Bartholomew’s Belles - New Orleans R&B Women 1949-1957 CD

Bartholomew’s Belles - New Orleans R&B Women 1949-1957 CD

From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, the late Dave Bartholomew was without question New Orleans’s leading talent scout and hitmaker.
If Fats Domino had been Dave’s only protégé, he still would be regarded as a legend.
But Dave discovered, nurtured and produced dozens of Crescent City artists, and was THE man where such things were concerned.
Male artists and vocal groups were undoubtedly what Dave did best, but he also recorded some of New Orleans’ finest female vocalists of the era.
They were not as commercially successful as their male counterparts overall, but the quality of their records was every bit as good by comparison.
‘Bartholomew’s Belles’ collects every issued master (and a couple of originally unissued ones) by every female vocalist that Dave recorded for Imperial Records between 1949 and 1957.
The most famous of these is undoubtedly Jewel King who, but for a possessive husband, might have become the female Fats Domino in terms of success.
But there are also those gals whose recordings have gone on to become cult classics in more recent times, Rose Mitchell and Blanche Thomas for example.
Dave’s high standards of professionalism make every track here a winner in its own way.
Bartholomew’s Belles is truly vintage female R&B at its very best.