Career
Humes left New York and moved to Cincinnati to sing at the Cotton Club, where she was first noticed by jazz band leader Count Basie in 1937. He tried to get her to come work with him on the spot, but when she saw that the pay was no more than she was already making, she decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. A year later, she went to New York with John Hammond (of Columbia Records), and John convinced her to join Count Basie’s band, replacing Billie Holiday and earning $35 a week. She later said the band was “a lovely bunch of fellows” who even gave her the nickname “Fanny” (as reported in a Courier-Journal interview, July 23, 1978). In 1942, Humes left the band and began touring the country with pianist Connie Berry until 1944. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she truly began to diversify her vocals and sing for film networks and several blue bands.
In 1945, she recorded her biggest commercial hit, “Be-Baba-Leba.” When she’d saved enough money, she bought her parents a building for them to work out of.
According to many critics, Humes’s voice was versatile, covering jazz classics and ballads as well as the blues. She was compared to Ethel Waters and Mildred Bailey from early in her career and to Ella Fitzgerald and Nancy Wilson in later years. A review from Downbeat Magazine of her albums Talk of the Town, Helen Comes Back, and Helen Humes with Red Norvo and His Orchestra said the following about her collaboration with Red Norvo:
“Norvo's sparkling vibes are the ideal complement to Helen's lithe, light timbered clarity…Helen is in particularly fine voice … [with] an uncanny resemblance to early Ella [Fitzgerald] in her sound and phrasing.”
– John McDonough, Downbeat Magazine, August 14, 1975
Downbeat Magazine held an annual critic’s award, polling over 25 jazz critics from across the world. Helen Humes regularly received favorable mentions alongside other top female artists. In the August 4, 1960, issue, she was voted one of the best female singers, just behind Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn (accessed via Internet Archive, 8 April 8, 2022).
