Lillie Delk Christian

It is difficult to obtain relevant information about Lillie Delk Christian because virtually every historian or music critic who has written about her felt it necessary to vent his personal bias while complaining about her voice and even ridiculing her for not sounding enough like an "authentic" jazz singer. Curiously, no such criticism seems to have been leveled at her light-skinned contemporaries Ruth Etting and Annette Hanshaw. All three sang in a comparable jazz-pop style, using feminine warmth and a sprinkling of sugar to infuse every melody with a friendly candor that ap...