Born March 25, 1897, in
New Orleans, Louisiana. Her father was Capt. William B. Barrett, who she said fought for the North in the
Civil War. At age seven, she began to play the piano. In the early 1920s, Barrett joined
Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra. She was featured on the cover of
Glamour magazine, and written about in publications in the United States and Europe. She toured with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band domestically and internationally, including a stint at
Disneyland in 1963. Despite the popular exposure she received at concerts and overseas appearances, Barrett continued to feel most comfortable in her native New Orleans, especially the
French Quarter. In 1963, on her album
The Bell Gal and Her Dixieland Boys Music, Barrett sings on four of the eight songs and heads two overlapping groups. She is joined throughout by banjoist
Emanuel Sayles, bassist
Placide Adams, and drummer
Paul Barbarin; and four songs feature trumpeter
Alvin Alcorn, trombonist
Jim Robinson and clarinetist
Louis Cottrell Jr; the remaining four numbers have trumpeter
Don Albert, trombonist
Frog Joseph and clarinetist
Raymond Burke. Overall, this set gives listeners a good sampling of the sound of New Orleans jazz circa 1963, and is one of the few recordings of Barrett mostly without the regular members of what would become the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Robinson and Sayles excepted). The ensemble-oriented renditions of numbers such as "
Big Butter and Egg Man", "Bogalusa Strut" and "
Take Me Out to the Ball Game" are rendered with fun and joy. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band made a brief appearance in the 1965 film
The Cincinnati Kid, which featured Barrett as vocalist and pianist for the band and included a close-up of her. In 1967, she suffered a
stroke that paralyzed her left side, but she continued to work, occasionally recording. She played music until her death in 1983 at age 85. She died at
Metairie's Bonnabel Hospital. She was funeralized at St. Raymond Catholic Church in New Orleans. ==Discography==