I don't have anything to add, but this has been an interesting thread...meaning I've learned some things from it..
As a little kid I listened to the late 40s early 50s records from my mother, who had worked in a record store in LA. After a classical and the rock and roll phase, I started listening to jazz again in high school in the late 50s when most of the players and singers were still around and recording. Billie Holiday had just come out with a big hit (Lover Man?). Also I remember Dina Washington and Sarah Vaughan. My girlfriend's father played in Nelson Riddle's orchestra, so he had all the Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and others who were backed by Riddle. This was all pretty easy dancing. It was a fun date to go over to Linda's, put on records in the den and dance. L's stepmother was a club singer, and of course a knock out, which pissed L off, if I was talking to her too much. They were very cool parents, and I never understood L's beef with them.
Meanwhile, at parties most kids were playing black r&b and rock... Me and L went to Nat Cole concert which packed the Hollywood Bowl...and he couldn't buy a house in Beverely Hills? About this time Nat King Cole had a brief tv show and had great guest musicians on. Of course it was cancelled. I had heard a couple of his late 40s records which have great little piano solos as a kid. He would sing, then break to just the piano and base. All these singers had great voices you wanted to imitate because they sounded so good.
Looking back it was a complicated world to figure out as a kid in terms of art and politics.
CG