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Singer Germaine Bazzle is a modern jazz chanteuse [1]
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Date: 2025-03-28
On this day – March 28 – in 1932, Germaine Bazzle entered the world immersed in music.
The jazz singer, with a unique scat, was a natural performer, but teaching was her passion.
“Bazzle prioritized teaching above touring and recording,” states the University of Southern California’s “Evolution of Jazz Mentorship” digital project. “Although she has never performed beyond New Orleans or made albums, she is admirable both as an educator and a musician.”
As part of a musical 7th Ward family, Bazzle learned to play piano by ear and to play the bass as a child. At 12, she went to the Xavier Junior School of Music.
Singer Germaine Bazzle performing with the George French Band at Algiers River Fest. Credit: Derek Bridges / Creative Commons
A graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Bazzle taught at Washington High School in the early 1960s in Thibodaux. In the 1970s, she taught at Xavier Preparatory High School, retiring in 2008.
In a 2016 interview with jazz historian Monk Rowe, Bazzle said she taught her students that “music involves the entire being. It’s not just a spiritual thing. It’s not just a physical thing. It’s all of you.
“I’m told I’m a physical singer,” Bazzle added, “and they are right!”
Influenced by such musical greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Bazzle used scatting and movement to set herself apart while performing at New Orleans festivals, concerts and night clubs.
“For me to learn how to do what I do, especially with scatting, came from listening to instrumentalists more than vocalists,” Bazzle said. “Listening to instrumentalists (on recordings) and learning their solos and …then to be able to sing those solos while you are doing the dishes without the recording, that was the challenge.”
According to WWNO’s “Music Inside Out,” Bazzle has “devoted her life to the magic” of her mysterious embodiment on stage. “Ms. Bazzle is the city’s pre-eminent modern jazz chanteuse.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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