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Unsung Women of Jazz #9 – Clora Bryant

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags , , , , on October 23, 2011 by curtjazz

Clora Bryant

“It was a Sunday afternoon…They were trying to get Charlie [Parker] to play at the club next door, the Lighthouse, but no one could get him to sit in. Then he came over to where I was playing, borrowed a new Selmer tenor from somebody, and said, ‘Well, what do you want to play Clora?’ And I said, ‘Now’s the Time.’ So I set the tempo… and everybody got really swinging.” – Clora Bryant recalls playing with Charlie Parker

She has played with Bird, Diz and Satchmo. She is a legend of L.A.’s Central Avenue Jazz Scene. Yet, Clora Bryant is barely known outside of Southern California.

Clora Bryant was a “trumpetiste” (her preferred term) for over half a century. Women trumpet player/leaders are still fairly rare today. In the ’40’s and ’50’s, they were virtually unheard of.  But that didn’t stop Ms. Bryant.

Born in Texas in 1927, Clora Bryant’s originally played the piano and sang.  She did not pick up a trumpet until her junior year in high school, after her brother was drafted and went off to serve in WWII.  She wanted to be in the marching band and the trumpet was her way in.  Clora was a fast learner. So fast that she earned trumpet scholarships to Bennett College and Oberlin, only a year later.  She turned down both scholarships, opting instead to attend Prairie View College in Houston, which was closer to home.

When Clora’s father landed a job in Los Angeles, Clora transferred to UCLA.  It was there that she heard the sound of bebop, coming from the clubs on Central Avenue, the center of African-American life in L.A. at the time.  Clora was drawn to that sound like a moth to a flame. She began sitting in during late night jam sessions, where she played with other West Coast jazz players, like Howard McGhee, Frank Morgan and Teddy Edwards.  She was a good enough player to get invited to sit in when some cats would come from the east, like Bird and Diz.  The bond with Dizzy was so strong that he became Clora’s mentor, starting a friendship that would endure until Dizzy’s death.

Clora Bryant has always been resourceful. In addition to being a trumpet player and vocalist, she also learned to paly the drums. She was proficient enough on the skins to land a job with the Queens of Swing and tour with them for several years. In the early ’50’s Ms. Bryant returned to playing the trumpet. She backed Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker during that time. She also married and gave birth to her first two children.

In 1957 Clora Bryant recorded and released her first and only album as a leader; …Gal With a Horn, for Mode Records.  It’s an infectious, mostly uptempo affair, with Clora singing as well as blowing on all eight tracks. She gets solid support from a strong group that includes veteran bassist Ben Tucker and tenor saxophonist Walter Benton.

Ms. Bryant spent most of the remainder of the fifties on the road, playing the hot spots in Chicago, Denver and Vegas.  During the sixties, she teamed with her vocalist brother, Mel, to create a successful song and dance act, even hosting their own TV show in Australia for a while.  Clora made international headlines in 1989, when she accepted then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s invitation to play in U.S.S.R.; becoming the first female jazz musician to do so.

A 1996 heart attack forced Clora to put down her trumpet, but she barely skipped a beat. She continues to sing and lecture across the country about her rich life experiences and what it was like to be a pioneering woman in jazz.  Within the past decade, Clora Byrant has begun to receive some long overdue recognition.  She was Honored by Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with its 2002 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival Award, in 2002. And in 2007 a long-planned documentary Trumpetisically, Clora Byant,  was released.

As you can see in these recent clips, Clora Bryant is still going strong.  May she continue to do so for many more years!

Recommended Recordings:

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Birthday Video Tribute – Anita O’Day

Posted in The Jazz Continues..., Video Vault with tags , , , on October 18, 2011 by curtjazz

Anita O’Day was so cool, that she was hot.

In my book, she’s up there with Sarah, Ella, Billie, Nina and Carmen. Like those ladies, she was an original. You can recognize her within three notes. And her way of bending a long note (purportedly necessitated by a botched tonsillectomy), was pure artistry; others imitated it but they could never duplicate it.

