Joyce Cobb born 2 June 1945

Joyce Renee Cobb (born June 2, 1945) is an American singer specializing in jazz and R&B. She is closely associated with traditional blues and jazz in the style of Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. She has had a wide-ranging career as a solo artist and vocalist, having charted several country, pop, and R&B singles in the 1970s and early 1980s, later recording as a jazz vocalist. 

Joyce Cobb was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and first sang in her grandmother's church. In 1955 her family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, when her father was hired at Tennessee State University as the head of the Health and physical education department. Her parents owned a large record collection of music that was influential on her at a young age. Her first vocal training during that time was at Cathedral of the Incarnation, during grade and high school. This mainly consisted of singing requiems and pontifical high masses. She sang in the girls' glee club and choir during that time; also; Cobb had 14 years of private piano training. From 1963 to 1967 she attended Central State University and acquired an undergraduate degree in Social Welfare. 

Her professional music career started in Dayton, Ohio, singing with different blues and jazz bands. While pursuing a master's degree at Wright State University in social work by day, she was singing in clubs at night. She was offered a road gig singing in duo with Bill Temme for Ramada Inn hotels and quit pursuing a vocation as a social worker to become a professional singer and songwriter. Between 1969 and 1971 Cobb was on Ramada Inn's Midwest circuit for entertainment, performing in duo under the title Joyce and William (Temme) Duo both singing and playing guitars. 

After two and a half years working for the Ramada hotel chain she returned to Nashville in 1971 and worked in a variety of musical genres appearing at Opryland, on radio, and on television. She was one of the first acts at Opryland USA in 1972 and was voted "Best Performer" in 1974.  Due to her earlier success in country music with a promising hit single, in 1976 she was signed with Stax Records and put under contract. Unfortunately the label was in decline at this time: Cobb in fact would be the last artist signed to Stax  as the label went out of business shortly after she moved to Memphis. From here, her audience grew and her style flourished as her career continued to evolve. 

                                   

Signing to Cream Records she first recorded a Top 40 hit single in 1979 with her original tune Dig The Gold. It wasn’t long before Joyce added radio hosting to her credits in the mid-1980s, sharing her musical knowledge on WEVL-FM 89.9. As the 1980s continued, Cobb’s cache grew. She built a loyal local following and toured with Al Jarreau, Muddy Waters, and The Temptations. The 1990s, however, proved to be an emotional juggernaut filled with intense highs and lows. 

Calvin Newborn, Joyce Cobb, Rufus Thomas

She toured Europe with blues singer Otis Clay, received a coveted brass note on Beale Street’s Walk of Fame as the “Queen of Jazz,” and three times was named Best Female Singer by the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. But the high-water mark of her career came April 1, 1992, with the opening of Joyce Cobb’s on Beale. The nightclub was the first to be named for a woman on the historic street. Then, as inexplicably as the club had opened, it closed three years later. Distraught, Cobb felt she’d let everyone down: the city, her fans, even herself. Cobb’s eventual return to music was prompted by a phone call one day from an old friend, record producer Willie Mitchell, who implored her to return to Royal Studios and write again for him. The work provided healing and things began to look up. 

Finding another regular place to play materialized in a Sunday job at Bosco's in Overton Square in the fall of 2001. Joining Cobb was bass player Mike Adams and guitarist Jimmy Arnold, sidemen who’ve remained part of an ensemble that’s gradually expanded over the years. Cobb was contacted by Ward Archer in 2009 to record a CD for his recently formed Memphis record label, Archer Records. It was her first solo recording as a jazz artist and again showed her versatility and artistry as a recording artist. In 2010 she toured Europe with the Michael Jefry Stevens Trio promoting the CD release. 

Today her performance schedule continues to be varied, playing on a riverboat as an ambassador for Memphis music one day, and a fund-raising gala or retirement home the next. She expanded her repertoire yet again in the mid-2000s, taking to the stage to portray blues singer Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday to rave reviews. She is a very pro-active advocate of music education and the history of singing style in American pop and jazz music. Cobb has served for close 20 years as adjunct vocal professor at the University Of Memphis School Of Music. She has also worked with younger jazz vocalists and musicians at the Stax Music Academy helping aspiring younger artists

(Edited from Wikipedia & Memphis Magazine)