Babs Gonzales
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Babs Gonzales (October 27, 1919 – January 23, 1980), born Lee Brown, was an American jazz vocalist of the bebop era most notable for penning the famous Dizzy Gillespie song "Oop-Pop-A-Da", which was originally recorded and performed by his own band, Three Bips and a Bop. Babs was also once the chauffeur for Errol Flynn.
Gonzales was born in Newark, NJ. He was known to be an exponent of vocalese, an example of this would be his version of the Charlie Parker bop standard "Ornithology". From 1950 to 1953, Gonzales was road manager and vocalist for the James Moody band and later gigged and recorded with musicians such as Jimmy Smith, Benny Green, Lenny Hambro and Johnny Griffin. Sonny Rollins also made his recording debut with Gonzales. He was also a Beat poet.
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Discography
Albums
- Voila (Hope, 1958)
- Tales of Manhattan: The Cool Philosophy of Babs Gonzales (Jaro, 1959)
- Live at Small's Paradise (Dauntless, 1963)
- The Expubident World of Babs "Speedy" Gonzales (Expubidence, 1968)
- Ghetto Funk and Street Poetry (Expubidence, Unknown date)
Compilations
- The Be-bop Story (Expubidence, Unknown date)
- Weird Lullaby (Blue Note, 1997)
See also
