“If you’re looking for quiet, soothing music that will lull you to sleep, put a record on your phonograph and spend the evening at home. But if you want to hear singing that will make the blood pound in your pulse, listen to the brown bomber of sophisticated song at Mona’s Club 440. Her name is Gladys Bentley and she’s as gifted with the piano keys as with her vocal cords.”
That’s how San Francisco Life described Gladys Bentley, a transplant from Harlem, in 1943. Bentley had made a name for herself in the Harlem club scene in the 1920s and 30s. Openly gay, Bentley pushed the envelope both on stage and in the streets, where she donned men’s clothing (a white tux was her signature outfit), wore her hair short and closely cropped, and flirted with women bar patrons while tackling the piano.
Born in 1907, Gladys Bentley was the oldest of four siblings and grew up in Philadelphia, leaving for New York City before she reached twenty.
In 1929, Okeh Records signed Bentley and she recorded eight somber songs, about women done wrong by their man. In contrast, her live performances were bawdy instead of bluesy, with Bentley playing up her butchness and making the audience blush with her boldness. […]
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