Her life story is the stuff of a Hollywood movie. A great documentary has already been made, but man, a writer could have a field day on her without even having to bend the facts!

I asked myself, what made Anita O’Day so amazing? Then it hit me – like Wynton and Esperanza, Anita was born on October 18, which is also my birthday.

Here are a few familiar and not so familiar tracks from the great lady. Including, the unforgettable part of her set from Newport ’58 that was included in Jazz On A Summer’s Day. 

After watching, you may understand how I feel.

Happy Birthday Anita, wherever you are…

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Birthday Video Tribute – Wynton Marsalis

Posted in The Jazz Continues..., Video Vault with tags , , on October 18, 2011 by curtjazz

He’s arguably the most well-known and controversial jazz musician to come on the scene since 1980. He’s revered by many and reviled by almost as many.

He’s Wynton Marsalis – prodigiously gifted, passionate about the music and never at a loss for words. Today he is 50 years old.

Say what you want about him, but I can remember a time when some of the greatest jazz musicians ever to walk the earth were making disco records in order make a payday.

A lot of that changed when Wynton came on the scene  (with the full faith and credit of the Columbia Records publicity machine behind him). Suddenly, “real” jazz was cool and marketable again. Was it retro? Yeah; but it had heart and soul. And someone of my age was out there standing up for the jazz tradition.

Within a few short years, those who had loved Wynton passionately in 1982, had turned on him with a vengeance, but he has kept going, in spite of the haters.

He helped make straight ahead jazz relevant again, at a time when it was in danger of disappearing completely and we’re born on the same day, one year apart. Those are two reasons why I dig Wynton.

Here are a few performances from over the years, in tribute to “E. Skain Dankworth”.

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Birthday Video Tribute – Esperanza Spalding

Posted in The Jazz Continues..., Video Vault with tags , on October 18, 2011 by curtjazz

I’ve always dug Esperanza Spalding for her music. Now that I’ve found that we share the same birthday, I dig her even more.

She’s been called “the future of jazz”, “The Beyoncé of Jazz”, “jazz’s savior” “the coolest guest ever on my show” (by a leering David Letterman) and many other heady things.

I choose to call her a damn good musician, with a bright future and leave it at that…

One more thing I call her – the reigning Grammy “Best New Artist” (I’m still a little giddy over that one!)

Here are a few samples of her art. After viewing, feel free to attach the superlative of your choice…

Happy Birthday, Ms. Spalding!

Esperanza Spalding performs “Overjoyed” at the White House – Before the President and Stevie Wonder

Esperanza Spalding performs “I Know You Know” from her breakout album ‘Esperanza’

With her trio, at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Finally, on the very hip “Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul”

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Unsung Women of Jazz #8 – Mary Osborne

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags , , , , on October 15, 2011 by curtjazz

Mary Osborne (1921 – 1992)

“The only electric guitar I knew of was the Hawaiian guitar, I’d listen to all the jazz guitarists of the time, but they all played acoustic. But here was Charlie Christian playing Django Reinhardt’s ‘St. Louis Blues’ note for note but with an electric guitar. It was the most startling thing I’d ever heard.” – Mary Osborne

When I began this series, I only chose nine women. Because I knew that somewhere along the way, there would be a talented woman whom I had overlooked, that needed to be on this list. Well, surprise! I found not one, but two. The first, profiled here, is guitarist Mary Osborne. The second is…well, you’ll find out in the next post.

Born into a musical family in Minot, ND; Mary’s direction was set from an early age. “We had a very large family and everybody could play an instrument, but nobody intended to be a musician.” Mary said in a 1991 New York Times interview.  “They tell me that one time they found me sitting at the piano picking out tunes. I was 2 or 3 or something. My dad says ‘I think I finally got myself a musician.’ From then on he just doted on me, he brought me every string instrument.” Ms. Osborne tried the mandolin and the banjo, before settling on the guitar at age 9.  As a teenager, she played her acoustic guitar on local radio broadcasts, for which she was paid in Hershey Bars.

