E.T. Mensah born 31 May 1919

Emmanuel Tettey Mensah (31 May 1919 – 19 July 1996), was a Ghanaian musician who was respectfully known as "the father of modern highlife," Mensah played a vital role in the evolution of Ghana's music.

A native of the small village of Ussher Town in Accra, Ghana, his early education took place at the Government School, and later at Accra High School. At the age of 12 he learned to play flute in the Government School band and in 1932 he began playing piccolo and flute in the Accra Orchestra, a schoolchildren's band. The leader of the Accra Orchestra at the time was a teacher, Joe Lamptey, who gathered talented young people together to form a band. Mensah continued to play with this orchestra.. 

Switching to trumpet and saxophone in his teens, he quickly attracted attention with his expressive playing. At the age of 18, he and his elder brother Yebuah formed the Accra Rhythm Orchestra, a group comprised of five saxophones, guitar, and African drums. They won the Lambeth Walk Dance Competition in 1939 at the King George Memorial Hall, now known as the Parliament House in Ghana. Around this time E.T. Mensah also played with the Kumasi Philharmonic Orchestra . 

Although he joined Scottish trumpet player Jack Leopard's band in 1940, he remained only a few months before accepting an invitation to become a charter member of a highlife band, the Tempos. He soon assumed leadership of the group. In contrast to early highlife groups, which were modeled after jazz big bands of the 1940s, the Tempos was one of the first to adapt highlife rhythms to a small-ensemble approach. An essential element of the band's sound was Mensah's singing in a variety of indigenous Ghanaian languages. Although the original lineup of Tempo disbanded in 1942, Mensah reorganized the group six years later as it’s leader. 

                                  

In 1952, the Tempos made their first recording with Decca. Mensah and the group toured successfully throughout Great Britain in 1953. Among their many hit singles were "Donkey Calypso," "School Girl," and "Sunday Mirror." In 1954, E.T. formed a second band called the Star Rockets. 

Armstrong with Mensah (far left)

Trained as a pharmacist, Mensah occasionally worked in the field to supplement his income as a musician. Music, however, remained his prime focus. Mensah attracted global attention when he performed with Louis Armstrong during celebrations of Ghana's independence in 1957. E.T. composed a highlife song entitled "Ghana Freedom Highlife". Two years later, he composed a song to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's visit to Ghana. 

Although he maintained a low profile in the early '60s, Mensah began the first of several comebacks and in 1969 the Tempos went on a tour in the U.K. While in London the band recorded an LP called “The King of Highlife – African Rhythms” in Decca studios. By the mid-1970’s, the Tempos was still playing regularly. The band had a Cuban rhythm section with the front line comprising two trumpets and three vocalists. The Tempos used electric lead and rhythm guitars and electric bass. The repertoire of the band became larger and included Congo music, reggae, souls, Afrobeat and pop music of the younger generation. In all, E.T. Mensah recorded eleven LPs. 

He had a collaborative album with Nigerian musician, Dr. Victor Olaiya, a pioneer of what is now known as Afrobeats titled, ‘Highlife Giants of Africa Vol. 1’ released in 1983.Despite being confined to a wheelchair, he embarked on a world tour in 1986. In 1986, a biography of Mensah by musicologist John Collins, E.T. Mensah: King of Highlife, was published by Off the Record Press in London and Ghana State Publishing Company in Accra. In the early '90s, Mensah recalled his revamping of highlife, explaining, "We urgently wanted an indigenous rhythm to replace the fading foreign music of waltz, rhumba, etc. We evolved a music type relying on basic African rhythms, a crisscross African cultural sound." 

When he died on July 19, 1996, at the age of 78, following a long illness, at his family house in Mamprobi Accra, Ghana lost one of its most influential musicians. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & J.Collins article ) 

 

Andy Tielman born 30 May 1936

Andy Tielman (30 May 1936 – 10 November 2011) was an influential Indo (Eurasian) artist, recognised as the "godfather" of Indorock, the style of rock and roll played by Indo artists in the 1950s and 1960s. He is considered one of the most important figures in Dutch popular music. 

