Monette Moore

Who was Monette Moore?

Monette Moore was an American jazz and classic female blues singer.

Moore was raised in Kansas City. She taught herself piano in her teens, and worked as a theater pianist in Kansas City in the early 1920s. In 1923–24 she recorded with the Paramount Records label in New York City and Chicago, and relocated to New York City. In the 1920s she also worked in Chicago, Dallas and Oklahoma City. She played with Charlie Johnson's ensemble at Small's Paradise, and recorded with him in 1927–28. Her output from 1923–27 amounts to 44 tunes, some recorded under the name Susie Smith; her sidemen included Tommy Ladnier, Jimmy O'Bryant, Jimmy Blythe, Bob Fuller, Rex Stewart, Bubber Miley, and Elmer Snowden.

In the 1930s, Moore recorded with Fats Waller, filled in for Ethel Waters as an understudy, and sang with Zinky Cohn in Chicago in 1937. She performed at her own club, Monette's Place, in New York City in 1933. Around 1940 she sang in New York with Sidney Bechet and Sammy Price, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1942, where she performed often in nightclubs. She appeared in James P. Johnson's revue Sugar Hill and appeared in numerous films in minor roles. Moore recorded again in 1945-47. She played with the Young Men of New Orleans at Disneyland in 1961–62, and died of a heart attack that year.