Dick Charlesworth born 8 January 1932

Richard Anthony "Dick" Charlesworth (8 January 1932 – 15 April 2008) was an English jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and bandleader who remains one of the most popular and enduring exponents of the traditional jazz renaissance that captivated British audiences in the pre-Beatles era.

Charlesworth was born and brought up in Sheffield and attended King Edward VII School. At 16, he became a clerk in the Ministry of Labour and was in due course transferred to London. After trying the harmonica, he spotted a clarinet in a shop window, sold his bicycle and fishing rods to fund its purchase and began his jazz career.

He bought a clarinet and started playing jazz as a hobby in 1952-53. He was entirely self-taught, but became good enough to play clarinet and saxophone in a dance band and perform with jazz bands in south London including Jim Weller’s Jazzmen. He formed his first group in 1956 while still doing his day job, and his 'Dick Charlesworth's Jazzmen' won the South London Jazz Band Championship in 1957. 

Charlesworth's group was signed by the Melodisc label, and they recorded an EP in December 1957 and produced an album for Doug Dobell's 77 Records.

Charlesworth left the Civil Service in 1959 and became a professional musician. He signed a recording contract with EMI and his group was remarketed as 'Dick Charlesworth's City Gents'. This was the time when light jazz was popular in the British charts as typified by Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball, also attired in distinctive costumes. Charlesworth's group sported pin stripes and bowler hats, and had a Latin motto, Dum vivimus vivamus, (“While we live, let us enjoy life”).

                             

Their only chart single was "Billy Boy”, which reached 43 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1961. The City Gents often appeared on television including The Morecambe and Wise Show and Sunday Night at the London Palladium. Charlesworth sang the title song of a comedy film, In the Doghouse, starring Leslie Phillips and 

featured in his own 15 minute musical short in 1963.

However the British pop scene changed significantly in the early sixties and jazz went out of vogue. Charlesworth broke up his band, and from 1964 to 1969 worked for P & O fronting a band on the cruise liners Canberra and Orsova. He then settled in Mojacar, in Spain where he ran a music bar until he returned to Britain in 1977.

After returning to the UK permanently in 1982, he worked with like-minded musicians such as trumpeters Keith Smith and Rod Mason and reformed the City Gents. He also appeared with the Legends of British Trad show, fronted Hot Stuff, a band formed by trumpeter Chez Chesterman, while playing pub and club gigs. He was also a funny and laconic chairman of meetings of the Brothers, a loose network of musicians who got together for hilarious, quasi-masonic rituals. He appeared on the BBC Radio series, Jazz Score, a quiz show which encouraged its participants to relate anecdotes about their lives in jazz.

In his later years, Charlesworth lived in Thames Ditton, Surrey, and played a residency at the George and Dragon pub every Tuesday and also at various other local pubs.

He died following a heart attack in April 2008, at the age of 76.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Guardian)

Jane Harvey born 6 January 1925

Jane Harvey (January 6, 1925 - August 15, 2013) was an American jazz singer whose career lasted nearly 70 years.  

Born Phyllis Taff in Jersey City, NJ, she auditioned for nightclub owner Barney Josephson shortly after finishing high school, and was offered a gig at his celebrated Greenwich Village nightclub, Café Society. Before she took the stage, Josephson changed her name to Jane Harvey.

Soon Benny Goodman came to hear her and subsequently hired her to record "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" with his band, in December 1944 for Columbia Records. She stayed with the band for six months, cutting tracks for the best-selling "Close as Pages in a Book," "Up in Central Park," "Only Another Boy and Girl" and "He’s Funny That Way." Sometime between early April and mid-​June 1945, she left to sing solo again. She appeared on several radio programs through the latter half of the year and landed a spot as secondary singer to Johnny Desmond on Teen Timers in November. She also recorded two sides on Columbia, backed by Mitchell Ayres, that same month.

                              

In March 1946, Harvey subbed for an ailing Mildred Bailey at New York’s Blue Angel club which proved fruitful, finding her work recording with Dick Stabile’s orchestra in April. She made two soundies for Filmcraft soon after, He’s Funny That Way, which she’d sang with Goodman under the title She’s Funny That Way, and It’s a Pity to Say Goodnight.

