Audrey Morris

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Audrey Morris (born November 12, 1928 - April 1, 2018 in Chicago ) was an American jazz singer and pianist who was active in Chicago and specialized in jazz ballads.

Live and act

Morris grew up on Chicago's South Side and took classical piano lessons as a child. She got into songs through the radio broadcasts on Your Hit Parade . In her school days she wrote song lyrics; Her role models included Billie Holiday , Lee Wiley , Mildred Bailey, and Peggy Lee . In 1950 she began performing in the Capitol Lounge ; In 1954 she moved to the newly opened Mister Kelly's nightclub . In 1955 she sang with Charlie Spivak ; 1956 with Claude Thornhill on an NBC television show ("Moonlight in Vermont"). She recorded her first album in 1955 for the small RCA sub-label Label X ( Bistro Ballads , with Johnny Pate ); the following year for Bethlehem Records ( The Voice of Audrey Morris with arrangements by Marty Paich ). The opportunity to record an album with movie theme songs for Warner Brothers she turned down. In the following years she continued to perform at the local level; initially she was the head of a trio in London House , a jazz piano club that also hosted stars like George Shearing and Oscar Peterson . In the late 1960s, she limited her appearances in favor of her family; In 1981 she had another engagement at the Palmer House . In 1985 her album Afterthoughts (with Stu Genovese) was released. In the field of jazz she was involved in twelve recording sessions between 1955 and 2001. Morris died at the Presence Resurrection Medical Center in the Norwood Park West neighborhood at the age of 89 .

Discographic notes

  • Film Noir (Fancy Faire, 1989)
  • Songbirds Special (Blue Flame, 1990), with Stu Genovese
  • Look at Me Now (Audiophile, 1997)
  • Round About (Southport, 1997), with Joe Vito , Johnny Frigo
  • The Saturn Sessions - Piano & Song (2001), with Patti Wicks , William Roy

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Howard Reich: Singer-pianist Audrey Morris dies at 89, which was an icon of Chicago cabaret and jazz. April 2, 2018, accessed April 2, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 11, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Morris, Audrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1928
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2018
Place of death Chicago