Editing Lizzie Miles

{{Short description|Afro-Creole blues singer (1895–1963)}}
{{for|the American Olympic rower|Liz Miles}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name        = Lizzie Miles
| image       = Portrait of Lizzie Miles LCCN2004663330.jpg
| caption     = Lizzie Miles (1957)
| alias       = [[Miss Frankie]] (possibly)
| background  = solo_singer
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1895|3|31}}
| birth_place = [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, United States
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1963|3|17|1895|3|31}}
| death_place = [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, United States
| occupation  = Singer
| genre       = [[Blues]]
}}
'''Elizabeth Mary Landreaux''' (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963),<ref name="amg"/> known by the stage name '''Lizzie Miles''', was an Afro-[[Creole of color|Creole]] [[blues]] singer in the [[United States]].<ref name="Trail"/>

==Biography==
Miles was born in the [[Faubourg Marigny]] neighborhood of [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, in an Afro-Creole Kouri-Vini ([[Louisiana Creole]]) speaking family. As a child, she sang in her [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] church and performed at parties and dances. She worked with [[King Oliver|Joe Oliver]], [[Kid Ory]], [[Bunk Johnson]], and [[Armand J. Piron|A.J. Piron]] from 1909 to 1911. She then toured the South, performing in theaters, circuses, and with minstrel shows owned/managed by J. Augustus Jones, Elmer H. Jones and their family. In 1917 she sang in Chicago with [[Manuel Manetta]], and then, in 1921 with [[Freddie Keppard]], [[Charlie Elgar]], and again with Oliver.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd Ed.|last=Kernfeld|first=Barry|publisher=Macmillan|year=1988|location=London|pages=759}}</ref> She moved to New York and made her first [[phonograph]] [[sound recording and reproduction|recordings]] in 1922. They were blues songs, but she did not like to be referred to as a blues singer since she sang a wide repertoire. She also worked at Dashy's Inn Golf Club as a soloist.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Griffiths |first=David |title=Hot jazz: from Harlem to Storyville |date=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-3415-6 |series=Studies in jazz |location=Lanham, Md}}</ref>

Miles toured Europe in 1924 and 1925 and then returned to New York and worked in clubs from 1926 to 1931. During this time she worked with her half-brother, [[Herb Morand]]. Miles recorded as leader of a trio with Oliver, and in a duo with [[Jelly Roll Morton]]. There is uncertainty in that some sources suggest that several of the [[Miss Frankie]] recordings were the work of Lizzie Miles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.honkingduck.com/discography/artist/miss_frankie_lizzy_miles_|title=Miss Frankie ( Lizzy Miles ) : A Discography|website=Honkingduck.com|accessdate=June 2, 2018}}</ref> This particularly applies to the tracks "When You Get Tired of Your New Sweetie",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/talkingmachinewo24bill/talkingmachinewo24bill_djvu.txt|format=TXT|title=Full text of "Talking Machine World (Jan–Jun 1928)"|website=Archive.org|accessdate=June 2, 2018}}</ref> and "Shooting Star Blues", issued on [[Conqueror Records]] (January 1928).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.honkingduck.com/discography/artist/miss_frankie_._lmiles_|title=Miss Frankie ( . Lmiles ) : A Discography|website=Honkingduck.com|accessdate=June 1, 2018}}</ref>

She suffered a serious illness and retired from the [[music industry]] in the 1930s,<ref name="Trail"/> not before she recorded "My Man o' War", described by one [[music journalism|music journalist]] as "a composition stuffed with rococo suggestiveness".<ref name="russell"/> Despite her illness, Miles appeared in two films in the early 1930s. She began working regularly again in 1935, performing with [[Paul Barbarin]] at the [[Strollers Club]] in New York.<ref name=":0" /> She sang with [[Fats Waller]] in 1938 and then worked in Chicago until she left music in 1942.

In 1950, Miles lived in California where she sang with [[George Lewis (clarinetist)|George Lewis]] in 1953 and 1954. She performed and spent time with [[Bob Scobey]] in [[Las Vegas|Las Vegas, Nevada]], from 1955 to 1957. She sang with [[Joe Darensbourg]] in Chicago in 1958 and 1959. She returned to New Orleans, where she appeared with [[Freddie Kohlman]] and Paul Barbarin. She recorded with several [[Dixieland]] and [[traditional jazz]] bands, appeared at the [[Monterey Jazz Festival]] in 1958, and made regular radio broadcasts before retiring in 1959.

In 1959 she quit singing, except for [[gospel music]]. She began working closely with the [[Sisters of the Holy Family (Louisiana)|Sisters of the Holy Family]], an order of Black [[Religious sister|religious]] in the city, declaring that she had decided "to live the life of a nun".<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DrwDAAAAMBAJ&dq=lizzie+miles+%22of+a+nun%22&pg=PA62 |title=Jet |date=1963-04-04 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |language=en}}</ref> She died of a heart attack, in March 1963, at the sisters' [[Lafon Nursing Home]] in New Orleans<ref name="Dead"/> and was buried in the city at [[Saint Louis Cemetery#Saint Louis No. 3|Saint Louis Cemetery No. 3]].<ref>{{Cite magazine| author1=Lynn Abbott| author2=Doug Seroff| year=1992| title=Lizzie Miles–Her Forgotten Career in Circus Side-Show Minstrelsy| magazine=78 Quarterly| issue=7| url=http://www.dinosaurdiscs.com/library/78-quarterly| format=PDF| pages=57–70| access-date=June 8, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822014117/http://www.dinosaurdiscs.com/library/78-quarterly| archive-date=August 22, 2017| url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Woody Allen]] included her version of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" on the soundtrack of his 2013 film ''[[Blue Jasmine]]''.<ref name="bjs"/>

