Helen Humes - Today I Sing The Blues 1944-1955

"I've been called a blues singer, a jazz singer, and a ballad singer - well, I'm all three, which means I'm just a singer". That is a quote that Helen Humes was fond of using throughout her career. She was, like many singers of her generation, Caucasian or African American, proud of her versatility and proud of her resistance to any kind of musical genre pigeon holing. Having said that, this collection of 28 of her recordings does indeed put her firmly into the blues genre, albeit blues with a definite Jazz bias. Playing with her across these various recording dates are, Conte Candoli, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Chico Hamilton, Chuck Norris, Ernie Freeman, Jackie Kelso, Camille Howard, Roy Milton, Buck Clayton, Teddy Wilson, Maxwell Davis, Lester Young, Bill Doggett and even more. How cool is that list. This CD contains several of her jukebox hit records like "Be-Baba-Leba", "Million Dollar Secret".