Harvey’s stay at the Blue Angel also caught the attention of Desi Arnaz, who invited her to the West Coast with promises to sing for his band. She had begun her association with Arnaz by May 1946 when she appeared with the orchestra on a radio special, and in November, Bob Hope, on whose radio show Arnaz’s band starred, signed her to appear as well. She made four recordings with Arnaz in October and December, the latter month also finding 20th Century Fox offering her a screen test. She stayed with Arnaz until early January 1947 when she signed with Victor as a solo artist,

Back on her own again, Harvey returned to the nightclub and radio

circuit. She also starred as “tele queen” for a series of stunts by new Los Angeles television station KFI in March 1947. She later appeared on several other early West Coast television programs. Harvey recorded a few sides with Victor through mid-​1947, including several with the Page Cavanaugh Trio, and then went without a recording contract until January 1949, when she signed with MGM, for whom she recorded through early 1951. Ms. Harvey entertained the troops in Europe on a 1948 USO tour with Bob Hope and Irving Berlin. Upon returning to the States, she made her Broadway debut in the 1950 Harold Rome musical Bless You All with Pearl Bailey which ran until February 1951. She made a second screen test in summer of that year, this time with Paramount. In 1953, she recorded on the Bell label.

Harvey’s love affairs were frequent fodder for the gossip columns in the 1940s. She married Jay Hyde, son of a William Morris Agency executive, in 1949, but had divorced him by 1954 when she married legendary music producer Bob Thiele, then with Coral Records. They had a son, Bob Junior, the following year, which briefly sidelined Harvey’s career. She returned to singing in 1957, recording on Roulette Records that year and then on Dot in 1958. She recorded on the Signature label in 1959 and 1960. She recorded several albums through the years, including "Leave It to Jane," "I’ve Been There," the Fats Waller tribute "You Fats, Me Jane," and  "Jane Harvey."

She appeared on television several times, including on Arthur Murray’s dance program in 1959 and on The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson, in 1962 and 1963. She also appeared on the Mike Douglas talk show in 1970 and later on the Today Show in 1988 promoting an album of Stephen Sondheim songs. She and Thiele divorced sometime before 1972, and she married William King. The couple remained together until her death from cancer i

She resumed her cabaret career in 2011 with appearances at Feinstein’s in New York and the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood, and reissued five CDs of her previous recordings including an unreleased session that she had done with guitarist Les Paul.

Even at 88, Harvey had been active and just prior to her death, she recorded a complete new album of Ellington songs with pianist Mike Renzi and guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli and Ron Eschete,  It included Harvey's first recording of an Ellington song (for which she wrote the lyrics) called The Sky Fell Down.

Harvey died after a somewhat protracted battle with stomach cancer, in her home in Los Angeles, August 15, 2013. 

(Edited from Playbill.com & bandchirps)

Jo Ann Kelly born 5 January 1944

Jo Ann Kelly (5 January 1944 – 21 October 1990) was an English blues singer and guitarist. She is respected for her strong blues vocal style and for playing country blues guitar.

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all -- Jo Ann Kelly -- seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favoured the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen.

Born January 5, 1944, Kelly and her older brother Dave were both taken by the blues, and born at the right time to take advantage of a young British blues scene in the early '60s. By 1964 she was playing in clubs, including the Star in Croydon, and had made her first limited-edition record with future Groundhogs guitarist Tony McPhee. She expanded to play folk and blues clubs all over Britain, generally solo, but occasionally with other artists, bringing together artists like Bessie Smith and Sister Rosetta Tharpe into her own music.

After the first National Blues Federation Convention in 1968 her career seemed ready to take flight. She began playing the more lucrative college circuit, followed by her well-received debut album in 1969. At the second National Blues Convention, she jammed with Canned Heat, who invited her to join them on a permanent basis. She declined, not wanting to be a part of a band -- and made the same decision when Johnny Winter offered to help her.

As with many good things British the Americans got interested. In 1969 Jo Ann appeared live with Mississippi Fred McDowell and later made many US tours. Back in the UK, In 1972 she completed an album with Woody Mann, John Miller and flashy guitarist John Fahey, before forming a group called Spare Rib. She recorded a second solo album called 'Do It' - on Alan Robinson's Red Rag label.  Bully Wee's masterful 'Enchanted Lady' album with Alan was also being produced around that time. The title track of Jo Ann's album is quite wonderful.

