Germaine Bazzle born 28 March 1932

Germaine Bazzle (born March 28, 1932) is a jazz vocalist from New Orleans. Her musical influences include Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billy Eckstein. 

Bazzle was born in New Orleans, Los Angeles. She learned to play songs at the age of nine and started to accept formal training of music around the age of eleven. Both of her parents played the piano. Bazzle started to play the bass at the age of fourteen, and she participated in Xavier University’s Junior School of Music Orchestra. Bazzle sang with the St. Louis Cathedral Choir. She was also a member of The New World Ensemble, an all black choral group. Bazzle earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Xavier University. 

Followed her graduation from Xavier University, Bazzle was an educator at Washington High School in Thibodaux, Louisiana during the early 1960s. At the same time, she was also a youthful member of Earl Foster’s band. Bazzle also engaged in professional duo-piano playing between her bass-playing years and vocal specialization years.  Early in the 70s, she started to serve on the faculty of Xavier Preparatory High School, an all-girl catholic high school in New Orleans. She was also encountered as a bassist with traditional jazz bands during the same time period. Bazzle taught at the Xavier Preparatory High School until her retirement in 2007. 

Bazzle has always prioritized teaching above touring and recording. She taught nine through twelve grade music lessons in the Prep and she also taught choral music because she believes that “education is her calling”. She is currently a vocal music instructor at the Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. She contributes greatly to jazz education for young people. Although she has never performed beyond New Orleans, she is admirable both as an educator and a musician. 

                           Here’s “Lush Life” from above 1988 album. 

                                   

“Teaching was what I was supposed to do; the gigs are what I could do,” she said emphatically upon her receipt of the 2015 Off Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music Education award. “As far as I was concerned, I had the best of both worlds.” In an interview she added, “The voice is the original musical instrument and sometimes we forget that. Learning how to do the scales, learning how to do the arpeggios, learning how to read music...all of these things make good jazz.” 

She has collaborated and performed with Red Tyler, Peter "Chuck" Badie, Victor Goines, George French, Ellis Marsalis, Emile Vinnette, Larry Siebert, and David Torkanowsky, along with their band Germaine Bazzle & Friends.She sang regularly with the Saint Louis Catholic Choir and The New World Ensemble. She has performed in New Orleans night clubs for over twenty years. She has recorded two albums of her own in 1996 and 2018 and has been credited as a collaborator on more than a dozen other albums between 1962 and 2016. 

Her voice is rich, full of quirks and surprises; she is truly an acquired taste. Her repertoire consists, for the most part, of classic tunes written by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, freshly interpreted and given new arrangements. In any standard number, she may imitate a bass, trumpet, saxophone and imaginary instruments. She will also add idiosyncrasies where they are least expected or veer off into scatting, always displaying an abundance of technique and flexibility and never singing the same song the same way. Bazzle radiates engaging warmth and an infectious joy when she sings. The music flows through her and she resonates with it. 

Germaine Bazzle’s unique talent and unparalleled artistry as a vocalist is perhaps one of New Orleans’ best kept secrets. Her command of tone and melody coupled with her brilliance in the manipulation of her own vocal timbre are nothing short of spectacular. Still performing today, she is a frequent headliner with her own backup band at Snug Harbor in the heart of the Frenchmen Street. Even as she turns 92. Bazzle shows no sign of letting up, and the physical energy she emits from the stage is still there in full force. 

In an interview given in 2022, Bazzle acknowledged that if she had cut more records and was willing to go on tour, she might have had a lucrative full-time career as a singer. However, touring held no interest for her. She was content to stay at home in her beloved New Orleans, doing what she enjoyed most, teaching and performing locally for her legion of appreciative fans. 

(Edited from Scalar.usc.edu, The French Quarterly Magazine, Where y’at Magazines & Wikipedia)