At 17, her life was changed when pianist Al Trent came to Bismark, ND, on a one-nite stand. Trent’s electric guitarist was a gifted young man named Charlie Christian.  The next day, Mary bought herself an electric guitar and became a devoted follower of Christian’s. And Christian, impressed by their mutual love of Django Reinhardt, took the time to mentor Mary.

In the late ’30’s Ms. Osborne moved to Pittsburgh and then to New York. Though she encountered barriers due to her sex, her talents were too good to be completely ignored.  Eventually, Mary landed a gig with legendary violinist Joe Venuti, (who considered her a replacement for his late partner Eddie Lang) which then led to work and recordings with Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Ben Webster, Dizzy Gillespie and much to her chagrin, many bookings as part of gimmicky all-girl groups.  Her love though, was joining in the late night jams at the famed clubs along 52nd Street.  She was quite a sight, this pretty, petite white girl, up on the stand and more than holding her own with some of the best jazzmen of all time.

Around that same time, Mary met her husband, trumpeter Ralph Scaffidi.  They remained in New York and Mary kept working, leading her own trio, which played many NYC hotels and appearing often on radio and in this upstart new medium, television.  She also gave birth to three children, between 1955 and 1959.  While pregnant with her third child, she recorded the first of her two albums, A Girl and Her Guitar.  Despite the corny title, this was no novelty record. Mary swung hard, cool and fast, leading a group that included pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Tommy Potter and drummer “Papa” Jo Jones.

[From Cats vs. Chicks, Mary trades licks with the great Tal Farlow on “Anything You Can Do…”]

During the ’60’s, Mary Osborne continued to work on the NY scene. She even refined her skills by taking classical guitar lessons. In 1968, Mary and Ralph decided to move to Bakersfield, CA, where they started a successful company that made guitars and amplifiers. She continued to perform locally and she taught at Cal State University in Bakersfield.  She would surface occasionally for recordings and higher profile gigs. In 1977 she appeared on Marian McPartland’s album Now’s The Time, which featured an all female group that included another of our Unsung Women, Vi Redd.  in 1981, Stash Records released  Now and Then, which was split between freshly recorded trio tracks and some cuts from A Girl and Her Guitar.  The ’81 tracks proved that Mary had not lost a step over the years; in fact her sound had matured into something that was less Charlie Christian and more uniquely hers.

In 1990, she joined Lionel Hampton for a set during the Playboy Jazz Festival. By all accounts, the 69-year-old Osborne stole the show (I tried desperately to find some video or audio footage, but no luck).  This led to her coming back to New York for a week at the Village Vanguard in 1991. Sadly, it would be her last New York gig. Mary Osborne died of cancer in 1992.

When I conceived this series, this spot in the order was to be filled by Emily Remler. Though we will still touch on Ms. Remler at a later date, I find it ironic that we are instead speaking of a woman who made Emily possible. Mary Osborne was a true pioneer.

Recommended Recordings:

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Unsung Women of Jazz #7 – Vi Redd

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags , , , , , on October 1, 2011 by curtjazz

Vi Redd

“This record is a sterling example of what the music [jazz] lost in the name of its phallocentricity. Vi Redd demonstrates a thoughtful tone and a careful respect for those around her. Her solos are pithy and directly to the point…Quite honestly, there’s really nothing quite like her records.” – From Rob Ferrier’s All Music guide Review of Vi Redd’s Lady Soul LP

Claire Daly, Tineke Postma, Tia Fuller, Virginia Mayhew are just a few of the strong women jazz saxophone players on the scene today. Rewind 40 – 50 years and you’ll find very few names.  Elvira “Vi” Redd was one of those few.  Now I know that there were many women sax players during the ’40’s – 60’s who were part of the “all girl” big bands and novelty acts. What I’m talking about are women who stepped out there on the front line with the men and recorded as leaders.  Vi Redd was a pioneer.

