Ida Cox

Happy Birthday, Ida Cox 1886-1967...Cox began her singing career in her local church in Toccoa, Georgia, leaving home in her teens to tour with traveling minstrel shows, often wearing blackface when she performed, eventually headlining at the 81 Theater in Atlanta, Georgia in 1920.

With the advent of Mamie Smith's groundbreaking recording of "Crazy Blues" in 1920, record companies realized there was a demand for "race records" and Ida Cox became part of the classic blues era of female blues singers who ruled in the 20's. From 1923-1929 she made numerous recordings for Paramount Records who heralded her as the Uncrowned Queen of the Blues. She wrote many of her own songs and headlined touring companies through the 30's, sometimes being billed as the "Sepia Mae West". She also headed and managed her own vaudeville troupe, Ida Cox and Her Raisin' Cain Company and Darktown Scandals which criss-crossed the country during the 20's and 30's.

In 1939 she began to perform regularly at Cafe Society in New York and was a member of the cast in the historic Carnegie Hall concert, From Spirituals to Swing which briefly revitalized her recording career. In the mid-40's she had a stroke and retired for awhile from show business. In the late 50's she began performing sporadically and in 1961 she recorded her last album, "Blues for Rampart Street" accompanied by the Coleman Hawkins quintet.