Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Julie London was born Gayle Peck in Santa Rosa, California on September 26, 1926 to a vaudeville song-and-dance team. At 14, her family moved to Los Angeles and shortly after she bean appearing in movies she graduated from the Hollywood Professional School in 1945.
The pin-up girl of WWII met and married the streetwise technique of actor Jack Webb in 1947, an unlikely union arising out of their love for jazz but only lasted until 1954. Becoming somewhat reclusive following the divorce she met jazz composer and musician Bobby Troup and although her career really took off in 1955, Julie had been singing in her teens long before she began acting.
London’s career began in 1955 with a live performance at the 881 Club in Los Angeles. Billboard named her the “Most Popular Female Vocalist” for 1955, 1956, and 1957 and she was the subject of a 1957 Life cover article in which she was quoted as saying, “It’s only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate.”
Julie London’s debut recordings were for the Bethlehem Record label but while shopping for the record deal, she recorded 4 tracks backed by Troup, “Don’t Worry About Me”, “Motherless Child”, “A Foggy Day” and “You’re Blasé”, that would later be included on the compilation albums “Bethlehem’s Girlfriends” in 1955. London’s most famous single, “Cry Me A River”, written by her high-school classmate Arthur Hamilton would become a million-seller after its release in December 1955. Throughout her singing career she recorded thirty-two albums with her last recording of “MY Funny Valentine” was produced for the soundtrack of the 1981 Burt Reynolds film Sharkey’s Machine.
She went on to have a prolific acting career on the stage, television and film that lasted 35 years concluding with the role of Dixie McCall on the tv series Emergency, executive produced by Jack Webb, and costarred her then husband Bobby Troup, a marriage that lasted until her death from poor health due to her long-term cigarette habit on October 18, 2000 in Encino, California at the age of 74.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Marlena Shaw was born Marlina Burgess on September 22, 1942 in New Rochelle, New York and was first introduced to music by her jazz trumpet player uncle Jimmy Burgess. She cites Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Al Hibbler and lots of gospel as her teaching tools.
In 1952, Burgess brought her on stage at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre to sing with him and his band. Shaw’s mother did not want her daughter to go on tour with her uncle at such a young age. Instead, she enrolled Shaw into the New York State Teachers College in Potsdam to study music. She later dropped out, got married, had five children but never gave up on her singing career.
Shaw began making appearances in jazz clubs whenever she could spare the time. This most notable of these appearances was in 1963 when she worked with jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee. That same year, she had an unsuccessful audition due to nervousness with Columbia Records but continued to play at small clubs in 1964 until 1966 when her career took off after landing a gig with the Playboy Club chain in Chicago. It was through this gig that she met with Chess Records, inked a deal, released her first two albums on their subsidiary Cadet and moved to Blue Note by 1972.
With the onset of disco in the 70s, she reinvented herself and recorded “Go Away Little Boy” and one of the era’s biggest hits remaking “Touch Me In The Morning” for Columbia. Her career has touched all forms of music even being sampled by hip-hop artists and commercials. Vocalist Marlena Shaw has continued to record, toured and consistently performing at club dates and festivals like the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jon Hendricks was born John Carl Hendricks on September 16, 1921 in Newark, Ohio and along with his 14 siblings moved around a lot until his A.M.E. pastor father settled in Toledo. As a teenager, Jon’s first interest was in the drums, but before long he was singing on the radio regularly with another Toledo native, pianist Art Tatum. Out of high school Jon served in the Army during WWII and after his discharge entered pre-law at the University of Toledo but stop at the graduate level because his G.I. benefits ran out. Charting a new course on the advice and encouragement given him by Charlie Parker, he moved to New York and began his singing career.
In 1957, he teamed with Dave Lambert and Annie Ross to form the legendary vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. With Jon as lyricist, the trio perfected the art of vocalese and took it around the world, earning them the designation of the “Number One Vocal Group in the World” for five years in a row from Melody Maker magazine. After six years the trio disbanded for solo careers but not before leaving behind a catalog of legendary recordings, most of which have never gone out of print.
Pursuing a solo career, Hendricks moved his young family to London, England in 1968, toured Europe and Africa, performed frequently on British television, and appeared in British and French films and his sold-out club dates drew fans such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Five years later the Hendricks settled in California, worked as the jazz critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and taught classes at California State University, Sonoma and the University of California, Berkeley.