                                         l/r: Jane, Reggy, Ponthon, Andy, Loulou,                                                                        Mother Flora Lorine Hess, Father Herman Tielman 1947

Andy Tielman was born in Makassar, Celebes, Dutch East Indies. Both his parents were Indo-European. Aside from Andy, the couple had 5 children: Reggy, Phonton, Loulou (Lawrence), and Jane (Janette Loraine). When the Japanese invaded the Indies, the elder Tielman was imprisoned; Andy and his siblings were taken care of by his mother. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the family was reunited. By that time, Andy and his siblings were performing jazz standards at private functions using the musical training their father had given them. Within half a year they were performing throughout nascent Indonesia, which had proclaimed its independence after the Japanese surrender. The siblings' repertoire included both American and traditional Indonesian music. 

By the time the Netherlands formally recognised Indonesia's independence in 1949, the Tielman siblings had become a household name; they even performed for President Sukarno at his palace in Jakarta. In 1951 they were introduced to the song "Guitar Boogie" by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith. The band began playing rock and roll music by Les Paul, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent. Aside from the family band, Andy also played with Dolf de Vries' band The Starlights in Jakarta, as well as Freddy Wehner's Hawaiian band in Sumatra. 

In the late 1950s anti-Dutch rules and regulations increased, leading up to an escalation of the Dutch New Guinea conflict; and when the Tielmans were pressured into forgoing their Dutch nationality the family repatriated to the Netherlands, first to a boarding house in Breda and later to The Hague. Their initial years in the Netherlands were difficult. Andy and his brothers began playing at a hotel for only 2,50 guilders a week. They were able to slowly acquire a fan base among rebellious youth and fellow musicians; however, they were not appreciated by the Dutch establishment or mainstream press.

                                   

After a successful show at the World Exhibition in Brussels, Belgium, in 1958, the Tielman Brothers were signed by a Belgian company to record the first Dutch rock 'n' roll single, "Rock Little Baby of Mine". The band's flamboyant showmanship, acrobatic stage antics and rowdy sound were unheard of in the Netherlands. They began to perform internationally and were the first to play Gibson Les Paul guitars in Europe. 

In Germany the band found popularity and recorded some German-language songs. They played many live venues in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg, a city with many American GIs and a lively music scene. Andy Tielman made an impression on both the German and British musicians playing there. Tielman and his band enjoyed a successful musical career throughout Europe until the emergence of British beat music headed by The Beatles. 

In the late 1970s Tielman abruptly ended his music career and left his family and property to live as a hermit in the jungles of Kalimantan among the Dayak people. For over 2 years he lived a low profile and meditated until a female fan tracked him down in the Bali backwoods. For over a year the young German woman, who later became his wife, Carmen Tielman, stayed with him there until he decided to return to the "civilised" world and resume his career. Tielman then moved to Australia and lived there for 5 years. In the 1980s he toured Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. Occasionally he would return to the Netherlands, where he gradually restarted his recording career. 

Tielman eventually returned to the Netherlands full-time. In 1990 he released his first solo album, entitled Now And Forever, followed in 1994 and 1995 by tours to the Caribbean and North America. On 31 October 1998 Tielman celebrated his 50th anniversary as an artist with a show at The Hague Houtrusthallen. In 1999 Andy Tielman toured the United States. In 2005 Tielman was named to the Order of Orange-Nassau. During 2008 he performed at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam at the 50 Years of Nederpop Live festival and also headlined the national 5 May Liberation Day celebrations in The Hague. 

By the fall of 2009, Tielman had fallen ill and canceled a scheduled tour when he was diagnosed with cancer. In November he was operated on. By 19 December he had recovered enough to give a short performance in Drachten, and in March 2010 played a show at the Benidorm Palace in Spain, supported by other acts, such as Riem de Wolff of the Blue Diamonds. During the 2011 edition of Indo festival the Tong Tong Fair, Tielman celebrated his 75th birthday and held a sold-out farewell concert at the Bintang Theatre. On 10 November 2011, Tielman died of kidney cancer. 

