musicians of the Swing Era in American music. She performed with such notables as Benny Goodman, Harry James (who was her first husband), Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mercer, Lionel Hampton, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and Fletcher Henderson. In this absorbing biography, historian Kevin Mooney offers readers a view of a remarkable life in music, told from the vantage point of the woman who lived it. Born in Aubrey, Texas, in 1918, Mary Louise Tobin says of herself, "I fell out of my cradle singing. I never did proper things; I just sang." She was singing in her Denton County church by age seven, and before she was ten, her voice graced the radio advertisements for Metzger's Milk, airing on WDAG in the Texas Panhandle. By age sixteen, she was singing professionally at the Palace Theatre in Dallas. Based on extensive oral history interviews and archival research, "Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond" recaptures both the glamour and the challenges of life on the road and onstage during the golden age of swing and beyond. With a trajectory that took her from Denton, Texas, to New York, to Hollywood and back again, Louise Tobin's story traces the major outlines of American music during the twentieth century"--
About the author
Music historian KEVIN EDWARD MOONEY has performed as a guitarist with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and David Amram. A member of the musicology faculty at Texas State University, he has contributed to
Grove Dictionary of American Music,
Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
Journal of Texas Music History, and others.
Summary
Based on extensive oral history interviews and archival research, Texas Jazz Singer recalls both the glamour and the challenges of life on the road and onstage during the golden age of swing and beyond.
