Stumbling upon a talent as imposing, magnetic, and seemingly unflawed as that of Jackie Paris prompts both exhilaration and unease.
A jazz singer whose career spanned the 1940s through the '70s, Paris seems to have been everywhere and nowhere - singing with jazz greats such as Charlie Parker, recording highly acclaimed albums, but constantly missing the career boat, often by a hair. He remained so obscure that he appeared, literally, to die before his time: One notable jazz dictionary says he died in 1977, though in fact he last performed in 2004, just before dying of cancer at 79.
Here's where the uneasiness begins: What heinous tale could lie behind his being so marginal for so long? Why would any music dictionary mistakenly kill him? An oversight? Or revenge?