(Edited from Wikipedia) 

Beatrice Lillie born 29 May 1894

Beatrice Gladys Lillie, Lady Peel (29 May 1894 – 20 January 1989) was a Canadian-born actress, singer, comedy performer and star of British and American revues, perhaps the foremost theatrical comedienne of the 20th century. 

Dubbed "the funniest woman in the world", comedienne Beatrice Lillie was born the daughter of a Canadian government official and grew up in Toronto. She sang in a family trio act with her mother, Lucy, and her piano-playing older sister, Muriel. Times were hard and the ambitious mother eventually took the girls to England to test the waters. While they performed occasionally as the Lillie Trio and Muriel showed progress in her classical training, Beattie was never able to develop the discipline her mother expected. It was just too much fun to make people laugh. In fact, she was tossed out of a church choir at the tender age of eight for making funny gestures during the serious portions of the service, causing the young boys near her to fall into fits of giggling. 

In 1914, Beatrice made her solo debut in London's West End and was an immediate hit with audiences. A valuable marquee player as a droll revue and stage artiste, she skillfully interwove sketches, songs and monologues with parody and witty satire. During the First World War she performed in various revues produced by André Charlot, displaying enormous comic talent. She was called upon to play a male impersonator in a West End revue. In top hat and tails, it was a role Beatrice would return to several times over the years "I was the best-dressed transvestite in the world" she claimed. 

She married Robert Peel in 1920, the extravagant heir of Lord Peel. Ater her father-in-law died in the mid-1920s, she and Robert became Lord and Lady Peel even though she never assumed the title. In 1924, she returned to America and was an instant success on Broadway, thus becoming the toast of two continents. For the next decade, she worked with the top stage headliners of her day, including Gertrude Lawrence, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. Noël Coward and Cole Porter wrote songs and even shows for her. A top radio and comedy recording artist to boot, Bea's success in films was surprisingly limited, although she did achieve some recognition in such productions as Exit Smiling (1926) and Doctor Rhythm (1938). 

Miss Lillie continued to work after having a son (another Robert Peel), which was fortunate because her husband was unable to hold a job as well as being an unfortunate gambler. She eventually separated from her husband, but the couple never divorced. Sir Robert died of peritonitis at the home of his mistress in 1934 and left behind huge debts which forced Bea to continue working non-stop for years to come. In 1936, MGM had considered casting Beatrice as "Glenda, the Good Witch" in The Wizard of Oz (1939), but decided that she was 'too funny' for the rest of the company. 

                                   

Beatrice spent most of the Second World War entertaining troops in the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, and eventually in Germany. Before she went on stage one day, she learned that her son was killed in action. She refused to postpone the performance saying "I'll cry tomorrow." 

She successfully toured the U.S. and appeared on Broadway both before and after the War. In 1948, while touring in the show Inside USA, she met singer andactor John Philip Huck, almost three decades younger, who became her friend and companion, and she boosted his career. Despite their huge age difference, he became her manager and her companion for the rest of her life. 

In 1952 she toured in a one woman show entitled An Evening With Beatrice Lillie, for which she was awarded a Tony in 1956. Her rather eccentric persona worked beautifully on Broadway and, in 1958, she replaced Rosalind Russell in "Auntie Mame".  She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6404 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960. In 1964, she took on the role of "Madame Arcati" in the musical version of "Blithe Spirit", entitled "High Spirits". This was to be her last staged musical. Sadly, her style grew passé and outdated in the Vietnam era, and she quickly faded from view after a movie appearance in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). 

At this point, she had already begun to show early signs of Alzheimer's disease, although she managed to publish her biography “Every Other Inch a Lady” in 1973. A year later, Bea suffered the first of two strokes and lived the next decade and a half in virtual seclusion. She died 20 January 1989, at age 94. Her partner Huck died of a heart attack the day after Bea passed away. They were buried side by side near her mother and sister in St Margaret's Churchyard in Harpsden, Oxfordshire, near Henley-on-Thames. 

