Jazz Artists
Nina Simone
1933 – 2003
American singer, songwriter, musician and civil rights activist Eunice Kathleen Waymon, is one of the most famous artists associated with jazz music. Known under the stage name Nina Simone, she originally aspired to be America’s first black classical concert pianist, but despite her incredible talent being obvious from a young age, social factors including poverty and racial discrimination made this seem unlikely.
Simone was originally denied a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia, a prestigious music school, which caused her to reconsider the realities of her goals. Realising she would have to fund her own music education, she turned to playing piano and singing in a small Philadelphia club. Her prodigious talent evidently shone through and before long Bethlehem Records offered her a deal. In 1958, Simone’s first single “I Love
Her distinctive low, expressive voice was perfectly suited to the jazz style, but she dabbled in a wide range of genres, including pop, motown, blues, gospel and R&B.
Simone used the public’s love for jazz culture and her music to draw attention to the civil rights movement and was regarded as inspirational to many struggling for equal rights, regardless of race.
Billie Holiday
1915 – 1959
Born Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday was one of the first artists to really bring the jazz sound to the mainstream and is regarded today as one of the most influential singers of all time. Certainly, the shape of pop music today, particularly the American pop scene, might have been a very different place altogether if it was not for the impact of her particular phrasing of lyrics.
Holiday is famed for her tragic life, which threatens to almost eclipse her talent. Born to a thirteen-year-old mother and an absent father, Holiday was a school drop-out who was the victim of sexual abuse. She worked as a prostitute for a time and it was in the brothel where she first heard the music of legends such as Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, which became huge influences on her.
During a raid on a brothel, Holiday was imprisoned and sent to a workhouse and it was after her release that she started singing professionally, aged just 14. Before long, Holiday had gained critical acclaim and public success with a string of hit records.
She is perhaps best known for her version of ‘Strange Fruit’, a musical version of a protest poem that was written against the lynching of African Americans.
After years of heroin addiction, Holiday died in hospital with police officers guarding her door, after being arrested for drug possession.The cause of death of cirrhosis of the liver. She was just 44 years old.
Sarah Vaughn
1924 – 1990
As many of the great jazz artists of the era, Sarah Vaughn’s early exposure to music came through church. Her father was a committedBaptist Christian and from the age of 7, Vaughn was taking piano lessons, singing in the choir and sometimes playing piano during church services.
By the time Vaughn was a teenager, the Newark area of New Jersey where the family lived had a lively music scene and despite being underage she often would go to bars and clubs, in order to perform, playing the piano and singing. After winning a singing competition, she was talent-spotted and awarded the honour of opening for Ella Fitzgerald.
After considerable success and continuing to perform live into the 1980s, she was eventually inducted into the American Jazz Hall of fame in 1988. However, by 1989 she had contracted lung cancer and had to cancel her final string of engagements. She died in 1990, aged 66.
Although regarded as one of the all-time great jazz singers, Vaughn often commented that she did not see herself as strictly a jazz performer and that vocal style was more than being simply “all about jazz”.
Peggy Lee
1920 – 2002
Born Norma Deloris Egstrom, Peggy Lee is one of the most enduring and well-loved of the great jazz singers and is cited as an influence by a wide range of modern performers. She was originally hired as a radio singer for a local station and was given food in lieu of wages, but before long she had signed a record deal.
As well as being equipped with a unique and powerful voice, Lee was a proficient songwriter, who wrote a bounty of classics. She is, however, probably best known for her hit ‘Fever’ which she did not write, but became her signature tune. Lee also wrote songs for the animated Disney classic ‘Lady and the Tramp’ as well as voicing several of the characters, including the softly spoken ‘Darling’.
Although she continued to perform well into the 1990s, her health began to deteriorate and in 2002 Lee died of a heart attack and through complications brought about by diabetes.
Ella Fitzgerald
1917 – 1996
Given the nickname ‘The First Lady of Song’, Ella Fitzgerald remains one of the most celebrated icons of the American jazz scene. Famed for her impressive three octave vocal range, as well as her ability to improvise, Fitzgerald was also an accomplished pianist and scat singer. She was praised for the purity and clarity of her voice.
Fitzgerald did not have an easy start in life. When she was young, her mother was tragically killed in a car accident and she began to truant from school. She was abused by her step-father and got into trouble with the police. She was placed in a reform school for girls, but escaped and became homeless for a time.
Originally, Fitzgerald had intended to enter a talent competition as a dancer, but intimidated by the skills of a rival dancing duo she decided to sing instead. She won first prize and was awarded $25. Fitzgerald went on to achieve huge commercial success and critical acclaim, but was described by many as being painfully shy, much preferring to express herself through her singing, rather than speaking.
At the age of 79, Fitzgerald died from the effects of diabetes, after suffering visual impairments and leg amputations as a result of complications of the disease. There is now a week-long jazz festival held in Virginia, in her honour.