Over the course of his career Hendricks wrote a stage piece about the history of jazz, “Evolution of the Blues” that ran an unprecedented five years at the Off-Broadway Theatre in San Francisco and another year in Los Angeles; and his television documentary, “Somewhere to Lay My Weary Head” received an Emmy, Iris and Peabody awards; has recorded several critically-acclaimed albums on his own, collaborated with his wife and daughters, with the Manhattan Transfer on 7 Grammy winning “Vocalese”, has served on the Kennedy Center Honors committee under Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton; has been appointed distinguished Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Toledo; selected as the first American jazz artist to lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Jon has toured worldwide with the “Four Brothers” comprised of Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy and Kevin Mahogany as well as working with his 15 member vocal group Vocalstra. Countless of singers and critics cite him as the one of the originators of vocalese and he has influenced just as many from Van Morrison and Al Jarreau to Bobby McFerrin and Georgie Fame. Time Magazine dubbed him the “James Joyce of Jive” while Leonard Feather called him the “Poet Laureate of Jazz”.
Vocalist Jon Hendricks endlessly performed, toured and recorded until he transitioned on November 22, 2017 in Manhattan, New York City, at age 96.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Melvin Howard Tormé was born on September 13, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois to Russian-Jewish parents whose surname was Torma but was changed to Torme as they came through Ellis Island. A child prodigy, his first professional engagement was singing “You’re Driving Me Crazy” with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra at the Blackhawk at age 4. Between 1933 and 1941, he acted in the network radio serials “The Romance of Helen Trent” and “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy”.
Mel wrote his first song at 13, and three years later, his first published song, “Lament to Love,” became a hit recording for Harry James. He played drums in Chicago’s Shakespeare Elementary School drum and bugle corps in his early teens. While a teenager, he sang, arranged, and played drums in a band led by Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers. His formal education ended in 1944 with his graduation from Chicago’s Hyde Park High School.
In 1943, Tormé made his movie debut in Sinatra’s first film, the musical “Higher and Higher” and an appearance in the 1947 film musical “Good News” made him a teen idol for a few years. He went on to sing and act in many films and television episodes throughout his career, even hosting his own television show in 1951–52.
In 1944 he formed one of the first jazz-influenced vocal groups, a quintet called “Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones.” They had several hits on his own and fronting Artie Shaw’s band and blazed a path that was later followed by the Hi-Lo’s, The Four Freshman and The Manhattan Transfer. A solo act by 1947, Mel hit New York’s Copacabana and a local disc jockey in the audience, Fred Robbins, gave him the nickname “The Velvet Fog” for his smooth vocals and high tenor, a name detested by Tormé.
Mel went on to have a long and prosperous career recording for Decca, Musicraft, Capitol and Bethlehem; worked with Marty Paich in the fifties; “Blue Moon” became his signature tune; helped pioneer cool jazz; in the 60s wrote songs and musical arrangements for Judy Garland; co-wrote “The Christmas Song” with Bob Wells; and weathered the drought of vocal jazz until fertile ground reappeared in the 70s, a period that for him, lasted nearly to the end of his life.
Mel Tormé, vocalist, drummer, actor, author, composer and arranger passed away after suffering a stroke on June 5, 1999.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Lorraine Feather was born Billie Lorraine Feather in Manhattan on September 10, 1948 to jazz writer Leonard and Jane, a big band singer. Named after her godmother Billie Holiday, she began using her middle name in grade school.
Lorraine began working in television as a lyricist in 1992 and has received seven Emmy nominations. Her lyrics for children include work for ABC, PBS, Disney and MGM films; with composer Mark Watters wrote for Jessye Norman’s 1996 Olympic performance, and with Larry Grossman composed for Julie Andrews.
Feather’s work has been heard on numerous records covered extensively by artists such as Phyllis Hyman, Kenny Rankin, Patti Austin, Diane Schuur and Cleo Laine. Many of her own solo projects have featured contemporary lyrics to formerly instrumental pieces written by Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and other pre-bop composers. Feather’s recordings have received glowing reviews in every major jazz magazine including Down Beat and Jazz Times.
Loraine has gone on to lyric theatrical work, musical and the American Opera Projects presented excerpts of her work. Her latest release, titled “Attachments” has her penning twelve new sets of lyrics with musicians such as Dave Grusin, Joey Calderazzo, Russell Ferrante, Shelly Berg and Eddie Arkin composing the music. She continues to write, record and perform.