Rosa Henderson born 24 November 1896

Rosa Henderson (November 24, 1896 – April 6, 1968) was an American jazz and classic female blues singer, and vaudeville entertainer who's musical accomplishments have remained relatively obscure.

Born Rosa Deschamps in Henderson, Henderson County, Kentucky, she is remembered as one of the greats of the 1920s and 1930s classic blues era. Her career as an entertainer began in 1913 when she joined her uncle's circus troupe.

She married Douglas "Slim" Henderson in 1918 and began travelling with his Mason-Henderson show. Her career as a musical comedian started during the early 1920s, after she moved to New York where she performed on Broadway and eventually in London.

Her nine-year recording career began in 1923. During that time she recorded 92 selections in all including 88 during 1923-1927 and two apiece in 1928 and 1931. She used numerous pseudonyms such as Sally Ritz, Rosa Green, Flora Dale, Sarah Johnson, Bessie Williams, Josephine Thomas, Gladys White and Mamie Harris.

Vocalion, Columbia, Perfect, Emerson, Victor, Brunswick & Paramount were among the labels that captured her voice. Of course, these also account for her lack of a strong identity, although she appeared at major houses and with revues such as the Quintard Miller Company.

 

She was accompanied by such bands as The Virginians, Fletcher Henderson's Jazz Five, Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, Fletcher Henderson's Club Alabam Orchestra, the Choo Choo Jazzers, the Kansas City Five, the Three Jolly Miners, the Kansas City Four, the Three Hot Eskimos, and the Four Black Diamonds, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Metcalf, Fats Waller, and (on six numbers), James P. Johnson, to name a few.

She sang the chorus on Fletcher Henderson's May 28, 1924, Vocalion recording of "Do That Thing", probably the earliest example of a female singing with a big band.

Although she began to show a marked decline in her recordings after 1926, she continued performing up until 1932 when she took a job in a New York department store where she stayed for many years. She continued to perform benefit concerts up until the 1960s. Rosa died at Bird S. Coler Hospital on Roosevelt Island, New York in 1968. (Info edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & AMG)