Results for "Vocalist"

Debby Moore

Born: May, 1928

Born in Lincolnville in 1928 as Emmaline Maultsby, Debbie attended Excelsior School and sang in the choir at Trinity Methodist Church, in St. Augustine. She went to New York as a teenager to seek her fame and fortune as a singer and at the suggestion of Louis Armstrong, she adopted the stage name, Debby Moore. In the course of her international career, she sang with Earl "Fatha" Hines, toured Asia representing the United States, made movies in Japan, and wrote songs. Some of her songs were recorded by Woody Herman and Louis Prima; others she sang herself on her 1959 record My Kind of Blues. When she returned to Saint Augustine in the 1970's there were no opportunities for a Black jazz performer and she found work as a waitress and later at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind

Jane Monheit

Born: November 3, 1977

Blessed with “a voice of phenomenal beauty” (Stephen Holden, New York Times), Jane Monheit has had plenty of milestone moments in establishing herself as one of today’s best and most important vocalist-musicians. With her new album, The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald—the first to be released on her own Emerald City Records—the Long Island native has surprised even herself with her artistic leap. Jane had thought about recording an Ella tribute for a long time. Fitzgerald’s beloved songbook albums held “Biblical” importance for her when she was growing up and have never lost their hold on her. On this new offering, Monheit pays joyous tribute to Ella while sharing a definitive portrait of herself, guided by her producer, arranger, and trumpet great, Nicholas Payton

Joni Mitchell

Born: November 7, 1943

Joni Mitchell as a musical artist, has been restlessly innovative, her music evolved from deeply personal folk styling into pop, jazz, avant-garde, and even world music, presaging the multicultural experimentation of the 1980s and 1990s by over a decade. Fiercely independent, her work steadfastly resisted the whims of both mainstream audiences and the male-dominated recording industry. While Mitchell's records never sold in the same numbers enjoyed by contemporaries, none experimented so recklessly with their artistic identities or so bravely explored territory outside of the accepted confines of pop music, resulting in a creative legacy which paved the way for performers in a broad range of genres to cover her songs. Born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort McLeod, Alberta, Canada, on November 7, 1943, she was stricken with polio at the age of nine; while recovering in a children's hospital, she began her performing career by singing to the other patients

Phil Minton

Born: November 2, 1940

When he was 15, Phil Minton started trumpet lessons in his home town and then, between 1959 and 1961 played with the Brian Waldron Quintet, the resident group at Torquay Town Hall supporting such acts as the Ted Heath Orchestra and B Bumble and the Stingers. On moving to London he played trumpet and sang with the Mike Westbrook Orchestra but in 1964 /65 undertook a residency in Los Palmas, Canary Islands, singing and playing trumpet with the English group Jonston Macphilbry. From 1966 he lived in Sweden for five years. On returning to London in 1971, Phil Minton re-joined Mike Westbrook and was involved in many of his projects up to 1990, touring extensively in Europe and playing at major festivals including Adelaide, Edinburgh, New York, Strasbourg and Berlin. In 1974 Phil Minton began working with experimental theatre groups such as Welfare State and IOU, formed the vocal group Voice with Maggie Nicols and Julie Tippetts in 1975, and from 1976 through the early 1980s he worked solo and in a number of improvising duos with Fred Frith, Roger Turner, Peter Brötzmann and with Günter Christmann's Vario project, touring extensively in Europe and to Russia, the USA and Australia

Mills Brothers

Active since: 1928

The Mills Brothers were a major African-American jazz and pop vocal group of the 20th century producing more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and garnered at least three dozen gold records. The Mills Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998 The group was originally composed of four brothers all born in Piqua, Ohio, just 25 miles north of Dayton: John Jr. (1911-1936) basso and guitarist, Herbert (1912-1989) tenor, Harry (1913-1982) baritone, and Donald (1915-1999) lead tenor. Their parents were John H. and Eathel Mills. Their father, John Sr., owned a barber shop and founded a barbershop quartet, called the '"Four Kings of Harmony"'. As the boys grew older, they began singing in the choir of the Cyrene African Methodist Episcopal Church and in the Park Avenue Baptist Church in Piqua

Lizzie Miles

Born: March 31, 1895

Lizzie Miles used her huge voice to create a sophisticated, urbane style that was more suited for settings like the Cotton Club in Harlem than the tent shows of the South. Miles began her career singing in front of New Orleans bands that included such noted jazz musicians as King Oliver and Kid Ory, though, in her youth, she had worked Southern vaudeville shows and even joined up with a circus. Born Elizabeth Landreaux, she was a light-skinned Creole who was born on Bourbon Street in New Orlean, LA. Eventually she left New Orleans and moved to Chicago, then to New York, Paris, and back again to New York, all the while working clubs and cabarets

Helen Merrill

Born: July 21, 1929

Helen Merrill was born on July 21, 1929, in New York City. She is a first generation American, her parents immigrated from what is now known as Croatia. She began singing as a teenager in the late 1940s. In 1951, she was a vocalist with the Earl Hines band. She recorded two songs on the Roost label in 1953, ‘My Funny Valentine’ and ‘The More I See You’, which mark the beginning of her long recording career. These recordings led to her being signed to a contract on the newly launched EmArcy label of Mercury Records. The first single released by EmArcy Records (EmArcy 16000) was by Helen Merrill

Carmen McRae

Born: April 8, 1920

Considered by jazz aficionados to be among the top ten female vocalists of all time, Carmen McRae's distinctive behind-the-beat phrasing, impeccable vocal control, and witty, sometimes acerbic way of conveying a lyric are what set her apart as a singularly great singer. She considered jazz great Billie Holiday to be a musical mentor. But this Queen of Cool had her own sound and style; including an amazing ability to scat. The versatile McRae could swing hard when it was called for; next she could draw out a ballad, savoring each note and syllable without losing audience attention, she was in a class by herself.

Bobby McFerrin

Born: March 11, 1950

Whatever Bobby McFerrin does, he breaks the mold – as a composer, arranger, and bandleader… as a conductor of symphony orchestras… and, of course, as a singer and improviser who expands our ideas of what music can be. He is that rare thing: a great entertainer and a groundbreaking artist, showing us that there are virtually no limits to what can be done with the human voice. For more than four decades, Bobby has broken all the rules – and made up a whole bunch of new ones.

A ten-time GRAMMY winner and a NEA Jazz Master, he has blurred the distinction between pop music and fine art – goofing around barefoot in the world’s august concert halls… exploring uncharted vocal territory… inspiring generations of a cappella singers and the beat box generation. 

Jimmy McCracklin

Born: August 13, 1921

A 1990-1991 Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award winner, Jimmy McCracklin will forever be known as one of the architects of the West Coast blues sound, and among certain audiences, one of its biggest stars. One of the most prolific R&B songwriters with over 40 albums to his credit, a fine pianist, and deeply moving vocalist, McCracklin is a consummate showman who still dazzles crowds with his huge revue band in the great tradition of classic Rhythm 'n' Blues. Jimmy was born in Helena, Arkansas in 1921, he moved to St. Louis where he learned piano from blues legend Walter Davis