Leon Bibb

Charles Leon Arthello Bibb was born in Louisville, KY in 1922. Leon studied classical singing in New York City, and made his first theatre appearance, as a waiter, in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun (1946), starring Ethel Merman; he was heard and credited on the 1946 cast recording of the show. Bibb later turned toward folk music, and was heard on the 1954 album Hootenanny Tonight!, issued by Folkways Records. Leon Bibb became one of the more prominent African-American folk singers of the 1950s and early ’60s, and enjoyed a parallel career as an actor. He worked with Langston Hughes and other literary and political giants of the ’50s, and was blacklisted from many mainstream entertainment outlets. However, he successfully amassed major credits in the late ’50s, sometimes under the name Lee Charles. His late-’50’s credits include the Broadway production of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars. Following an acclaimed appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, he was signed to Vanguard Records through and recorded a brace of LPs. He managed to get a single release (a rarity for the label) of “Rocks and Gravel” b/w “Goodnight Irene.” By the early ’60s, Bibb was making records for Elektra, Columbia, and Liberty. His mid-’60s records included participation in the Verve Folkways double-LP set African-American Poetry Theatre: A Hand Is on the Gate. Bibb later moved to RCA-Victor, where highlights of his work included the album Foment, Ferment, Free . . . Free (1969). He emigrated to Canada in 1971, active in the decades that have followed, both with recording — and various theatrical productions. He has been especially associated with the musical Jacques Brel since the ’70s, and pops concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and participation in productions devoted to the history of African-American music and culture. In 2002, he and his son Eric Bibb, a major artist in his own right, released the duo album A Family Affair. He is a beloved Vancouver “institution”.