She became a major player on the blues circuit, recording with the John Dummer Blues Band and no lesser mortals than Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, as well as Stefan Grossman. This period of her career obviously reached its peak with a concert at Leyton County High for Boys! In 1979 she helped found the Blues Band, along with brother Dave, and original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning. The band backed her on an ambitious show she staged during the early '80s, Ladies and the Blues, in which she paid tribute to her female heros. In 1988, Kelly began to suffer pain.

A brain tumor was diagnosed and removed, and she seemed to have recovered, even touring again with her brother before collapsing and dying on October 21, 1990  Posthumously, she's become a revered blues figure, one who helped clear the path for artists like Bonnie Raitt and Rory Block. But more than a figurehead, her recorded material -- and unreleased sides have appeared often since her death -- show that Kelly truly was a remarkable blueswoman.

by Chris Nickson.

(Edited from Wikipedia and various sources)

Tito Rodriguez born 4 January 1911

Tito Rodríguez a.k.a. "El Inolvidable" (The Unforgettable) (January 4, 1923 - February 28, 1973) born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, was a popular 1950's singer and bandleader.

Tito (born: Pablo Rodríguez Lozada) became interested in music as a child. He was always surrounded by musical toys, such as guitars, pianos and trumpets. His older brother, Johnny Rodríguez, was a song composer and bandleader, who inspired Tito to become a musician.

In 1936, 13 year old Tito joined the group of Ladislao (El Maestro Ladí) Martínez, "Industrias Nativas" as a singer and when he was 16 years old, he participated in a recording with the Mayari Cuartet. In 1940, Tito immigrated to New York City shortly after his parents, Jose and Severina died. He went to live with his brother Johnny, who had been living there since 1935.

In New York, Tito found a job as a singer and bongo player for the orchestra of Eric Madriguera. In 1941, he recorded "Amor Guajiro", "Acercate Mas" (Get Closer) and "Se Fue la Comparsa". In 1942, Tito joined the band of Xavier Cugat, and recorded "Bin, Bam, Bum" and "Ensalada de Congas" (Conga Salad).

Tito joined and served in the U.S. Army for one year. After he was discharged, he returned to New York where he joined the orchestra of Jose Carbelo. On one occasion, the band performed at the China Doll Cabaret where  he met his future wife, a young Japanese chorus girl by the name of Tobi Kei.

In 1947, Tito made his "solo" debut and finally organized his own band, which he named "Los Diablos del Mambo". In 1950, he enrolled in The Juilliard School of the Performing Arts, where he studied the vibrophone, xylophone and percussion. He renamed his band "Los Lobos del Mambo" and later he dropped the name altogether. That's when he decided to go with the name "The Tito Rodriguez Orchestra". The first song that he recorded under the bands new name which became a "hit" was "Besame La Bemba" (Kiss My Big Lips). In 1952, he was honored for having developed his own unique singing style by the "Century Conservatory of Music of New York". His orchestra won the "Gran Trofeo Award" for two consecutive years.

                               

In 1953, Tito heard a percussionist, by the name of Cheo Feliciano. So impressed was Tito that he offered Cheo a job in his band and hired him. Tito discovered that Cheo also knew how to sing and gave him an opportunity to sing at the Palladium Ballroom. 

Eventually, Cheo went to work for another band but, the friendship between them lasted for the rest of their lives. Among the other orchestras that played at the Palladium, where the Charlie Palmieri and Tito Puente orchestras.A rivalry which was to last for years, quickly developed between the two Tito's.

 The popular latin music craze at the time was the cha-cha and the merengue. With the beginning of the 1960s, all that was going to change with the popularity gained by rock music. Latino bands began to switch their styles and started playing more salsa and boogaloo, which was more attractive to the latin youth. Tito decided to try his luck with boleros and recorded an album titled "Inolvidable" (Unforgettable), which is considered by many to be his greatest "hit". It sold over a million and a half copies world wide. He also produced records for other groups, such as Los Hispanos and Los Montemar.

The feud between the two Tito's was reflected on some of Rodriguez's recordings. "Avisale a Mi Contrario Que Aqui Estoy Yo" (Tell My Counterpart That I Am Here) and "Que Pena Me Da" (I Pity You), are just two examples of the bad feelings between both of them.

