Big Maybelle
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Born Mabel Louise Smith, the singer strolled off with top honors at a Memphis amateur contest at the precocious age of eight. Gospel music was an important element in Maybelles intense vocal style, but the church wasnt big enough to hold her talent. In 1936, she hooked up with Memphis bandleader Dave Clark; a few years later, Maybelle toured with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She debuted on wax with pianist Christine Chatmans combo on Decca in 1944, before signing with Cincinnatis King Records in 1947 for three singles of her own backed by trumpeter Hot Lips Pages band.
Producer Fred Mendelsohn discovered Smith in the Queen City, re-christened her Big Maybelle, and signed her to Columbias OKeh R&B subsidiary in 1952. Her first Okeh platter, the unusual Gabbin Blues (written by tunesmith Rose Marie McCoy and arranger Leroy Kirkland) swiftly hit, climbing to the upper reaches of the R&B charts. Way Back Home and My Country Man made it a 1953 hat trick for Maybelle and OKeh. In 1955, she cut a rendition of Whole Lot of Shakin Goin On a full two years before Louisiana piano pumper Jerry Lee Lewis got his hands and feet on it. Mendelsohn soon brought her over to Herman Lubinskys Savoy diskery, where her tender rendition of the pop chestnut Candy proved another solid R&B hit in 1956. Maybelle rocked harder than ever at Savoy, her Ring Dang Dilly, Thats a Pretty Good Love, and Tell Me Who benefiting from blistering backing by New Yorks top sessioneers. Her last Savoy date in 1959 reflected the changing trends in R&B; Howard Biggs stately arrangements encompassed four violins. Director Bert Stern immortalized her vivid lues-belting image in his documentary Jazz on a Summers Day, filmed in color at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
Maybelle persevered throughout the 60s, recording for Brunswick, Scepter (her Yesterdays Kisses found her coping admirably with the uptown soul sound), Chess, Rojac (source of 96 Tears), and other labels. But the good years were long gone when she slipped into a diabetic coma and passed away in a Cleveland hospital in 1972.
