Music like Helen Humes

Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 – September 9, 1981) was an American jazz and blues singer.

Humes was a teenage blues singer, a vocalist with Count Basie's band, a saucy R&B diva, and a mature interpreter of the classic popular song. Along with other well-known jazz singers of the swing era, Humes helped to shape and define the sound of vocal swing music.

She was born on June 23, 1913, in Louisville, Kentucky, to Emma Johnson and John Henry Humes. She grew up as an only child. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was the first black attorney in town. In an interview, Humes recalled her parents singing to each other around the house and in a church choir.

Humes was introduced to music in the church, singing in the choir and getting piano and organ lessons given at Sunday school by Bessie Allen, who taught music to any child who wanted to learn. Humes began occasionally playing the piano in a small and locally traveling dance band, the Dandies. This constant involvement in music would lead to her singing career in the mid-1920s.