Post 129: 'SOMEBODY'S BEEN LOVING MY BABY' - TUBA SKINNY AND MANDY LEE

I know very little about 'Document Records', though Wikipedia tells me the company was established in 1986 and still seems to be active, now based in Scotland. It is clear this company has done a great service for the history of jazz by rescuing from obscurity and re-issuing hundreds of recordings from the period 1900 to 1945.

It's also exciting to note how influential these old recordings have been on the young generation of great traditional jazz musicians - particularly in New Orleans. For example, Tuba Skinny manage to pick out from the long lists of material tunes that are perfectly suited to their style and to Erika's voice in particular.

On one of Document's CDs, there are eleven songs performed in the 1920s by Mandy Lee. What do we know about Mandy Lee? Who was she? It has been suggested that 'Mandy Lee' was just a name given to an artist (or even more than one artist - certainly it is difficult to be sure that all eleven songs are sung by the same voice). I suppose it's one of those mysteries never to be solved.

Tuba Skinny have taken on the song Somebody's Been Lovin' My Baby; and of course they perform it extremely well. They have included it on their sixth CD (Owl Call Blues - released in August 2014). And you can watch them perform it (filmed for us by the great video-maker codenamed digitalalexa)
BY CLICKING HERE.