Her half-sister, [[Edna Hicks]], was also a blues singer.<ref name="Trail"/>

==Personal life==
She married August Pajaud<ref name="Room2010">{{Cite book|author=Adrian Room|title=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionarypseudo00room|url-access=limited|edition=fifth|date=July 1, 2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5763-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionarypseudo00room/page/n333 327]}}</ref> in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 9, 1912. The marriage certificate indicates that she was 19 [''sic''].<ref>Orleans Parish Marriage License, May 9, 1912 and Marriage Certificate, May 12, 1912 see "Louisiana, Parish Marriages, 1837–1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKJ4-TP3V : March 12, 2018), FHL microfilm 909,947.</ref>

She married John C. Miles, from whom she took her stage name, in Norfolk, Virginia in 1914.<ref>[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99D3-G4YC?cc=2185145&wc=3XCP-VZ9%3A1056306501%2C1056341401 United States Passport Applications, No. 485016 issued October 22, 1924  ] December 22, 2014, (M1490) Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925 > Roll 2655, 1924 Oct, certificate no 484850-485349 > image 236 of 763; citing NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration</ref>   He was a bandleader also working for the Jones brothers. J.C. Miles died of [[Spanish flu]] in Shreveport, Louisiana on October 19, 1918 while on tour<ref>Louisiana State Archives, Death Records, Vol. 35, No. 15383</ref> and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.<ref>Lynn Abbott; Doug Seroff (1992). "Lizzie Miles–Her Forgotten Career in Circus Side-Show Minstrelsy" 78 Quarterly. No. 7. p 67.</ref>

==Selected discography==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year of release
! Album title
! Label
|-
| 1956
| ''Hot Songs My Mother Taught Me''
| [[Cook Records]]
|-
| 1956
| ''Moans and Blues''
| Cook Records
|-
| 1956
| ''Torchy Lullabies My Mother Sang Me''
| Cook Records
|-
| 1956
| ''A Night In Old New Orleans''
| [[Capitol Records]]/[[Southland Records]]
|-
| 1957
| ''Bourbon Street''
| Verve Records
|-
| 1959
| ''Lizzie Miles With Tony Almerico's Dixieland Band''
|  Rondo Record Corporation
|}

=== Singles released in 1922 ===
The following singles were all released in 1922 by [[Okeh Records]]:<ref>{{Cite book|title=Black recording artists, 1877–1926 an annotated discography|last=Gibbs|first=Martin C.|publisher=McFarland & Co.|year=2013|location=Jefferson, N.C.}}</ref>

* "Wicked Blues"
* "Take It 'Cause It's All Yours" 
* "Lonesome Monday Morning Blues"
* "Please Don't Tickle Me, Babe"
* "He May Be Your Man, but He Comes to See Me Sometimes"
* "Muscle Shoals Blues"
* "She Walked Right Up and Took My Man"

==See also==
*[[Classic female blues]]
*[[Emerson Records]]
*[[Southland Records]]
*[[Circle Records]]
*[[List of classic female blues singers]]
*[[List of people from New Orleans, Louisiana|List of people from New Orleans]]

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="amg">{{AllMusic | class = artist | id = p9194 | tab = biography | label = Biography of Lizzie Miles | first = Scott | last = Yanow | accessdate = 23 April 2012 }}</ref>
<ref name="Trail">{{cite web |url=http://www.thebluestrail.com/artists/mus_lmi.htm |title=Lizzie Miles |publisher=Thebluestrail.com |accessdate=November 17, 2011}}</ref>
<ref name="russell">{{cite book
| first= Tony
| last= Russell
| year= 1997
| title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray
| publisher= [[Carlton Publishing Group|Carlton Books Limited]]
| location= [[Dubai]]
| page= 199
| isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}</ref>
<ref name="Dead">{{cite web|author=Doc Rock |url=http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1960.html |title=The 1960s |publisher=The Dead Rock Stars Club |accessdate=11 July 2014}}</ref>
<ref name="bjs">{{cite web|url=http://www.soundtrackmania.com/blue-jasmine-soundtrack-list.html |title=Blue Jasmine Soundtrack List |publisher=Soundtrackmania.com |accessdate=11 July 2014}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* [http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/?JsonSearchModel=%7B%22FiltersModel%22%3A%7B%22AppliedFilters%22%3A%7B%22Artist%22%3A%5B%22Lizzie%20Miles%22%5D%7D%2C%22AvailableContentTypes%22%3A%5B0%2C2%2C1%2C5%5D%2C%22ContentType%22%3A2%7D%2C%22PaginationModel%22%3A%7B%22ResultsPerPage%22%3A20%2C%22StartItemIndex%22%3A0%7D%2C%22Query%22%3A%22%5C%22lizzie%20miles%5C%22%22%2C%22SelectedView%22%3A0%2C%22SortingOption%22%3A0%2C%22SpellingSuggestionSearchRestricted%22%3Afalse%7D Discography] for Lizzie Miles at [[Smithsonian Folkways]]
* [https://syncopatedtimes.com/lizzie-miles-1895-1963/ Lizzie Miles (1895-1963)] Red Hot Jazz Archive
* {{Discogs artist|1517095}}
*{{IMDb name|id=nm1885326|name=Lizzie Miles}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Lizzie}}
[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:Classic female blues singers]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:American jazz singers]]
[[Category:Louisiana Creole people]]
[[Category:Blues musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Okeh Records artists]]
[[Category:Singers from Louisiana]]
[[Category:African-American Catholics]]
[[Category:Verve Records artists]]
[[Category:Capitol Records artists]]
[[Category:Southland Records artists]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American women singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American singers]]