Tito returned to Puerto Rico in 1970 and built a Japanese style house in Santurce, where he lived with his family. Tito produced his own television show called "El Show de Tito Rodriguez" which was transmitted through channel 7. Among the special guest stars which appeared in his show were, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and Shirley Basey. Tito also founded his own recording studio called TR Records.

Tito's last public appearance was with Machito and his Band on February 2, 1973 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tito Rodríguez died of leukemia on February 28, 1973, in his Coral Gables, Florida home where he had recently moved with wife. (Edited from Wikipedia & Last.fm)

Al Belletto born 3 January 1928

Al Belletto (January 3, 1928 – December 26, 2014) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.

Al Belletto was born in New Orleans on January 3, 1928 to Philip and Frances Franzella Belletto. His long career in jazz made him one of the city's best known and most treasured musicians. While at Warren Easton High School he began working as a professional 

musician. At age sixteen Al began his studies at Loyola University and later earned a Master's Degree at LSU.

He played with Sharkey Bonano, Louis Prima, Wingy Manone and the Dukes of Dixieland in the 1940s and 1950s. A pioneer of contemporary jazz, Al led his own quintet in 1951 in which most of its members performed skillfully and they all doubled on more than one instrument. They used to play at Gus Stevens’ in Biloxi, Mississippi, where they found their first long-term booking, and a loyal crowd of followers.

It was precisely during their engagement there, that singing star Mel Tormé found himself in need of some choral assistance. Although none of Belletto’s men had ever sung a note professionally, they were anxious to please their first boss, so they just took deep breaths and began to sing. To everyone’s amazement what came out was round, full, and in beautiful accord.

Impressed with the boys’ natural vocal talent, Tormé furnished them with some of his Meltones charts, and suggested they make singing a regular part of their act. So raving about the excellent musicianship and affability of Tormé, and despite no one of them have sung before, they accepted the challenge. Trombonist Jimmy Guinn became the group’s featured singer, while each member also pitched in for some interesting five-way vocals remindful of the Four Freshmen. Belletto toured nationally and via Kenton was soon was signed up with Capitol Records.

  Here’s “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To” from above E.P.

                               

His first "Kenton Presents" EP in 1954 was An Introduction to the Al Belletto Quintet. The pair of 45s featured four songs with five neatly arranged musicians: Jack Martin (tp,fhr,b), Jimmy Guinn (tb,vcl), Al Belletto (as,bar), Fred Crane (p,bar) and Charles McKnight (d). In 1954 and '55, Belletto recorded Sounds and Songs. By then, Belletto's group was a sextet: Jack Martin (tp,fhr), Danny Conn (tp,Mellophone,b), Jimmy Guinn (tb), Al Belletto (as,bar), Fred Crane (p), Skip Fawcett (b) and Charles McKnight (d).

After Sounds and Songs, Belletto recorded Half and Half in 1956, Whisper Not in 1957 and a superb album with singer Jerri Winters in '57 entitled Somebody Loves Me. An added bonus on the 1950s Capitol recordings of Al Belletto is the inclusion of Fred Crane, a rarely recorded jazz pianist who was a major influence on Bill Evans. Al continued his successful recording career with major labels such as King Records, and the ART and Louisiana Red Hot labels.

Learning of Al's group on Stan Kenton Presents recordings, bandleader Woody Herman heard the band in the late '50's and incorporated them into his State Department tour of Central and South America.  Belletto's surfy, high-register attack on the alto saxophone sounded very much like

Art Pepper. His tight groups had a West Coast jazz feel—rich in melody with fugue-like harmony and lots of space. After Sounds and Songs, Belletto recorded Half and Half in 1956, Whisper Not in 1957 and a superb album with singer Jerri Winters in '57 entitled Somebody Loves Me.

Missing New Orleans, Al returned to the city and worked at the New Orleans Playboy Club fronting the house band and serving as Musical/Entertainment Director which positioned him to attract international figures to the city. As a member of the board of directors of the original New Orleans jazz festival  Jazziest in 1968, he successfully pressed for a policy guaranteeing not only that the city's prominent black musicians would be presented at the festival, but that they would also receive compensation commensurate with the white musicians.