(Edited from IMDb & OTRCAT)  

Claudio Roditi born 28 May 1946

Claudio Roditi (May 28, 1946 – January 17, 2020) was a Brazilian jazz trumpeter, flugelhorn player and composer. In 1966 Claudio was named a trumpet finalist at the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, Austria. While in Vienna, Roditi met Art Farmer, one of his idols, and the friendship inspired the younger trumpeter to follow a career in jazz. 

Roditi was often a fiery presence on the bandstand, having mastered the language of post-World War II jazz trumpet; everyone from Clifford Brown to Woody Shaw made their presence known in his playing. However, he was also capable of a preternaturally smooth tone that could take the edge off his ferocity or delve beautifully into a tender ballad. Rhythmically, he was second to none, and in addition to bop and samba was expert in Afro-Cuban grooves. 

Claudio Roditi was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Alberto and Daisy Roditi. The family moved regularly to locations around the country, owing to Alberto’s position in the Brazilian coffee industry. Young Claudio was first attracted to rhythm, beginning as a young child on bongos and then moving to piano. He soon become captivated by the trumpet, before he’d ever attempted to play it; his father brought home his first one, only to have him mangle it in a tantrum when he couldn’t make it work.

By the time he was five years old he began his musical studies and when he was 12, he had already become a serious jazz listener. Eight years later, he was named a finalist in the International Jazz Competition in Vienna, where he met his future mentor Art Farmer and the following year, he moved to Mexico City where he was active on the contemporary music scene. 

Moving closer to New York, Roditi relocated to Boston in 1970 he was accepted at the Berklee College of Music. Roditi emigrated to the United States that year where he quickly attracted attention on the jazz scene. Later he joined the faculty of the School of Contemporary Music and rounded out his schedule with club and concert performances. He began working with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, flutist Herbie Mann, and then clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, with whom he spent most of the 1980s (beginning on valve trombone but ultimately developing a predilection for the rotary valve trumpet, with which he became associated). 

                            Here's "Airegin" from above album.

                                   

D’Rivera introduced Roditi to his own mentor, trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie. Impressed with his sound, Gillespie recruited Roditi into his United Nation Orchestra in 1989. He continued working with the large ensemble until Gillespie’s death in 1993, appearing as well at the 1992 concerts that would form Gillespie’s final album, To Diz With Love. Following Gillespie’s passing, Roditi became a member of the tribute group the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band, with which he continued working for the rest of his career. He was also a frequent presence in trombonist Slide Hampton’s all-star band, the Jazz Masters. 

Roditi was not just a sideman, however. He released his own first album, Red on Red, in 1984; it was the first of 25 recordings made under his leadership or co-leadership. His albums frequently contained a mix of bop-based jazz and Brazilian (and other Afro-Caribbean) traditions, increasingly including his own original compositions. Beginning in the 2000s, Roditi worked steadily in a drumless trio with German pianist Klaus Ignatzek and Belgian bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, revealing a remarkable capacity for subtlety not often seen in his large ensemble performances. 

Roditi received a 52nd Annual Grammy Awards (2009) nomination in the category Best Latin Jazz Album for Brazillance X 4. He was also the featured soloist on Atras Da Porta from Symphonic Bossa Nova (Ettore Stratta conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), for which Jorge Calandrelli received an arranger nomination at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards (1995). 

In 2017, Roditi received his cancer diagnosis; before the initial tumor could be removed, it had metastasized to his lung and lymph nodes. John Lee’s GoFundMe account raised nearly $100,000 to assist with his medical expenses. His final engagement lasted 12 nights, but Roditi was so sick that he was only able to play nine. On Aug. 29, 2019  Roditi played his last live performance. Tellingly, he offered to repay the drummer for the days he couldn’t work. Roditi had spent time in his final days listening to the album. He died from  prostate cancer at his home in South Orange, New Jersey on January 17, 2020 at the age of 73. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Jazz Times, & Azica Records) 

 

Midge Williams born 27 May 1915

Virginia Louise "Midge" Williams (May 27, 1915 – January 9, 1952) was an African-American swing and jazz vocalist during the 1930s and 1940s. Largely forgotten today, and although not as famous as other jazz recording artists, Midge Williams was a popular and talented singer. 

