Ida Cox (February 25, 1896 – November 10, 1967) was an African American singer and vaudeville
performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings. She was billed as "The Uncrowned
Queen of the Blues".
Cox was born in February, 1896 as Ida Prather in Toccoa, Habersham County, Georgia (Toccoa was in
Habersham County, not yet Stephens County at the time), the daughter of Lamax and Susie (Knight)
Prather, and grew up in Cedartown, Georgia, singing in the local African Methodist Church choir. She left
home to tour with traveling minstrel shows, often appearing in blackface into the 1910s; she married
fellow minstrel performer Adler Cox.
By 1920, she was appearing as a headline act at the 81 Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia; another headliner at
that time was Jelly Roll Morton.
After the success of Mamie Smith's pioneering 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues", record labels realized
there was a demand for recordings of race music. The classic female blues era had begun, and would
extend through the 1920s. From 1923 through to 1929, Cox made numerous recordings for Paramount
Records, and headlined touring companies, sometimes billed as the "Sepia Mae West", continuing into the
1930s. During the 1920s, she also managed Ida Cox and Her Raisin' Cain Company, her own vaudeville
troupe. At some point in her career, she played alongside Ibrahim Khalil, a Native American and one of
the several jazz musicians of that era who belonged from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
In the early 1930s "Baby Earl Palmer" entered show business as a tap dancer in Cox's Darktown Scandals Review.
In 1939 she appeared at Café Society Downtown, in New York's Greenwich Village, and participated in the historic Carnegie Hall concert, From
Spirituals to Swing. That year, she also resumed her recording career with a series of sessions for Vocalion Records and, in 1940, Okeh Records,
with groups that at various times included guitarist Charlie Christian, trumpeters Hot Lips Page and Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist J. C.
Higginbotham, and Lionel Hampton.
She had spent several years in retirement by 1960, when record producer Chris Albertson persuaded her to make one final recording, an album for
Riverside titled Blues For Rampart Street. Her accompanying group comprised Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, pianist Sammy Price, bassist Milt
Hinton, and drummer Jo Jones. The album featured her revisiting songs from her old repertoire, including "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues",
which found a new audience, including such singers as Nancy Harrow and Barbara Dane, who recorded their own versions. Cox referred to the
album as her "final statement," and, indeed, it was. She returned to live with her daughter in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she died of cancer in
1967.
"..the return of the authentic american bluesman."
Tennessee Whiskey / Shake Your Body Down / Blues /
https://www.facebook.com/...os/2269813453125723/
Give It To Me Baby ....Live! ...on the road! ..in a Juke-Joint.
https://youtu.be/cNEHEnK8h0k
Sex Machine / Purple Rain /How Do You Want It /
https://www.facebook.com/...os/2269860169787718/
ShadeTree Mechanic /
https://www.facebook.com/...eos/464964130955154/
LIVE VIDEO PERFORMANCE: 1
https://www.facebook.com/...os/2269813453125723/
LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO: 2
https://www.facebook.com/...os/2129813100449559/
My Love Is Real - The Billy Jones Band
https://youtu.be/ihTjGgbzlLg
"...the american bluesman is the original outlaw."
Outlaw's Reward - recorded Live!
..at the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
https://youtu.be/TZqCZsVWuwA
"...deep blues."
Biggest House In Town - The Billy Jones Band
https://youtu.be/r8PlSFDQCCk
coochie: ..the original hard drug.
Can't Let You Go - The Billy Jones Band
https://youtu.be/_c9zEJjDbOE
----------------------------------------------------
booking info: billyjonesbluez@aol.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
King Biscuit Blues Festival: Live Solo Performance - video: 3
https://www.facebook.com/...s/10215302541669442/
King Biscuit Blues Festival: Live Solo Performance - video: 4
https://www.facebook.com/...s/10215129948394718/
LISTEN TO OUR ENTIRE ONLINE CATALOGUE:
https://www.reverbnation.com/billyjonesbluez/songs
BIOGRAPHY:
The Billy Jones Story:
..the times and travels of an authentic american bluesman.
https://www.linkedin.com/...n-billy-jones-bluez/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/billy.j.bluez
https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheBillyJonesBand/postsLove and Wishes & Funky Blues Kisses for our friends at BluesWay.gr. ..thanks for believing in our music.
"..the return of the authentic american bluesman."
Tenness...See more