Lucille Hegamin

Lucille Nelson Hegamin was one of the first African American women to record the blues, cutting 'The Jazz Me Blues' for Arto Records in November 1920, just months after Mamie Smith's pioneering 'Crazy Blues.' She was a polished vaudeville and cabaret performer whose recordings for Cameo, Arto, and other labels in the early 1920s demonstrated a sophisticated, jazz-influenced vocal style. She was a popular headliner on the Black vaudeville circuit and in Harlem nightclubs before retiring from music in the 1930s.