Elzadie Robinson


Elzadie Robinson was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She recorded 34 songs between 1926 and 1929. Unusually for the time, she composed or co-composed most of her work. Details of her life outside the recording studio are sketchy.
AllMusic noted that "Robinson was a second-level blues singer whose voice seemed to get stronger with time".

Biography

The music researchers Bob Eagle and Eric S. LeBlanc suggest that she was born Elzadie Wallace in Logansport, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, in 1897, but 1900 is also possible.
She relocated to Chicago to make her recordings and remained in the city for some while thereafter. Her recordings were made between 1926 and 1929. Robinson had different piano accompanists over that period, including Bob Call and her most regular accompanist, William Ezell. Songs most associated with them are "Barrelhouse Man", "Sawmill Blues" and the Ezell-penned number, "Arkansas Mill Blues", which related the grim reality of lumber camp work and conditions. Robinson chiefly recorded for Paramount Records but also cut several sides for Broadway Records using the alias Bernice Drake. On two of her recordings, the pianist Bob Call or the guitarist Johnny St. Cyr replaced Ezell, and on two occasions in 1926, B. T. Wingfield or Shirley Clay played the cornet, with either Tiny Parham or Richard M. Jones on the piano. In 1928, she was backed by the clarinetist Johnny Dodds, the guitarist Blind Blake and either the pianist Jimmy Blythe or Jimmy Bertrand on xylophone.
To add to the variation, two of her sides were released under the name of Blanche Johnson, another pseudonym.
Little is known of her life after her recording career ended. She is thought to have married Perry Henderson in Flint, Michigan, in 1928, and to have died there in 1975.
In 1994, Document Records issued two anthologies incorporating all of her known recorded work.
78 RPM Singles - Paramount Records
12417BARREL HOUSE MAN10/??/26
12417SAW MILL BLUES10/??/26
12420HOUSTON BOUND10/??/26
12420HUMMING BLUES09/??/26
12469BALTIMORE BLUES03/??/27
12469TROUBLED WITH THE BLUES03/??/27
12509BACK DOOR BLUES07/??/27
12509WHISKEY BLUES07/??/27
12544TICK TOCK BLUES10/??/27
12544HOUR BEHIND THE GUN10/??/27
12573SANTA CLAUS CRAVE11/??/27
12573ST LOUIS CYCLONE BLUES11/??/27
12627YOU AIN'T THE LAST MAN03/??/28
12627LOVE CRAZY BLUES03/??/28
12635PAY DAY DADDY BLUES04/??/28
12635ELIZALDE POLICY BLUES04/??/28
12573SANTA CLAUS CRAVE11/??/27
12573ST LOUIS CYCLONE BLUES11/??/27
12627YOU AIN'T THE LAST MAN03/??/28
12627LOVE CRAZY BLUES03/??/28
12635PAY DAY DADDY BLUES04/??/28
12635ELIZALDE POLICY BLUES04/??/28
12676MAD BLUES06/??/28
12676PLEADING MISERY BLUES06/??/28
12689WICKED DADDY07/??/28
12689IT'S TOO LATE NOW07/??/28
12701ARKANSAS MILL BLUES10/??/28
12701GOLD MANSION BLUES10/??/28
12724GOING SOUTH BLUES10/??/28
12724ROWDY MAN BLUES10/??/28
12745AUNSATISFIED BLUES10/??/28
12745BNEED MY LOVIN' - NEED MY DADDY10/??/28
12768ACHEATIN' DADDY03/??/29
12768BTHIS IS YOUR LAST NIGHT WITH ME03/??/29
12795MY PULLMAN PORTER MAN03/??/29
12795BI AIN'T GOT NOBODY03/??/29
12900ADRIVING ME SOUTH03/??/29
12900BPAST AND FUTURE BLUES03/??/29

78 RPM Singles - Broadway Records
5006As BERNICE DRAKEHUMMING BLUES09/??/26
5006As BERNICE DRAKEHOUSTON BOUND10/??/26
5037As BERNICE DRAKESAWMILL BLUES10/??/26
5037As BERNICE DRAKEBARREL HOUSE MAN10/??/26
5038As BERNICE DRAKEWHISKEY BLUES 07/??/27
5038As BERNICE DRAKEBACK DOOR BLUES 07/??/27