Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jacintha Abisheganaden also known as Jacintha or Ja was born on October 3, 1957 in Singapore of Sri Lankan and Chinese parentage, her mother and played piano. Educated at Marymount Convent School, Raffles Institution and the National University of Singapore, where she graduated with an honor degree in English. She then went to America where she studied creative writing at Harvard University. She studied piano and voice from her early teens and also sang in the Singapore Youth Choir, where she met her future collaborator Dick Lee. Growing up she listened to vocal jazz and traditional pop, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Miriam Makeba, Barbra Streisand.
She first came to prominence in 1976 winning a local television talent contest, Talentime, singing jazz. Continuing this winning streak in 1981, Jacintha nabbed the Best Female Performer award for her role as Nurse Angamuthu in General Hospital at the Drama Festival. She has worked as arts reporter, an actress, as well as a vocalist recording her debut album Silence in 1983 and two years later released her second album and played a series of live jazz shows at The Saxophone.
In 2004, Jacintha performed her own cabaret jazz show, The Angina Monologues at the Old Parliament House, Singapore. Since her debut album she has recorded eleven albums, dedicated a few to Ben Webster, Julie London, Johnny Mercer and Hollywood, and has released a compilation album in 2008. Vocalist Jacintha Abisheganaden continues to perform, acting and recording.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ann Richards was born Margaret Ann Borden on October 1, 1935 in San Diego,California. She began taking singing lessons at ten and was self-taught on the piano. Appearing on the West Coast music scene in 1954, she had a short stint with Charlie Barnet’s band only to be later brought to the attention of Stan Kenton by songwriter Eddie Beal.
Richards was only with Kenton’s band for a few months in 1955 before the two were married. Kenton helped her secure a contract with Capitol Records and she was paired with conductor Brian Farnon and arranger Warren Baker for her 1958 debut album, I’m Shooting High. A duet album with Kenton, Two Much, was released in 1961.
The two separated in 1961 after she created scandal posed for the June 1961 issue of Playboy. She subsequently signed a contract with the Atco Records division of Atlantic Records. She released seven albums as a leader, two of them with Kenton. The cover of her 1961 album Ann, Man! was taken from the shoot. Vocalist Ann Richards committed suicide from a gunshot on April 1, 1982 in Hollywood, California, passing away at age 46.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Rio De Gregori was born on September 22, 1919 in Zurich, Switzerland. He began taking classical piano lessons at the age of seven and at fourteen he began buying records by Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians. Although his parents wanted to make him a classical pianist, his interest were leaning towards jazz.
Rio first played with Willie Mac Allen in 1939, then with James Boucher, The Lanigiros, Jo Grandjean and René Weiss during the early to mid Forties. He was with the big band of Fred Böhler until 1945 when he founded his own dance orchestra bringing with him some of the best Swiss jazz musicians, Stuff Combe, Bob Jaquillard, Jean Pierre Dupuis, Luc Hoffmann, Raoul Schmassmann and Kurt Weil. He also featured Glyn Paque as a guest soloist.
He disbanded his big band and worked in a trio setting or as a soloist. Performing in Ascona, Switzerland, he met vocalist Suzanne Doucet and composed and arranged for her. Moving to Munich, Germany De Gregori played under the name Rio Gregory and opened a nightclub.
Because of his harmonious flair De Gregori enjoyed an excellent reputation as a pianist recordings. As an arranger he was commissioned by Fred Böhler and other orchestral conductors. He recorded four albums as a leader over the course of his career. Pianist and vocalist Rio De Gregori passed away on May 22, 1987 in Munich, Germany.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Teddi King was born Theodora King on September 18, 1929 in Boston, Massachusetts. She won a singing competition hosted by Dinah Shore at Boston’s Tributary Theatre and later began performing in a touring revue involved with cheering up the military troops in the lull between the Second World War and the Korean conflict.
Improving her vocal and piano technique during this time, she first recorded with Nat Pierce in 1949, later recorded with the Beryl Booker Trio and three albums with several other small groups recorded between 1954 and 1955 for the Storyville label. She then toured with George Shearing for two years in the summer of 1952, and for a time was managed by George Wein. King went on to perform for a time in Las Vegas.
Teddi landed a contract with RCA and recorded three albums for the label, beginning with 1956’s Bidin’ My Time. She also had some minor chart success with the singles Mr. Wonderful, Married I Can Always Get and Say It Isn’t So. Her critically acclaimed 1959 album All the Kings’ Songs found her interpreting the signature songs of contemporary male singers like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.
In the 1960s, she opened the Playboy Club, where she often performed, however, after developing lupus, she managed to make a brief comeback with a 1977 album featuring Dave McKenna. She recorded two more albums for Audiophile that were released posthumously. She also recorded for the Coral, Inner City and Flare labels as well as having a compilation released on the Baldwin Street Music label. Jazz and pop standard vocalist Teddi King, who was influenced by Lee Wiley, Mildred Bailey and Mabel Mercer, passed away from lupus on November 18, 1977.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Elaine Delmar was born Elaine Hutchinson in Harpenden, Hertfordshireon, England on September 13, 1939 to jazz trumpeter Leslie “Jiver” Hutchinson. Educated at Rhodes Avenue and Trinity Grammar schools inWood Green. She studied piano between the ages of six and eleven, reaching Grade VII of the Associated Board examinations.
She made her first broadcast at the age of thirteen playing piano on the Children’s Hour, aged 13, and later sang with her father’s band at American bases. In 1952/1953, Elaine appeared in Finian’s Rainbow in Liverpool. She sang with Coleridge Goode’s group The Dominoes for a month in Germany in the mid-1950s before going solo.
Delmar performed in clubs and on overseas tours over the next several years and appeared in the Ken Russell film Mahler in 1974. During 2010 she was a featured singer with Wynton Marsalis’s Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. In 2012 she performed on the P & O Cruise liners, has appeared in several theatrical productions and performs sporadically.
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