In the Civil Rights era, this was a proud achievement. Al was a past Board member of Local Union 174-495; he was a founding member of the French Quarter Festival and performed in the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for 35 years. He had a long association with Al Hirt and directed The Al Hirt Big Band. Among the members of Al's bands over the years were prominent musicians Johnny Vidacovich, Ellis Marsalis, Bill Huntington, Michael Pellera, Richard Payne, John Mahoney and Rick Trolsen.

Players who worked with Al had a title for him that reflected their admiration for his musicianship, leadership and the warmth of their feelings for him. They called him Coach. His Jazznocracy big band album in 1997, his last, was a knockout.  He died at home in Crescent City, Metairie on December 26, 2014.

(Edited from Legacy.com, Wikipedia, jazzwax.com & Fresh Sounds)

Frank Marocco born 2 January 1931

Frank L. Marocco (January 2, 1931 – March 3, 2012) was an American piano-accordionist, arranger and composer. He was recognized as one of the most recorded accordionists in the world and can be heard on hundreds of movie soundtracks, recordings, musical theatre, TV shows, commercials, video games and theme park music. He worked with dozens of composers, including Henry Mancini, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein and Michel Legrand.

Frank L. Marocco was born Jan. 2, 1931, in Joliet, Ill., Growing up in the town of Waukegan, he began to take accordion lessons at age 7. He later added piano, clarinet, music theory and composition to his interests. At the age of seven years, his parents enrolled him in a six-week beginner class for learning to play the accordion. His first teacher was George Stefani, who supervised the young accordionist for nine years. Although they began studying classical music, Stefani soon encouraged young Frank to explore other musical genres. In addition to the accordion, Frank studied piano and clarinet, as well as music theory, harmony, and composition. Later on, he studied with Andy Rizzo, a well-known American concert accordionist and teacher.

At the age of 17, Frank Marocco won the first prize in the 1948 Chicago Musicland festival, and was rewarded with a guest performance with the Chicago Pops Orchestra playing Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. His success encouraged him to embark on a professional music career. He established a trio, which toured in the Midwestern states. After he met his wife, Anne, in South Bend Indiana, the couple moved to Los Angeles, California, in the early 1950s.

In 1959, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where Marocco formed another band which toured hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Palm Springs. Later on, he began working in Hollywood, where television studios and movie production companies provided him a successful career.

                      Here’s “Frank’s Tune” from above LP

                            

In the 1960s, Frank Marocco recorded a solo album released by Verve, a legendary jazz record label. In 1966, he worked together with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and performed on the world-famous album Pet Sounds. He had become well established by the mid 60’s as a studio player and was also valued for his 
technique, as well as his versatility. The range of his hundreds of film score appearances reaches from such assignments as playing one of the two accordion parts in Maurice Jarre’s 1965 orchestral score for “Dr. Zhivago” to the more recent “Pirates of the Caribbean” pictures, for which he played accordion, bass accordion and musette.

Marocco was also a busy composer, publishing study books for the accordion, as well as collections of his own diverse songs and compositions. Gifted with a wry sense of humour, he often gave whimsical titles to his own works, among them “Bossame Mucho,” “Road to Marocco,” “I Got Rh-Rh-Rhythm” and “Samba de Van Nuys.”

Marocco performed on a USO tour in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Guam, and other countries in the Pacific, appearing onstage with Bob Hope. He also played in the Les Brown big band, during six Love Boat cruises. Marocco performed in collaboration with hundreds of world-famous artists and conductors during his career, both on stage as well as in studio.
As a musician, he contributed to hundreds of movie soundtracks, television shows and TV-series. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences nominated him as the most valuable player eight years in a row.

In addition to his career as a musician, Marocco wrote and arranged music for solo, duet, and orchestra in a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, popular standards, international, Latin, religious, and classical. He was the musical director and conductor of an annual "music camp", the Frank Marocco Accordion Event, which is held in Mesa, Arizona in January. 

The event brings together over 50 accordionists from around the U.S. and Canada, who, after three full days of instruction, rehearsal, and recreational activities, present a full concert of accordion music.

Frank Marocco also played with some of the best Jazz Musicians in America and Europe. The Frank Marocco Accordion Event, directed by Marocco, was held annually in Mesa, Ariz., bringing together accordionists from across the U.S. and Canada for three days of accordion-related seminars, rehearsals and performance.

He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Accordionists’ Assn. in 2006. He was nominated eight years in a row for the Recording Academy’s Most Valuable Player Award, receiving the Award in 1985 and 1986. And he was inducted into the Accordion Hall of Fame in Vicenza, Italy, in 2000.

