{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Bea Booze | image = Wee Bea Booze.jpg | birth_name = Beatrice Booze | birth_date = {{birth date|1912|3|23|mf=y}} | birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|1986|11|11|1912|3|23|mf=y}} | death_place = Scottsville, New York, United States | genre = R&B, jazz | occupation = Singer, musician | instrument = Vocals, guitar | years_active = 1930s–1950s | label = Decca | past_member_of = Sammy Price, Andy Kirk }}
'''Bea Booze''' (March 23, 1912 – November 11, 1986), often credited as '''Wee Bea Booze''', was an American R&B and jazz singer most popular in the 1940s. She was one of the few female blues guitarists of that time.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/>
==Biography== She was born '''Beatrice Booze'''<ref name="Paulus">Paulus, George; Campbell, Robert; Pruter, Robert. [http://campber.people.clemson.edu/ebony.html Ebony, Chicago, Southern, and Harlem: The Mayo Williams Indies] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622191207/http://campber.people.clemson.edu/ebony.html |date=June 22, 2009 }} Retrieved September 22, 2014</ref> in Baltimore, the daughter of Phillip and Lydia Booze.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=1&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=beatrice&gsfn_x=XO&gsln=booze&gsln_x=XO&msbdy=1912&msddy=1986&cpxt=0&catBucket=rst&uidh=jq5&cp=0&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=38805522&db=1920usfedcen&indiv=1&ml_rpos=3 |website=Ancestry.com|title=1920 United States Federal Census, Baltimore Ward 17, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll T625_663|page=5B|quotation=Enumeration District 296; Image 145}}</ref> She made her name as a singer in Harlem, New York. Booze was signed by Decca Records to cover the songs and emulate the style of Lil Green<ref name="Harris">Harris, Sheldon (1994). ''Blues Who's Who'' (rev. ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. p. 61. {{ISBN|0-306-80155-8}}.</ref> and, under the guidance of Sammy Price, first recorded in 1942.<ref name="LarkinBlues">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Blues|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-673-1|page=48}}</ref> Her version of "See See Rider Blues", first recorded by Ma Rainey, reached number 1 on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart, after which she was billed as the "See See Rider Blues Girl". In addition to singing, she played guitar in performance and on many of her recordings.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/>
Later in the 1940s, Booze recorded as a jazz vocalist with the Andy Kirk band,<ref name="Harris" /> which featured the trumpeter Fats Navarro, and also with a jazz quartet that included the saxophonist George Kelly and the organist Larry Johnson.
She retired from the music industry in the early 1950s, and settled in Baltimore and later in Scottsville, New York, although she recorded with Sammy Price in 1962.<ref name="Harris" /> She died in Scottsville in 1986.<ref name="Paulus" />
==Confusion with Muriel Nichols== For reasons that remain undocumented, the producer J. Mayo Williams, who knew Booze from his time with Decca, released a version of "See See Rider" sung by Muriel Nichols for his Harlem label as number 1003 in 1945, credited to "Muriel (Bea Booze) Nichols". Nichols, born in Philadelphia in 1908, was a different singer, but this led to the false belief, reported in many sources, that Booze's real name was Muriel Nichols. However, Booze was listed in the 1920 US census as a seven-year-old child, born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 23, 1912.<ref name="Paulus" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p232582/biography|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic] *[http://www.honkingduck.com/discography/artist/bea_booze Discography] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booze, Bea}} Category:1912 births Category:1986 deaths Category:20th-century African-American women singers Category:American jazz singers Category:American women jazz singers Category:American rhythm and blues guitarists Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:Apollo Records artists Category:Decca Records artists Category:African-American guitarists Category:African-American women guitarists Category:20th-century American singers Category:20th-century American guitarists Category:20th-century American women singers Category:20th-century American women guitarists