Helen Humes discusses the Basie band.

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Helen Humes discusses her start in music as a young woman.

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Helen Humes discusses her break from singing.

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Q: “You had such a young but sophisticated sound to your voice – [it was when you were] just in your early twenties or something when that was recorded, wasn’t it? And you had started recording even before that; you were recording when you were just fourteen years old, weren’t you? I think with James P. Johnson? What a way to start! How did it come about that you made a recording?”

A: “Well, you see now I didn’t know anything about any of those people. Like I used to play piano and sing, it's just … Ms. Beth Allie used to have a Sunday school and if you would go to her Sunday school, well, she would teach you any instrument you wanted to play. And that's how Joanna Jones and Dicky Will and all of them got their start, you know, we went to Ms. Beth Allie in Sunday school. So that's when I've decided I wanted to play trumpet and clarinet and then after I found out I didn't want to play them, well, then I just stuck with the piano. And she used to have marching bands and they used to play at different Louisville fairs and carnival and things, you know, that they'd have in Kentucky. And then at night, when they'd have the little dances, well then that's when I would play. I'd play the piano and then I'd sing. And this man, Mr. Sylvester Weaver, he was one of the blues guitarists. Well, he was somewhere and I'd sang and played and he called up Mr. Rockwell and told him to come to Louisville and wanted him to hear me. And when they came down, he brought him to our home and had me sit down and play and sing for Mr. Rockwell, and well, Mr. Rockwell was impressed and he asked my mother if she would bring me to St. Louis to make a record. And so my mother said well, yeah, she would bring me. And so, well, we went on and I don't know how long they kept the record before it was released, but anyway. Later he called my mother and wanted to know if I could go on the road and sing. And Mama told him, "Well, no." She said, "She said she's got to finish school and then after she finishes school, then she can make her own decisions." But, no, I went on back home and went on to school and then, right after I finished school, well, he had me come to New York and I made another session and then I came on back home.”