Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963), known by the stage name Lizzie Miles, was an Afro-Creole blues singer in the United States.
Miles toured Europe in 1924 and 1925 and then returned to New York and worked in clubs from 1926 to 1931. During this time she worked with her half-brother, Herb Morand. Miles recorded as leader of a trio with Oliver, and in a duo with Jelly Roll Morton. There is uncertainty in that some sources suggest that several of the Miss Frankie recordings were the work of Lizzie Miles. This particularly applies to the tracks "When You Get Tired of Your New Sweetie", and "Shooting Star Blues", issued on Conqueror Records (January 1928).
She suffered a serious illness and retired from the music industry in the 1930s, not before she recorded "My Man o' War", described by one music journalism as "a composition stuffed with rococo suggestiveness". Despite her illness, Miles appeared in two films in the early 1930s. She began working regularly again in 1935, performing with Paul Barbarin at the Strollers Club in New York. She sang with Fats Waller in 1938 and then worked in Chicago until she left music in 1942.
In 1950, Miles lived in California where she sang with George Lewis in 1953 and 1954. She performed and spent time with Bob Scobey in Las Vegas, from 1955 to 1957. She sang with Joe Darensbourg in Chicago in 1958 and 1959. She returned to New Orleans, where she appeared with Freddie Kohlman and Paul Barbarin. She recorded with several Dixieland and traditional jazz bands, appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, and made regular radio broadcasts before retiring in 1959.
In 1959 she quit singing, except for gospel music. She began working closely with the Sisters of the Holy Family, an order of Black Religious sister in the city, declaring that she had decided "to live the life of a nun". She died of a heart attack, in March 1963, at the sisters' Lafon Nursing Home in New Orleans and was buried in the city at Saint Louis Cemetery No. 3.
Woody Allen included her version of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" on the soundtrack of his 2013 film Blue Jasmine.
Her half-sister, Edna Hicks, was also a blues singer.
She married John C. Miles, from whom she took her stage name, in Norfolk, Virginia in 1914. United States Passport Applications, No. 485016 issued October 22, 1924 December 22, 2014, (M1490) Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925 > Roll 2655, 1924 Oct, certificate no 484850-485349 > image 236 of 763; citing NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration He was a bandleader also working for the Jones brothers. J.C. Miles died of Spanish flu in Shreveport, Louisiana on October 19, 1918 while on tourLouisiana State Archives, Death Records, Vol. 35, No. 15383 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.Lynn Abbott; Doug Seroff (1992). "Lizzie Miles–Her Forgotten Career in Circus Side-Show Minstrelsy" 78 Quarterly. No. 7. p 67.
1956 | Hot Songs My Mother Taught Me | Cook Records |
1956 | Moans and Blues | Cook Records |
1956 | Torchy Lullabies My Mother Sang Me | Cook Records |
1956 | A Night In Old New Orleans | Capitol Records/Southland Records |
1957 | Bourbon Street | Verve Records |
1959 | Lizzie Miles With Tony Almerico's Dixieland Band | Rondo Record Corporation |
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