Born into poverty in St. Louis, dancer and singer Josephine Baker
progressed from vaudeville to New York theater to the Parisian cabaret
scene and became the toast of Europe before the age of 21. Though her
later career wasn't quite able to handle such an early peak, Baker spent
much of her life working tirelessly against prejudice, during World War
II in Europe and the civil rights era in America. She's still one of
the most famous expatriates in American history, perfectly epitomizing
the hedonistic abandon of the Jazz Age in Paris.
Born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, Baker spent a
hardscrabble childhood in the slums of St. Louis. After a successful
audition at a local vaudeville theater, she left home at the age of 13,
waitressing most of the time and working on the stage whenever she could
get there. By 1920, she was married and divorced and married again --
the second time to Willie Baker, from whom she took the name she used on
stage. Baker finally caught her big break one year later while dancing
in the chorus for Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake's all-black revue Shuffle
Along. A frenetic dancer and relentless on-stage clown, she quickly
attracted notice and was tapped for a bigger part in another
Sissle/Blake production, 1924's Chocolate Dandies. The show made her a
star in New York and she became big in Harlem as well with performances
at The Cotton Club and The Plantation Club, among others. In 1925, she
moved to Paris with the American production La Revue Nègre. Baker's
exotic dancing, uninhibited sexuality, and negligible attire -- which
included a skirt of feathers -- suited the Continent much more than
America, and she became an overnight sensation. Soon, she'd opened her
own club (Chez Josephine) and starred in her first movie, the naturally
exotic 1927 film La Sirene des Tropiques.
During the early '30s, Josephine Baker made her first studio recordings,
though her extroverted on-stage personality froze slightly with an
audience of engineers. She starred in two more films, Zou Zou and
Princess Tam-Tam, before returning to America in 1936 to star in
Ziegfeld's Follies with Bob Hope and Fanny Brice. The act floundered,
however, as Baker was subjected to a double dose of discrimination;
cultural conservatives railed against the show's promiscuity, while many
hotels and restaurants refused entrance to the star of the show. When
Brice fell ill, temporarily halting the revue, Baker broke her contract
and fled to Paris. There she became a naturalized French citizen after
marrying the sugar magnate Jean Lion, though his status as a French Jew
exposed the couple to additional discrimination when the Nazis invaded
two years later.
Perhaps more eager than most to prevent the oppressive Nazi regime
sweeping Europe, Baker joined the French Resistance at an early date and
worked throughout World War II to help the Allies. Besides acting as a
funnel to get important documents out of France several times, she
worked as a sub-lieutenant in the French Air Force's Women's Auxiliary,
volunteered for the Red Cross to assist Belgian refugees streaming into
France, and undoubtedly boosted troop morale by performing across
Northern Africa. After the war, Baker earned several commendations
(including the Medal of Resistance and the Cross of the Legion of Honor)
and married yet again, to a bandleader named Jo Bouillon. Her return to
active entertainment was a bit of a struggle, though, and she worked
the cabaret circuit in Paris for several years before performing in Cuba
and returning to America yet again. During the early '50s, Baker's
fight to spread the gospel of civil rights made headlines when she
performed to integrated audiences at a nightclub in Miami and canceled
an Atlanta performance after being refused admission to a hotel. She
also drew attention making waves in the notoriously segregated
entertainment mecca of Las Vegas before mounting a worldwide farewell
tour during the early '50s.
Though she was back on-stage by 1959, Josephine Baker spent much of the
late '50s and early '60s raising her adopted children, an ethnically
diverse clan of a dozen children she named "the rainbow tribe." (In
fact, her continual returns to performance during the era were in part a
response to the financial burdens of raising so many children.) She
participated in the 1963 civil rights march on Washington and gave a
series of four concerts at Carnegie Hall to raise funds for the cause.
After suffering a heart attack in 1964, however, her performance career
practically ended, except for a brief comeback just before her death
from a stroke in 1975. John Bush
Tracklist 1 :
1 La Petite Tonkinoise 2:41
Henri Christiné / Vincent Scotto
2 Voulez-Vous de la Canne À Sucre? 2:58
Leo Lelièvre / Henri Varna
3 Pardon Si Je T'Importune 2:45
Andy Bay / Marc Cab / Cesare Celani / Henri Varna
4 Dis-Moi Josephine? 3:09
Marc Cab / Henri Varna
5 Aux Iles Hawaii 2:52
Pascal Bastia
6 Madiana 3:03
Mairiotte Almaby
7 Mon Rêve C'Etait Vous 2:34
Andy Bay
8 Si J'Etais Blanche 2:38
Henri Varna
9 Les Mots d'Amour 2:53
Henri Varna
10 Ram-Pam-Pam 2:43
Alfredo de Vita
11 Sous le Ciel d'Afrique 3:18
Jacques Dallin / Andre DeBadet
12 Partir Sur un Bateau Blanc 3:01
S. Lewis
13 Doudou 3:17
Levi Loblack / Bruce Skerritt
14 Mayari 3:19
Andre DeBadet / Armando Oréfiche
15 La Conga Blicoti 3:04
Andre DeBadet / Armando Oréfiche
16 Mon Coeur Est un Oiseau des Îles 3:12
Georges Koger / Vincent Scotto / Henri Varna
17 Comme une Banque 3:15
Nacio Herb Brown
18 C'est un Nid Charmant (There's a Small Hotel) 2:25
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers
19 Sur Deux Notes 3:10
Paul Misraki
20 Bonsoir My Love 3:09
Mack Gordon / Henri Lemarchand / Harry Revel
21 J'Ai Deux Amours 3:07
Georges Koger / Vincent Scotto / Henri Varna
Tracklist 2 :
1 Who? 2:52
Otto Harbach / Oscar Hammerstein II / Jerome Kern
2 That Certain Feeling 3:01
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin
3 Dinah 3:00
Harry Akst / Sam M. Lewis / Joe Young
4 Sleepy Time Gal 3:01
Joseph Reed Alden / Raymond B. Egan / Ange Lorenzo / Richard A. Whiting
5 I Love My Baby 2:17
Bud Green / Harry Warren
6 Everybody Loves My Baby 2:30
Jack Palmer / Spencer Williams
7 Always 2:30
Irving Berlin
8 Pretty Little Baby 3:06
Josephine Baker / Ben Bernie / Sid Silvers
9 Afraid to Dream 3:07
Mack Gordon / Harry Revel
10 If You Were the Only Girl in the World 3:17
Spencer Williams
11 After I Say I'm Sorry 2:50
Walter Donaldson / Abe Lyman
12 Then I'll Be Happy 2:50
Nacio Herb Brown / Sidney Clare / Cliff Friend
13 Bye Bye Blackbird 2:53
Mort Dixon / Ray Henderson
14 Lonesome Lovesick Blues 2:52
Spencer Williams
15 Breezin' Along With the Breeze 2:55
Haven Gillespie / Seymour Simons / Richard A. Whiting
16 Hello Bluebird 2:59
Cliff Friend
17 Blue Skies 2:55
Irving Berlin
18 I'm Leaving for Alabamy 2:51
Tony Town
19 Suppose! 3:22
Bobby Dixon
20 Love Is a Dreamer 2:46
Sam H. Stept
21 King for a Day 3:07
Sam M. Lewis / Ted Fio Rito / Joe Young
22 My Fate Is in Your Hands 2:14
Andy Razaf / Fats Waller
23 Confessin' 2:46
Doc Daugherty / Al J. Neiburg / Ellis Reynolds
24 You're Driving Me Crazy 2:23
Walter Donaldson 
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