Ida Cox

Ida Cox stood among the leading classic blues vocalists of the 1920s, already appearing on theater stages by the age of fourteen. She entered the studio on a regular basis from 1923 through 1929, cutting material whose best-known examples remain “Wild Woman Don’t Have the Blues” and “Death Letter Blues.” Although recording opportunities largely vanished during the 1930s, she sustained live work and resurfaced prominently in 1939 at Cafe Society, in John Hammond’s Spirituals to Swing concert, and on several new discs. Ongoing tours ended when a stroke in 1944 forced retirement, yet she delivered one last distinguished session in 1961.

Cox left her birthplace of Toccoa, GA, while still a teenager and traveled the South in vaudeville and tent shows, appearing both as a singer and a comedienne. Early in the decade she worked with Jelly Roll Morton, though those ties had ended by the time she signed her first contract with Paramount in 1923. She remained with the label for six years, recording seventy-eight titles usually accompanied by Love Austin and trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. Additional sides appeared on other imprints, among them Silvertone, under the pseudonyms Velma Bradley, Kate Lewis, and Julia Powers.

Live performances continued through the 1930s even as studio work slowed, reaching a notable peak with her participation in John Hammond’s 1939 Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall. The event raised her profile especially within jazz circles. Afterward she recorded with Charlie Christian, Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, and Hot Lips Page. She joined various touring productions in the early 1940s until the 1944 stroke halted her career. Largely inactive during the 1950s, she was persuaded to make a final recording with Coleman Hawkins in 1961. Ida Cox died of cancer in 1967.