About Peggy English
Artist Biography
There are many pseudonynms and stagenames in the music business, but only certain ones can be described as wince inducing. The process involves comparing the fake name with the artist in question's real name and then wallowing in the shallow waters of revelation.
Peggy Britten really stands for Peggy English--hah hah hah, and was anybody fooled by such shenanigans? The only people that it was important to fool were the record buyers at dime stores and department stores.
These individuals would have signed a contract, for example, regarding exclusive delivery of a new side by Peggy English, the repetitive and stratospheric "High High High Up in the Hills". If the song was popular, a competing store would also want to sell it, but would not be able to stock the English version due to the aforementioned contract. That would be where Peggy Britten came in. Or Harlem Hannah. Or Nora West. Or, well, better put a lock on the studio door before it gets too crowded. Of course, the crowding would be psychological, because these are all the same person: Peggy English.
She became Peggy Britten in order to record for Cameo in 1926, but was also being Jane Shaw for the Romeo label, a firm whose speciality was not surprisingly romantically obsessed notions such as "I'm in Love Again". Love implies some kind of commitment, a bond that might be strained were the Romeo to find out that a girl so "Gorgeous" was sneakily selling records in England under the names of Lillie Daltry and Nora West. Speaking of gorgeous, reports are that under any name, this vocalist looked pretty sweet.
The biography of record producer Joe Davis, who presided over her recording sessions in English, reports that "Davis certainly always had an eye for a good looking singer, and Peggy English has to be in the top listing."
As either Britten or English she most often used the fine pianist and songwriter Rube Bloom for sole accompaniment, the resulting efforts similar in texture and spirit to the recordings of jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald in tandem with pianists such as Ellis Larkin.
The Harmony label sprang for a more expensive session budget involving a combo called the University Six; perhaps the vocalist was more convincing in her project pitches in a new guise as the neutral Jane Gray. The resulting 1928 session are among the most interesting recordings of whatever you want to call her.
There are also sessions that feature the excellent early jazz guitarist Eddie Lang. Her final emergence seems to be in the early '30s, an almost total shift in persona and musical style that created Harlem Hannah, a Bluebird artist whose songs are co-written by one Peg English. Gee, who could that be? ~ Eugene Chadbourne
Genre
Jazz
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