biography
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1918–96)
|
| biography:
| Singer, born in Newport News, Virginia, USA. Discovered in 1934 singing in an amateur contest in Harlem, she joined Chick Webb's band and recorded several hits, notably ‘A-tisket A-tasket’ (1938). Her lucid intonation and broad range made her a top jazz singer. Her series of recordings for Verve (1955–9) in multi-volume ‘songbooks’ are among the treasures of American popular song. After 1971 her concert schedule was occasionally interrupted because of diabetes, and she had both legs amputated in 1994. |
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