Humes began occasionally playing the piano in a small and locally traveling dance band, the Dandies.

[8] At the age of 14, Humes recorded in St. Louis in April 1927, singing four blues songs, though only two of the sides were ever issued.

[9] Despite this introduction to the music world, Humes did not make another record for another ten years, during which she completed her high school degree, took finance courses, and worked at a bank, as a waitress, and as a secretary for her father.

"[5] Not long after this encounter, Humes moved in 1937 to New York City, where John Hammond, a talent scout and producer, heard her singing with Sears's band at the Renaissance Club.

In March 1938, Hammond persuaded Humes to join Count Basie's Orchestra, where she stayed for four years.

[6] Her vocals with Basie's band included "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "Moonlight Serenade".

On December 24, 1939, Humes performed with the Count Basie Orchestra, and James P. Johnson, at the second From Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall, produced by John Hammond.

In a 1973 oral history, she described life on tour: I used to pretend I was asleep on the Basie bus, so the boys wouldn't think I was hearing their rough talk.

[11] While home again in Louisville in 1942, Humes was called by John Hammond and invited to sing at Café Society in New York.

During that year, she also performed at the Three Deuces, at the Famous Door with Benny Carter (February), at the Village Vanguard with Eddie Heywood, and on tour with a big band led by the trombonist Ernie Fields.

She recorded her most popular songs, two jump blues tunes, "Be-Baba-Leba" R&B #3 (Philo, 1945) and "Million Dollar Secret" R&B #6 (Modern, 1950).

[2] There was some controversy surrounding the single Be-Baba-Leba" because it had been recorded first by singer Tina Dixon who held the initial copyright.

From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s she made a few recordings, working with different bands and vocalists, including Nat King Cole, but was not nearly as active as she had been.

[17] Humes's vocal range was from G3 to C5, as she stated in a letter to the arranger Buck Clayton in preparation for a European tour, along with a list of her preferred songs.

[18] She was compared to Ethel Waters and Mildred Bailey from early in her career and was often recorded singing the blues after her association with Basie.

[18]Reviews in The Washington Post of her last performances, in Maryland in 1978 and Washington, D.C., in 1980, described her as "beaming and genial at 65" (in 1978) and gave insight into her versatile vocals: "her characteristically light voice [turning] rough as she belted out…'You Can Take My Man But You Can't Keep Him Long'."