Ms. Redd is the daughter of Alton Redd, who was a New Orleans drummer and the co-founder of the Big Easy’s legendary Clef Club. Vi was born in Los Angeles in 1928.  With her father being a major part of the Central Avenue jazz scene, Vi was exposed to many of the greats of jazz from an early age.  Young Vi was also blessed with an aunt, Elma Hightower, who was considered one of the foremost L.A. music teachers of her time.  Ms. Hightower was instrumental in Vi’s decision to play the saxophone.

Like many sax players of her generation, Ms. Redd’s sound is heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.  So, it was no accident that the first of her two albums as a leader was titled Bird Call.  Recorded in 1962, it’s a good album, that features Herb Ellis on guitar; Leroy Vinnegar on bass; Carmell Jones on trumpet; Russ Freeman on piano and a young, pre-fusion Roy Ayers on vibes.  In addition to her solid work on alto, Ms. Redd also sings on a few numbers, which is not a bad thing, as she is a fine vocalist with a compelling grit to her sound.  The tunes penned by producer Leonard Feather are the only selections that miss the mark.

The next year, she recorded her second and apparently, final album, Lady Soul.  It’s the more polished of the two albums, with great playing and singing by Ms. Redd and first-rate support from Dave Bailey, Bucky Pizzarelli and Ben Tucker.  Unfortunately, Lady Soul has slipped into obscurity and is extremely hard to find.

When one does research on the career of Vi Redd, the term that recurs more than any other is “under-recorded”. How true that is. For though Ms. Redd has played and toured with artists such as Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughan and Max Roach, she has only two albums to her name and a scant four more with other artists.  Notable among these is Now’s The Time; an all female session led by Marian McPartland, in 1977.  Throughout the years, she gigged around the Los Angeles area and supported herself as a schoolteacher between engagements.  She finally received a bit of long overdue recognition in 2000, when she was honored at “Instrumental Women: Celebrating Women-N-Jazz“, a concert at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

As of this writing, Vi Redd is retired and living in the L.A. area. And as we can see in this heartwarming interview conducted by a family member in 2009, she is still sharp, delightful and energetic.

Recommended Recordings:

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Unsung Women of Jazz #6 – Melba Liston

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags , , , , , on September 24, 2011 by curtjazz

Melba Liston (1926 – 1999)

“When I saw the trombone I thought how beautiful it looked and knew I just had to have one. No one told me that it was difficult to master. All I knew was that it was pretty and I wanted one.” – Melba Liston

Trombonist/Arranger/Composer Melba Liston was born in Kansas City, MO on January 13, 1926.  In her early years, she shuttled back and forth between the and Kansas City, KS, where her grandparents lived.  She got her first trombone at seven, when a traveling music store brought instruments to school.  By the time she was eight, she was playing solo trombone on local radio shows. 

When Melba was eleven, her family moved to Los Angeles.  There she was mentored by a local music teacher, who ran a big band made up of neighborhood children.  That relationship ended after four years, when Melba decided to join the musicians union, against the teacher’s wishes. Nevertheless, Liston joined the pit band at Los Angeles’ Lincoln Theatre at age sixteen. 

When the Lincoln discontinued live shows in 1943, Liston joined the new band being formed by Gerald Wilson.  She also recorded in a group with old school pal Dexter Gordon.  Melba stayed with Wilson for five years, until his group disbanded.  She then joined Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band, along with Wilson. That lasted about a year, until Dizzy’s band also broke up. 

After joining Wilson again in a Bebop band that backed Billie Holiday on an ill-fated tour of the South, Ms. Liston gave up music for a few years. She took a job with the Los Angeles Board of Education. Music, however, was not completely out of her blood, as she continued to compose and arrange on the side.  She even tried her hand at acting for a while, landing bit parts in The Prodigal, alongside Lana Turner and in The Ten Commandments, as a harp player. 

But the music was never far away from Melba’s heart, so when the State Department asked Diz to form a big band for a Middle East/Asia tour, he coaxed Liston into joining him. Though she rarely soloed during that time, she did a considerable amount of arranging.  Including “Stella by Starlight”, “My Reverie” and “Wonder Why”. These arrangements (and more by Melba) were recorded and can be heard on the Birks Works compilation, on Verve.