Born while her parents were on a trip in Portland, Oregon, Williams was known by her nickname "Midge" to distinguish her from her mother, also named Virginia Louise. Her father was John Williams. Midge spent her early years in the African American agricultural community of Allensworth, California, United States, in Tulare County. Allensworth had problems with arsenic in the groundwater supply, and many residents had to leave, including the Williams family. Virginia moved with her children (Midge, John Lewis Jr, Charles and Robert) to Oakland in 1925, and later Berkeley, California. 

Sometime in the mid-1920s they began singing as the "Williams Quartette" in Bay Area churches and theaters. They caught the attention of Peggy O'Neill of the Fanchon and Marco stage productions organization, who taught them to dance. Renamed "The Williams Four", they began touring West Coast theaters with Fanchon and Marco/the organization in the summer of 1928. 

In 1933, Roger Segure, a young music student and pianist told Virginia Williams that he would like to manage "The Williams Four". She agreed, and he obtained a contract for "The Williams Four" to appear at the exclusive Canidrome in Shanghai, China. From a successful appearance there, they went to Japan, where they appeared at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and at the Florida Dance Hall. In February 1934, Midge made the first recordings of her career for Columbia records' Japanese division. She recorded 5 songs, including Dinah, Lazy Bones and St. Louis Blues singing in both English and Japanese. The group returned to the West Coast in mid-1934, but tragically Charles Williams died of an accidental gunshot wound, and the quartet disbanded. 

                                   

Midge decided to pursue a solo career, under Segure's management. Midge took up residence in Berkeley, and in the summer of 1935 became a regular performer on the radio program Blue Monday Jamboree. In early 1936 she met Al Jolson, and sang on his Shell Chateau radio program.  In the spring of 1936, Midge Williams and her manager went to New York, were Midge debuted at the Apollo. During her time in that city she was a guest artist on a number of coast-to-coast radio shows. She also had a series of fifteen minute weekly or twice-weekly radio shows of her own and appeared on thirty-five sides of records she made for various record labels, including songs with her band the Jazz Jesters. 

Members of the band included Raymond Scott, Frankie Newton, Buster Bailey, and Charlie Shavers other musicians she worked with included Bunny Berigan, Ben Webster, Teddy Wilson, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Raymond Scott, Buster Bailey, John Kirby, and Lil Armstrong. Roger Segure and the famed poet Langston Hughes collaborated to write two songs for Midge, one of which, Night Time, served as her radio program's theme song. Midge also performed at benefits and participated in the social life of Harlem. In early 1937, she did a weekly series of songs for the NBC Red Network. In March 1938, Midge joined Louis Armstrong's troupe and toured with him until January 1941. Leaving him for a hospital bed in Detroit, Midge eventually recovered, but newspaper reports of her working again did not appear until early in 1942 in Chicago. 

By July 1942, she was back in New York and in September was reported singing on the radio. The last appearance of her name in the New York Amsterdam News occurred on July 1, 1943. She appeared at the Citizen's Christmas Cheer benefit performance on November 19, 1944, at the Renaissance Ballroom & Casino alongside Ella Fitzgerald, Savannah Churchill, June Hawkins and Mabel Hart. Columnist Ted Yates reported that Midge Williams quit Tondaleyo's Niteclub "in a huff" in early December 1944. On April 17, 1946, she sang Cow-Cow Boogie on the Jack Webb radio show and was apparently in good voice. This was her last known recording. From early June through October 1946, Midge appeared at Mona's 440 Club, the first lesbian bar in San Francisco. 