Marocco died on March 3, 2012 at his home in California’s San Fernando Valley. He had been hospitalized earlier at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles for complications following hip replacement surgery. He was 81 years old.  (Edited from Wikipedia & LA Times)

Susannah McCorkle born 1 January 1946

Susannah McCorkle (January 1, 1946 – May 19, 2001) was an American jazz and cabaret singer who performed in major clubs and concert halls throughout the world. She had 22 records releases with two of them done after her death. In addition to being an accomplished singer, she also was a published writer.

She was born in Berkeley, California, where her father taught anthropology, the family moving to other US cities as he took new university appointments. She studied Italian literature at UCLA, dropped out and then later returned to graduate. Disillusioned with the American political system, she looked for fulfillment in Europe, studying languages while taking translation and broadcasting jobs in Germany, France and Italy.

She also developed a genuine writing talent, winning prizes and contributing to the O Henry short-story anthology. Her non-fiction included well received profiles of Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith and Irving Berlin, published in the prestigious American Heritage magazine.

All of this was set aside once McCorkle heard Billie Holiday on record while in Paris. "Billie Holiday was the reason I started singing," she said. "It was her emotional directness that got to me." Following this Damascene moment, McCorkle rejected an offer to work as a translator for the European Community and moved to Italy, teaching English to pay the bills and pursuing every available opportunity to sing.

She came to London in 1972, encouraged by the vitality and extent of local jazz, and was soon taken up by altoist Bruce Turner and trumpeter John Chilton, with whose groups she appeared regularly, often at the lively Sunday lunch sessions at New Merlin's Cave in Kings Cross. She also formed a close relationship with pianist Keith Ingham, which blossomed on recordings devoted to the songwriters Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer.

Her growing ease in performance brought her engagements with visiting American stars like Ben Webster and the lyrical cornetist Bobby Hackett, who described her as "the best singer since Billie Holiday". With her light, clear voice, McCorkle could suggest something of Holiday's vulnerability; commentators and fans alike were drawn to her "singing without frills", as she concentrated on the great songs of the 1930s.

After a successful season at the Riverboat Room, Manhattan, in 1975, McCorkle returned to London to appear at Ronnie Scott's Club and the Pizza Express in Soho, also recording two solo albums. In 1980, she settled in New York and began to consolidate her position as a leading performer of classic popular numbers, in jazz-inflected style, albeit with limited improvisation, supported by the best musicians of the day.

                              

  Here’s “Fascinating Rhythm” From the album “No More Blues.”

Following an association with Inner City, which resulted in four albums, she moved to the mainstream Concord label, where she enjoyed her most fruitful period as a pop-jazz singer. 

Her many recordings confirmed her status as a distinctive songstress, her silky voice now deeper and more emotionally rounded, while also revealing her gifts as a lyricist with her translations of Brazilian songs, including many by Jobim.

She won three Album of the Year awards from Stereo Review, appeared at the Algonquin Hotel, devised her own cabaret shows, and performed in concert with Skitch Henderson at Carnegie Hall.

Clearly a troubled woman despite her many successes, McCorkle never concealed her difficulties, overcoming a compulsive eating problem and leading Freedom From Smoking clinics. A breast cancer survivor, McCorkle offered performances for children and music therapy for cancer victims. 

What pulled her through in large part was her music. Her particular gift was for interpreting songs, the buoyant as well as the rueful. In elegant evening gowns and a pixie haircut, she held the room with her smoky voice, delivering songs unadorned.

She had a history of clinical depression and in her last few weeks her career had also been dealt a double blow. She learned that her record company, Concord Jazz, was not releasing a new CD of hers, only a compilation of her past work. She also learned that the Algonquin Hotel, where she had performed for the last 11 years, was not renewing her annual engagement. To friends, this professional drought was one more hurdle for a woman with a long history of personal pain. She had been on and off antidepressants.

On May 19, 2001, she died at the age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her high-rise apartment at 41 West 86th Street in Manhattan. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.  Although McCorkle might not have been quite famous, she was well above anonymous. She could fill rooms in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, but her emphasis on jazz as well as standards made her something out of the ordinary in cabaret.

(Edited from the Guardian, New York Times & Wikipedia)