Diz wasn’t the only one who dug Melba’s arranging.  Quincy Jones, who played trumpet in the Gillespie band at the time, was forming a band to tour Europe. he asked Ms. Liston to join him and she agreed. In 1958, Melba Liston recorded her sole album as a leader; Melba Liston and Her Bones.  On this date, Liston and an array of trombonists, including Slide Hampton, Al Grey and Bennie Green, were front and center, with solid support from Kenny Burrell, Ray Bryant, Charlie Persip and others. Co-produced by Leonard Feather, it’s a shame that this fine album drifted into obscurity.

In that same year, Melba met pianist composer Randy Weston. Weston admitted that at the time, he had never met a woman trombonist before.  Their meeting sparked a creative partnership that lasted almost 40 years.  Weston initially hired Melba to put some meat on the bones of his compositions. They realized quickly that musically, they were two halves of the same coin. Said Weston; “Melba is incredible; she hears what I do and then expands it. She will create a melody that sounds like I created it. She’s just a great, great arranger.”  All in all Weston and Liston worked on 10 albums together, including Little Niles, Earth Birth and Volcano Blues.

Melba Liston with Dizzy’s ‘Dream Band’ in 1982 on “Manteca” [Melba solos starting at 3:35]

Besides her work with Weston, Melba continued to freelance, working often with Clark Terry and briefly with Charles Mingus. Upon her return to Los Angeles in the late ’60’s, the pop music world took note of her talents and she arranged sessions for stars including Marvin Gaye and the Supremes.

Ms. Liston was very active until 1986, when she suffered the first of several strokes.  She had to give up playing and was confined to a wheelchair, but Melba continued to compose and arrange, until her death in 1999.

Melba Liston – most of her career was spent behind the scenes, but her work was always headliner quality.

Recommended Recordings:

  • Melba Liston and Her Bones (Fresh Sound) – CD in print; mp3 available
  • Volcano Blues  [w/ Randy Weston] (Verve – Gitanes) – CD OOP but available
  • Little Niles [Randy Weston] (Jazz Track [Import]) – CD in print [her first recording with Weston]
  • Khepera [Randy Weston] – (Verve) CD in print, mp3 available  [her final recording with Weston]

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A Birthday Video Tribute to Ray Charles

Posted in In Memoriam, The Jazz Continues..., Video Vault with tags , , , on September 23, 2011 by curtjazz

Though John Coltrane gets most of the birthday ink today, Ray Charles Robinson was also born on this day, in 1930; four years after Trane.

Both were born in the South, both spent seminal portions of their careers recording for Atlantic Records and both were major influences on countless numbers of artists.

Just think; wouldn’t a Coltrane – Ray Charles record date have been something?

Happy 81st birth anniversary to “The Genius”, Ray Charles.

Here are some great video clips of Brother Ray in his prime, “makin’ it do what it do, baby!”

“I Believe to My Soul” – performed live at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival

“Let The Good Times Roll” – also from Newport 1960

“What’d I Say” – from the mid ’60’s 

Ray blows the alto sax on this clip from a 1963 Brazilian Concert!

“In the Evening, When the Sun Goes Down” –  Ray stretches out a bit on the 88’s…

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A Birthday Video Tribute to John Coltrane

Posted in In Memoriam, The Jazz Continues..., Video Vault with tags , , , on September 23, 2011 by curtjazz

Today, John William Coltrane would have been 85 years old.

His face is on my personal “Mount Rushmore of Jazz”, so I admit to zero objectivity about him.

Like Miles, much has been written about him, but limited video footage exists. So here are a few fine examples of the art of “The Greatest of All Time”. I hope that you dig them as much as I do.