On December 16, 1950, The San Francisco Examiner reported that she had joined the revue at Shirley Corlett's Longbar Showboat and Breakfast Club on Fillmore Street. Unfortunately, the club closed three months later. Over a year later on January 9, 1952, Midge Williams passed away from tuberculosis at the San Francisco General Hospital. Today, her ashes rest high on a shelf in the California Room of the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & Oakland Library Organization)

Mamie Smith born 26 May 1891

Mamie Smith (May 26, 1891 – October 23, 1946) was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings. 

Smith was born Mamie Robinson in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1891. The year of her birth has been given as 1883, but in 2018, researcher John Jeremiah Sullivan discovered her birth certificate stating she was born in Cincinnati in 1891. When she was around age 10, she found work touring with the Four Dancing Mitchells, a white act. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney's Smart Set. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married William "Smitty" Smith, a singer. 

On February 14, 1920, Smith recorded "That Thing Called Love" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" for the Okeh label in New York City, after African-American songwriter and bandleader Perry Bradford persuaded Fred Hager to break the color barrier in black music recording. Okeh Records recorded many iconic songs by black musicians. Although this was the first recording by a black blues singer, the backing musicians were all white. Hager had received threats from Northern and Southern pressure groups saying they would boycott the company if he recorded a black singer. Despite these threats, the record was a commercial success and opened the door for more black musicians to record. 

                                    

Smith's biggest hits were the August 10, 1920 recordings of a set of songs written by Perry Bradford, including "Crazy Blues" and "It's Right Here for You (If You Don't Get It, 'Tain't No Fault of Mine)", again for Okeh Records, A million copies were sold in less than a year. Many were bought by African Americans, and there was a sharp rise in sales of "race records". Because of its historical significance, "Crazy Blues" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994 and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. 

Although other African Americans had been recorded earlier, such as George W. Johnson in the 1890s, they were performing music that had a substantial following among European-American audiences. The success of Smith's record prompted record companies to seek to record other female blues singers and began the era of what is now known as classic female blues. Smith continued to make popular recordings for Okeh throughout the 1920s. Her manager Perry Bradford convinced Okeh Records that there was a market for earthier Blues records aimed at the large number of African-Americans who had migrated to the big cities of the north. Bradford put together a band he called the Jazz Hounds for Smith that was led at first by cornetist Johnny Dunn and then by Bubber Miley. A young Coleman Hawkins featured among many other band members. 

Smith put on quite a show that included trapeze acts, dancing, comedy, lavish costumes and jewelry as well as music. In 1924, she made three releases for Ajax Records, which, while heavily promoted, did not sell well. She also made some records for Victor. She toured the United States and Europe with the band Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds as part of Mamie Smith's Struttin' Along Review. 

She was billed as "The Queen of the Blues", a billing soon one-upped by Bessie Smith, who was called "The Empress of the Blues". Mamie found that the mass medium of radio provided a means of gaining additional fans, especially in cities with predominantly white audiences. For example, she and several members of her band performed on KGW in Portland, Oregon in early May 1923 and received positive reviews. Her flamboyance carried over into a luxurious lifestyle afforded by the sudden wealth she amassed. She bought three houses in New York, complete with fine accoutrements, servants, and, one visitor noted, “rugs on the floor as thick as mattresses.” 

Smith appeared in the early sound film Jailhouse Blues in 1929. She retired from recording and performing in 1931. She returned to performing in 1939 to appear in the movie Paradise in Harlem, produced by her husband, Jack Goldberg. She also appeared in other films, including Mystery in Swing (1940), Sunday Sinners (1940), Stolen Paradise (1941), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), and Because I Love You (1943). 

Smith died on October 23, 1946 at Harlem Hospital, Manhattan, reportedly penniless. She was interred at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park on Staten Island, on ground which remained unmarked until 2013 when a monument was finally erected. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Red Hot Jazz, Syncopated Times & Blues Hall of Fame)

 

Beverly Sills born 25 May 1929

 Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) was an American operatic soprano whose career peak was between the 1950s and 1970s. She was also one of the few American opera singers of her time to make regular appearances on chat shows, play comic sketches with Carol Burnett and Danny Kaye, and appear on The Muppets. 

Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, Sills was known as Bubbles. She grew up in middle-class surroundings, and at a relatively early age had an almost freakish ability to navigate difficult arias, such as Caro Nome from Rigoletto. She performed on radio and the stage, but studied intensively over many years with Estelle Liebling, who had worked with Rosa Ponselle and written many of the standard vocal cadenzas used in bel canto operas. Though Sills toured in variety and was billed as "the youngest diva in captivity", her official opera debut came in a secondary role in Carmen in 1947. Some of her best singing was during those years, such as in the Douglas Moore opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe, which she memorably recorded in 1959 under such budgetary limits that retakes were not an option. 

Years of good work gave her the clout to demand the role of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare. She said later that few roles so perfectly fitted her voice, though when another soprano was considered a front-runner for the assignment she threatened to stage a concert at Carnegie Hall in which she would sing Handel just to show the wrong choice had been made. Much of the global recognition she received for the role was the result of disgruntled music critics who were in New York for the unsuccessful premiere of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra at the Met, but found themselves at Lincoln Center's other company hearing Sills sing Handel with an intricacy few had witnessed. Even in recent years, early-music experts such as William Christie have talked admiringly of her work in that opera.

   Here's "Bless This House" from above 10 inch single sided album

                                    

Thereafter, Sills received many international invitations, but had a surprisingly stunted European career. Family commitments played an important part. Her marriage in 1955 to the wealthy newspaper editor Peter Greenough, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, removed any financial impetus, and her two children were born with disabilities. Nor did Sills' independent nature fit well in the "instant opera" machines of Europe, particularly since her position at the New York City Opera gave her a repertoire collaboration that not only resulted in her Donizetti trilogy but some of her best comic appearances, such as Queen Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or.  

Her relationship with the London operatic community was ambivalent. She made most of her major recordings there with the London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras, with conductors such as Charles Mackerras. Live performances had rather less joy.She also turned down offers from the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as a Deutsche Grammophon recording contract because she would not perform with early-music conductor Karl Richter. She had a huge success at La Scala in 1969 when she replaced the pregnant Renata Scotto in a new production of Rossini's Siege of Corinth. But later visits in old productions were less exhilarating.ing that she had mafia connections in New York. "La Scala has nights of glory and nights of despair," she concluded.

Certainly, the Sills voice required some getting-accustomed-to time, if only because it was as unique as the mind behind it. Far from the creamy lyric soprano of Kiri Te Kanawa or the imposing timbre of Callas, Sills was a coloratura soprano without a typical chest voice that might have been a source of darker colours and dramatic weight. In effect, she was a soubrette. Though she sang light music and comic roles in Don Pasquale with great relish, she was an actor with ambitions that could only be fulfilled with roles as substantial as in her so-called Tudor Queen Trilogy. She knew that these roles shortened her career but sang them anyway, having made a loose agreement with her husband that she would not sing past the age of 50. 

After retiring from the stage at the age of 51, Sills began a new life as an executive and leader of New York's performing arts community. Under her stewardship, the New York City Opera became the first in the US to use English supertitles. Then, in 1994, she became the first woman and first former artist to chair the Lincoln, leading it through eight boom years. She retired in 2002, saying she wanted "to smell the flowers a little bit". Six months later, she was back as chair of the Met - "So I smelled the roses and developed an allergy," she joked. She bowed out in January 2005, saying, "I know that I have achieved what I set out to do." 

On June 28, 2007, the Associated Press and CNN reported that Sills was hospitalized as "gravely ill", from lung cancer. With her daughter at her bedside, Beverly Sills succumbed to cancer on July 2, 2007, at the age of 78. She is buried in Sharon Gardens, the Jewish division of Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. 

(Edited from Guardian obit by David Patrick Stearns & Wikipedia)