Artist

Lil Greenwood

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Lil Greenwood might be most well known as a vocalist with <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Duke Ellington</a>'s band for a few years starting in the late '50s. She is featured on <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Ellington</a>'s album My People, but her career as a recording artist in her own right was highlighted by more R&B-oriented sides she did in the early '50s for Modern and Federal. Though she didn't have hits, Greenwood was one of many California-based singers in these years recording in a style intersecting jazz with blues and a bit of gospel, forming a dominant part of post-war R&B before that gave way to doo wop and rock & roll. Greenwood had a strong voice, but didn't get the material that could establish her as a star artist, though some bigger R&B names are heard as accompanists on those sessions, like <a href="spotify:artist:0QFOmSTku0zPMVoawXFCXX">Camille Howard</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3I521QcatBDtLN7SEE8RuO">Little Willie Littlefield</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:61VpPyyJn2bitby8tbafzT">Thurston Harris</a>, and members of <a href="spotify:artist:5PGt6fQNjLKhYYeGLWKWcM">the Johnny Otis Band</a>.

After her stint in <a href="spotify:artist:4F7Q5NV6h5TSwCainz8S5A">Ellington</a>'s band ended, Greenwood recorded sporadically for other labels like NRC, Reprise, and Tangerine, and made some appearance on TV series, including The Tonight Show, Good Times, and The Jeffersons. A compilation of her '50s R&B sides, Walking & Singing the Blues, came out on Ace in 2002. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

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