Ada Brown

The artist credited with singing on what is considered the first recording of Kansas City jazz, "Evil Mama Blues" with the Bennie Moten band, was not one of the stockyard city's famed "blues shouters." Classified in the classic blues class, Ada Brown was an example of singers from this genre who had both the training and chops to sing on musical theater stages. This she did, beginning in the '30s, her second decade in the music business. She came from a Kansas City, KS, family in which musical creativity was strongly encouraged. Most notably there was her cousin, the noted rag...