Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond by Kevin Edward Mooney

Abstract

Reviewed by: Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond by Kevin Edward Mooney Dave Oliphant Texas Jazz Singer: Louise Tobin in the Golden Age of Swing and Beyond. By Kevin Edward Mooney. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2021. Pp. 240. Illustrations, notes, references, index.) This book adds a significant new chapter to the history of Texans who contributed to the development of jazz. The stories of Black Texas women blues singers have been documented previously, but not the role of White Texas women blues or jazz singers. In fact, Louise Tobin, who was born in Aubrey, Texas, on Armistice Day, 1918, may be the only White female singer who sang both blues and jazz during the swing era. Tobin’s 1939 recordings with the Benny Goodman Orchestra place her on the scene in the heyday of the most popular form of America’s only native art form. Tobin’s rise from a small-town singer who performed at church and social functions to a star vocalist with one of the leading White big bands is another example of the seemingly unlikely part that Texas musicians have played in jazz history. Tobin’s personal story not only provides a glimpse into the opportunities for developing a natural talent in a small-town musical family through big-city night clubs and with a local stage band at what was then North Texas State Teachers College, but it also reveals the difficulties faced by women artists whose ambitions were, and still are, dependent on the men in their lives. Married young to Goodman’s trumpet star, Harry James, whose career also began in Texas, Tobin was not supported by her better-known husband, even as she herself helped him to gain prominence as a leader of his own big band by recommending that he hire Frank Sinatra as his vocalist. Following her divorce from James, who later married actress Betty Grable, Tobin devoted herself to their two sons, and after almost twenty years outside the music field, she began to sing in public again. In 1967, Tobin married clarinetist Peanuts Hucko, and the couple enjoyed decades of making music together, even though appearances became increasingly scarce as the popularity of swing music waned. Tobin outlived her second husband and at over one hundred years of age at this writing, is one of the last surviving participants in the big-band era. While Tobin was active in her early years, her sisters documented her career by saving materials related to her performances in Texas, New York, and on the road with swing bands. An archive of documents, recordings, correspondence, and other materials covering the period from 1925 to 2011 was later compiled by friends of Tobin and given to Texas A&M [End Page 213] University (TAMU)-Commerce. Author Kevin Mooney based this biography of Tobin on the Louise Tobin and Peanuts Hucko Jazz Collection at TAMU-Commerce and on personal interviews with the singer; he has made fascinating and enlightening use of both. The book includes an appendix of Tobin’s Camel Caravan Broadcast Performances with the Benny Goodman Orchestra from 1939, an appendix of “Louise Tobin Blues” (with a listing of lyric sources from 1923 to 1939), and a discography of recordings covering the period from 1939 to 1992, as well as a 2010 compilation of previously released and unreleased live recordings. On receiving an honorary doctorate from TAMU-Commerce, Tobin delivered a speech at its 2011 commencement. Her words are a moving testament to the passion that she and other swing-era musicians felt for the music that they performed: “If there is one thought I would like to tuck into your memory today it might be this. That no matter what you choose to do . . . do it with passion” (127). Dave Oliphant Cedar Park, Texas Copyright © 2021 The Texas State Historical Association