Who's Elaine Leighton?

[Dmitry]

She was the drummer on Billie Holiday's 1954 Koln live recording.

That's the only time I remember seeing her name.

[brownie]

Elaine Leighton was the drummer with the Beryl Booker all-girl trio (Booker, Bonne Wetzel,

bass, and Leighton) that was part of the Jazz USA tour (with Billie Holiday, Buddy de Franco,

Red Norvo and others) that came to Europe in 1954. The tour was organised by Leonard

Feather. The Beryl Booker trio was being promoted by Feather at the time. Feather also had

the trio in his 'Cats vs. Chicks' session for MGM that opposed a Clark Terry-led 'Cats' group

(with Lucky Thompson, Tal Farlow, Kenny Clarke) to a Terry Pollard-led 'Chicks' group (with

Norma Carson, Mary Osborne and the Beryl Booker trio including Elaine Leighton).

Now let's have MGM reissue that album.

How about a Mosaic select of the Feather produced dates for MGM? An odd mix but with

some good sessions.

[mikeweil]

Part of the Cats vs. Chicks session was reissued as bonus tracks on the limited edition Verve Elite CD of Clark Terry's first EmArcy LP.

Some more tracks were on the multi LP boy set by Stash covering Women in jazz. Nice stuff. Always enjoyed listening to these.

[king ubu]

wasn't she on this one, too?

ubu

[mikeweil]

Yes, four tracks recorded during the same 1954 tour!

In Stockholm she accompanied Jimmy Raney and Gösta Theselius on four tracks.

Besides that, there are two tracks with Terry Pollard on the Stash Box I mentioned, and a Beryl Booker Trio LP on Cadence reissued on Discovery. All from 1953-54. Seems she married and raised children? Tasteful drummer, great swing with brushes.

Edited August 11, 2003 by mikeweil

[Christiern]

Here's a 1954 photo of drummer Elaine Leighton taken in Copenhagen, when she was with Beryl Booker's trio. She was having some beer and snaps (akvavit) while playing at a jam session I arranged. The trio was a part of the Jazz Club USA Leonard Feather tour that also featured Billie Holiday, Buddy DeFranco, and Red Norvo. I think this was also Red Mitchell's first trip to Europe.

I am also attaching a picture of Bonnie Wetzel, who was Beryl's bassist. These two ladies drank their snaps as if it were water--I still don't know how they managed to maintain their composure!

That's Elaine on the right...

Edited January 29, 2006 by Christiern