"Lena & Gabor" (1970)

At JazzWax, "Lena & Gabor" (1970), featuring Lena Horne, guitarist Gabor Szabo and Gary McFarland's arrangements. https://t.co/u1q3NgBsa4 pic.twitter.com/8kiHeIF7JT

— Marc Myers (@JazzWax) 11 de novembro de 2016

Lena Horne's Story, As Told By Her Daughter

Lena Horne, Hollywood's first glamorous black star — who was given few starring roles because of racial discrimination and blacklisting — died last Sunday in New York City. She was 92.

Photo: G. Paul Burnett/AP
Known for her signature song, "Stormy Weather," and her civil rights activism, Horne often lamented her exclusion from the ranks of leading stars because of the color of her skin. But her career, which spanned more than 60 years and consisted of mainly bit parts, ended on a high note: In 1981, she received a Tony Award for her one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.

Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley, and six grandchildren. In 1986, Buckley joined Terry Gross on Fresh Air to trace the Horne family's roots, from slavery in the Deep South to their move north, where they became one of the most prosperous and influential black families in Harlem — and then west to Hollywood, where Horne began performing on stage and screen. In the early 1940s, Horne became the first black performer signed to a long-term MGM contract. Prior to that, Buckley explains, roles for black actors in Hollywood were limited to domestic servants or jungle extras.

"She was Walter White and Paul Robeson's test case," explained Buckley. "She was a test case for the NAACP which had decided that they were going to change the image of Hollywood. ... That made her the enemy of a lot of black actors in Hollywood, who were very upset. They said, 'You're trying to take work away from us. There will be no more jungle movies. There will be no more old plantation movies. What are you trying to do?' And Paul Robeson said to her, 'These people aren't important. The people who matter are out there — the Pullman porters, those people. And they want to see a new image. And you have to do it.' "

Shortly after signing her contract, Horne screen-tested for her first film role: a maid. Immediately, her father, Teddy Horne — a notorious gambler who made his money in the 1921 Black Sox scandal — flew to Hollywood to talk with MGM's management. He said, 'I can afford to hire a maid for my daughter. She doesn't need to play a maid,' " said Buckley. "And they were bowled over by this. They'd never seen anything like Teddy Horne — or heard anything like that from a black man."

During her MGM contract, Horne performed in Panama Hattie, Stormy Weather and a number of MGM musicals, including Cabin in the Sky. Her scenes were often filmed separately, so that they could be completely cut out of movies screened in the South. "[In Words and Music] they would cut out 'The Lady Is a Tramp,' which she sang in it. They would just snip it out," said Buckley. "Take scissors and snip snip when it got south of the Mason-Dixon Line. She could never be in anything that furthered the plot or was a crucial moment in the movie."

Horne compensated, her daughter said, by building a hugely successful nightclub career. She headlined at clubs throughout the United States and Europe — and guest-starred frequently on TV. In Horne's one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, she openly discussed the discrimination she faced as a performer in Hollywood. The show ran for over a year, bringing Horne both critical acclaim and the Tony.

She then focused on her recording career. She released an album, We'll Be Together Again, in 1993 — and paired with Frank Sinatra for a recording of "Embraceable You." She received lifetime achievement awards from the Grammys and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — and was named to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2006.
This interview originally aired Nov. 25, 1986.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126805290&sc=nl&cc=jn-20100516

Thousands mourn jazz singer Lena Horne in NYC

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer Verena Dobnik, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Thousands of mourners were bidding a final farewell to jazz singer and actress Lena Horne in New York City on Friday. She was remembered at her funeral as a shy girl from Brooklyn who broke through decades of racism to emerge as a world-class entertainer and social leader. Horne died Sunday at age 92. Mourners at St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan included her granddaughter, actress Jenny Lumet, former Mayor David Dinkins and singer Chita Rivera.

Horne "was so many ideas existing all at the same time in the same space and they were all conflicting and they were all true," Lumet said."I've tried to sum her up and I can't sum her up; summing up really means it's over and I think that she's not over and that she's quite infinite."

Broadway star Audra McDonald stood over the casket and sang "Amazing Grace."

Horne's seductive voice dazzled the world for decades with tunes like "My Blue Heaven" and "Stormy Weather." She was among a handful of black actors and actresses to have a contract with a major Hollywood studio.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100514/ap_en_mu/us_lena_horne_funeral

Lena Horne Dies at 92....

Jazz singer and musical actress straddled worlds of Hollywood, Broadway and jazz

By Lee Mergner
Singer and musical actress Lena Horne died on Sunday night at the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was 92. Horne is survived by her daughter, Gail Lumet Buckley. Both her husband and son died in 1971.

Born Lena Mary Calhoun Horne in Brooklyn on June 30, 1917, Horne was raised in a middle-class yet tumultuous household. She got her start in show business as one of the light-skinned dancers at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem. Her talents as a singer however got her out of the chorus line and she was soon singing at Barney Josephson’s Café Society and other clubs in New York and later in Los Angeles. It was at the nightclub The Little Troc in Los Angeles that Horne attracted the attention of Hollywood people, who were drawn to her remarkable combination of stunning beauty and musical gifts.

Lena Horne album
Horne straddled the worlds of Hollywood and jazz for many years, but although she was the first black performer to be signed to a contract by a major Hollywood studio (MGM), she rarely got an opportunity for any major speaking roles. Instead she often appeared in the background or doing musical interludes. Her first appearance in an MGM movie was in “Panama Hattie” (1942), in which she sang “Just One of Those Things,” by Cole Porter. Horne went on to appear in over a dozen musicals during the ‘40s.

In the ensuing years, convinced that she had been underused and then later blacklisted by Hollywood, Horne had a very hot and cold relationship with film and television, making occasional appearances, but never becoming the screen star she (and many) knew that she could have been.

Her musical career continued apace. During a musical career spanning over five decades, Horne released over 30 albums for Capitol, RCA and other labels. Her last three recordings were made for the Blue Note label: We’ll Be Together Again (1994), An Evening with Lena Horne (1994) and Being Myself (1998). In a statement released by Blue Note Records, the longtime label head Bruce Lundvall said about Horne: "She was of the great jazz singers, right up there with Sarah and Ella. It was such an honor to have her on Blue Note to make her final recordings. She was a joy to work with."

Although not a pure jazz singer along the lines of Vaughan or Fitzgerald, Horne always considered herself a jazz artist. In many ways the quintessential cabaret and nightclub performer, she even won a Tony for her one-woman show.on Broadway. Throughout her life, Horne was an outspoken advocate for Civil Rights, not only commenting publicly about discrimination whenever she encountered it, but also making numerous appearances on behalf of the Civil Rights movement.

As reviewed and featured in a Hearing Voices column by Christopher Loudon, Horne was the subject of a recent biography by James Gavin, who also authored a biography on Chet Baker. In Stormy Weather, Gavin attempts to explain the bitterness underlying Horne’s professional and personal relationships, while documenting her sizable contribution to American culture in the 20th century.

Aljean Harmetz wrote a comprehensive and well-written obituary of Horne for the New York Times.
http://jazztimes.com/sections/news/articles/26063-lena-horne-dies-at-92