Babs Gonzales born 27 October 1919

Gonzales was born Lee Brown in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He was raised solely by his mother Lottie Brown alongside two brothers. Of his nickname, Gonzales explained, "my brothers are basketball players... there was a basketball star in America named Big Babbiad, and so they were called Big Babs, Middle Babs, and I'm Little Babs." As a young man, Gonzales worked as band boy for swing bandleader Jimmie Lunceford, after which he relocated to Los Angeles. 

To circumvent racial segregation, Gonzales wore a turban and used the pseudonym Ram Singh, passing as an Indian national. Using this identity, Gonzales worked at the Los Angeles Country Club until becoming a private chauffeur to movie star Errol Flynn. Whilst hospitalized for appendicitis in 1944, he assumed the Spanish surname Gonzales so as to get a room in a good hotel. After the outbreak of World War II, Gonzales was forced to return home to Newark to report for military duty, but was declared unfit for service after arriving to his inspection dressed as a woman. 

After working with Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton's big bands, Gonzales moved to New York and became involved with the burgeoning sound of bebop, a style which initially confused him. "I didn't understand what Charlie Parker was playing," said Gonzales, "I did not understand anything about bebop until Dizzy,  who - showing me chords, explaining to me what the melodic lines were that he was playing - opened up the music to me." Despite being a trained pianist and drummer, Gonzales preferred to sing rather than play an instrument, stating that "it's easier to sing and, above all, it's less tiring. We don't sweat while playing and we always look handsome. Plus, a singer usually earns more money than an instrumentalist." 

Gonzales formed his own group, Babs' Three Bips and A Bop, releasing a number of 78rpm singles for Blue Note, Capitol, and Apollo labels in the late 1940s. Tadd Dameron, Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, Wynton Kelly, and Bennie Green were among the musicians who performed at these recording sessions. "I formed the Bips because I felt bebop needed a bridge to the people," said Gonzales, "The fire was there... but it wasn't reaching the people." 

The most notable of Babs' Three Bips and A Bop singles was "Oop-Pop-A-Da". Its prominent scat singing was credited with originating "an easy route to vocal improvisation which is still employed by jazz aspirants the world over." A cover version of "Oop-Pop-A-Da" later became a one of Dizzy Gillespie's first commercial successes. Gonzales himself rejected being labelled a "scat" singer, stating "I am a jazz singer. Scat is a technical way of interpreting a melody by paraphrasing it by means of onomatopoeia. The scat singers do not improvise. I do not stop improvising, like an instrumentalist; I improvise on the harmonic frame and use chords of passage." 

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins' debut recordings were made with Gonzales at a session for the Capitol label in 1949. From 1951, Gonzales began to travel regularly to Europe, and remained there for months at a time. Babs performed at Ronnie Scott's club in London as early as 1962, one of the first Americans to play the venue.Hes released a string of albums and singles throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but became only a cult figure, ultimately self-publishing his own recordings. As composer and arranger, Gonzales provided music for Bennie Green,  Johnny Griffin, James Clay and David "Fathead" Newman,  Paul Gonsalves and others. As a guest vocalist he appeared on releases by James Moody, Eddie Jefferson, Jimmy Smith, Bennie Green, Johnny Griffin, and Savoy Records supergroup The Bebop Boys, where he appeared alongside musicians such as Fats Navarro and Bud Powell. 

Babs in Paris 1957

Throughout this time Gonzales remained a behind-the-scenes influence in the jazz world, linking musicians to one other and introducing them recording to companies. From 1958, Gonzales operated a nightclub called Babs' Insane Asylum, located in Sugar Hill, New York at 155th Street and St. Nicholas Place. Gonzales attempted to open a similar club in Paris, named Le Maison Du Idiots, but lost access to his $10,000 investment after a general strike. 

Gonzales wrote and self-published two books, I Paid My Dues: Good Times... No Bread (1967) and Movin' on Down de Line (1975). The books were largely autobiographical but also featured short stories about the exploits of "shyster" agents, hustlers, pimps and prostitutes who were known to Gonzales Gonzales also printed a small "bebop dictionary". He personally sold these books at jazz concerts. 

Gonzales died of cancer at Newark's College Hospital, New Jersey, in January 1980. 

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Here’s a clip of Babs Gonzales on vocals, Rein de Graaff on piano, Luigi Trussardi on bass, Charles “LoLo” Belonzi on drums. Recorded in Paris during 1979. Songs include: Oop-pop-a-da, Round Midnight, La La in Paris and Cool Whalin’.