Ethel Waters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 - September 1, 1977) was an African American blues vocalist who frequently performed jazz, big band, gospel, and popular music, on Broadway and off.
Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a twelve-year old mother who had been raped, and was raised in a violent, impoverished Philadelphia ward.
Waters obtained her first Harlem club job around 1919 at Edmond's Cellar, a typical club of the period and area patroned by a black audience. Along with Fletcher Henderson and sponsored under Black Swan Records, she toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. She stated that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass". According to Waters, she influenced him to practice in a "real jazz" style. She was later recorded by Columbia Records in 1925; this recording was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. During the 1920s, she performed and/or was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook, Lovie Austin, Fletcher Henderson
As her career continued, she evolved toward being a pop and broadway singer performing with artists like Duke Ellington. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film "Pinky". In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Award. In the period before her death at age 80 in Los Angeles, California, she toured with the Rev. Billy Graham, despite the fact that she was a Catholic.
She was posthumously recognized in 1984 by the Gospel Music Association where her name was placed in its Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
Family ties
She is also the aunt of Dance artist Crystal Waters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Waters
There'll Be Some Changes Made
Ethel Waters recorded this Higgins-Overstreet composition (probably) in August 1921 in New York for the Black Swan label; accompanied by her Jazz Masters.
From the CD "the Chronological Ethel Waters 1921-1923" on the Classics label.
It was later recorded a.o. by Josie Miles in December 1924 (see Document CD DOCD-5467)
They say don't change the old for the new
But I found out that this will never do
When you grow old, you don't last long
You're just here my honey, then you're gone
I loved a man for many years gone by
I thought his love for me would never die
He made a chance and said I would not do
For now I'm gonna make some changes too
Why there's a change in the weather, there's a change in the sea
So from now on there'll be a change in me
My walk will be different, my talk and my name
Nothing about me's goin' be the same
I'm gonna change my long tall one for a little short fat
I'm gonna change my number where I'm livin' at
Because nobody wants you when you're old and gray
There'll be some changes made today
There'll be some changes made
Why there's a change in the weather, there's a change in the sea
So from now on there'll be a change in me
Why my walk will be different, my talk and my name
Nothing about me gonna be the same
I'm gonna change my way of living, and that ain't no bluff
Why I'm thinkin' about changing the way I'm gonna strut my stuff
Because nobody wants you when you're old and gray
There'll be some changes made today
There'll be some changes made
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