I Can't Hear a Word You Say

Ruth Alston Brown ( nee Weston) Was born in 1928 in Portsmith Virginia where her father was a dock hand who led choir in the Baptist Church. Ruth was more interested in the great jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington and ran away from home at 17 to marry trumpeter Jimmy Brown! She began singing for Atlantic records, my favourite company, and had many hits for them causing some to say Atlantic was the House that Ruth built ( refers to Yankee Stadium being called the House that ( Babe) Ruth built!) She produced some 23 albums and won many awards, 1989 RnB Pioneer Award, 1992 Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame,1993 Rock and roll Hall of Fame, 1996 Gleason Award for Music Journalism, and posthumously 2013 Virginia Music Hall of Fame, 2016 Lifetime Grammy award and 2017 National RnB Hall of Fame. Her awards speak for themselves. She was still performing at 78 in 2006 when sadly she died of a heart attack following some surgery.A memorial service was held in the Abyssinian Baptist Church Harlem. Rest in Peace Ruth. here she performs a Lieber and Stoller song produced by Ahmed Ertegun the founder of Atlantic.