“Afro Blue” from Ralph J. Gleason’s legendary ‘Jazz Casual’ TV series

From the same program, the still haunting “Alabama”

“Impressions” 

“My Favorite Things” – 1965 on a cold August night in Belgium

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Unsung Women of Jazz # 5 – Jutta Hipp

Posted in Unsung Women of Jazz with tags , , , on September 11, 2011 by curtjazz

Jutta Hipp (1925 – 2003)

“As Hipp…matured artistically, she had defined her own artistic standards and revolted when pressured to record music she did not like. She also suffered from severe stage fright throughout her career. Thus being the featured artist at a large performance venue was more of a daunting chore for Hipp than a joyful public celebration of her talent.” – All About Jazz

The lore of jazz is filled with stories of musicians of prodigious gifts who appeared on the scene in a starburst and disappeared back to whence they came just as quickly; leaving behind perhaps a few recordings and the often faulty memories of those who worked with them. Pianist Jutta Hipp epitomizes these musicians.

Ms. Hipp was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1925.  She learned to play the piano as a child, but in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War she studied painting at the Leipzig Kunstakademie. By this time her interest in jazz had begun.  When the Soviets took over what would become East Germany in the late ’40’s, she moved with her family to Munich. There, Jutta began to play piano professionally, starting her own group. In the early 50’s, she joined a group led by saxophonist Hans Koller.

During her early days, Ms. Hipp copped to being influenced by great swing pianists, like Basie, Teddy Wilson and Fats Waller.  However, by the time she reached Munich, she had heard Bud Powell and was fully in his thrall.  There was also a bit of Lenny Tristano in her attack, although Ms. Hipp always brushed aside those comparisons.  Jutta led her own quintet in Frankfurt in 1953-1955 and recorded for several labels, including a session that was later released by Blue Note.

It was now time to come to America.  Jutta Hipp arrived in New York in November 1955. Her immigration to the United States was sponsored by jazz critic Leonard Feather who had discovered Hipp while visiting Germany and was “blown away” by her talent.   Ms. Hipp played at the famous Hickory House for much of the first half of 1956 and within a few months, she became the first white female as well as the first European instrumentalist ever signed by Blue Note Records. Hipp cut three albums as leader for Blue Note in 1956.  The first two of those were live trio albums recorded during her six month stint at the Hickory House, with British bassist Peter Ind and Ed Thigpen, known for his years with Oscar Peterson, on drums.  Hipp was by now expressing a fondness for the blues drenched style of Horace Silver, which does show a bit on these first two records.

The most famous of the Blue Note recordings featured the great tenorman Zoot Sims as a co-leader.  Sims made a perfect musical partner for Hipp and they sound as if they had played together for years. On this record, the Silver influence had disappeared – in fact she seems to have developed her own ingratiating style, that is mature and swings hard.  She followed this recording with a successful appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival and looked for all the world to be on her way.  Unfortunately, the Sims album was Jutta Hipp’s last known recording.

Two things served to scuttle her musical career. First, she suffered from stage fright. Playing in anything other than an intimate venue, before an appreciative crowd left her virtually paralyzed.  This made bookings in large rooms and additional appearances at large festivals impossible. Second, she had no interest in recording music that she did not like.  Feather tried to get her to record some of his songs in late ’56. Jutta refused, causing a permanent rift in their professional relationship, which, considering Feather’s influence in the jazz scene of the time, was not good for her career.

By 1958, Jutta Hipp had left the jazz world for good. She never married.  She remained in New York for the rest of her life; supporting herself as a seamstress at a factory in Queens. She painted scenes of street life in Queens. Hipp also was a fine photographer, who took many shots of her favorite Long Island beaches and of the musicians playing in the NYC and Long Island jazz clubs where she continued to attend concerts when the mood hit her. Such was her loss of contact with the music world, that Blue Note did not know where to send her royalty checks until 2000.

Jutta Hipp died in her Queens apartment on April 7, 2003 of pancreatic cancer.  She died without family or friends to help her. Shortly before her death, she had been discharged from the hospital into the care of some neighbors in her apartment building, one of whom was a nurse .  She had insufficient funds for a burial or a funeral, and she willed her body to Columbia University, for scientific research.

It was a sad and lonely end for a wonderful musician, whose talent had touched many during her brief period in the spotlight.

Recommended Recordings:

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