Lizzie Miles

Woody Allen included her version of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" on the soundtrack of his 2013 film Blue Jasmine.

In 1959 she quit singing, except for gospel music. She died of a heart attack, in March 1963, in New Orleans and was buried there in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 3.

She did come out of retirement for a while in the 1950s and recorded a few albums with the Bob Scobey band, and in 1958 she appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

In the 1930s she returned to New Orleans and retired.

Miles toured Europe in 1924 and 1925 and then returned to New York and worked in clubs from 1926 to 1931. During this time she worked with her half-brother, Herb Morand. Miles recorded as leader of a trio with Oliver, and in a duo with Jelly Roll Morton. There is uncertainty in that some sources suggest that several of the Miss Frankie recordings were the work of Lizzie Miles. This particularly applies to the tracks "When You Get Tired of Your New Sweetie", and "Shooting Star Blues", issued on Conqueror Records (January 1928).

The following singles were all released in 1922 by Okeh Records:

New Orleans-born blues singer Lizzie Miles began her career singing in her home town with a variety of jazz bands, including those of Bryan James Oliver (aka King Oliver) and Kid Ory. She also sang in what were known as "tent shows" in the American South, had an act in vaudeville and even joined a circus as a singer. She sang everything from pop to jazz to blues, and eventually left New Orleans for Chicago, which had a thriving blues scene, and sang at a variety of clubs and cabarets there. She left Chicago for New York City and even moved to Paris, France, for a while, but returned to New York. She had begun recording in 1921, first with Okeh Records and later with Victor, Columbia and Emerson.

She married John C. Miles, from whom she took her stage name, in Norfolk, Virginia in 1914. He was a bandleader also working for the Jones brothers. J.C. Miles died of Spanish flu in Shreveport, Louisiana on October 19, 1918 while on tour and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana.

She married August Pajaud in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 9, 1912. The marriage certificate indicates that she was 19 [sic].

Miles was born in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, in a afro-Creole Kouri-Vini (Louisiana Creole) speaking family. As a child, she sang in church and performed at parties and dances. She worked with Joe Oliver, Kid Ory, Bunk Johnson, and A.J. Piron from 1909 to 1911. She then toured the South, performing in theaters, circuses, and with minstrel shows owned/managed by J. Augustus Jones, Elmer H. Jones and their family. In 1917 she sang in Chicago with Manuel Manetta, and then, in 1921 with Freddie Keppard, Charlie Elgar, and again with Oliver. She moved to New York and made her first phonograph recordings in 1922. They were blues songs, but she did not like to be referred to as a blues singer since she sang a wide repertoire.

Elizabeth Mary Landreaux (March 31, 1895 – March 17, 1963), known by the stage name Lizzie Miles, was an afro-Creole blues singer.