Helen Merrill

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Helen Merrill (* 21st July 1930 in New York City as Jelena Ana Milčetić ) is an American jazz singer .

Live and act

Helen Merrill was born in New York in 1930 to Croatian immigrants. At fourteen she began singing in the Bronx jazz clubs such as the 845 Club and toured with Reggie Childs in 1946/1947. She did not perform during her marriage to Aaron Sachs . In 1952 she went on tour with Earl Hines . In the same year her first single A Cigarette For Company was released . In 1954 followed her first and to this day most popular LP Helen Merrill , together with Clifford Brown and Oscar Pettiford for the label Emarcy, which was produced by Quincy Jones . In those early years of her career, she worked with Earl Hines, Charles Mingus , Thad Jones , Charlie Byrd , Marian McPartland , Al Haig , Jim Hall , Elvin Jones , Ron Carter , Bill Evans, and Stan Getz . In 1956 the LP Dream Of You followed with Gil Evans (arr, cond), Hank Jones (p), Barry Galbraith (g), Oscar Pettiford (b), Joe Morello (d) (plus horn and string section); In 1987 she took this album again with Gil Evans under the title Collaboration .

In the 1950s to 1970s she was nicknamed "the Sigh of New York" among musicians; she sang with most of the famous bands of the time. Helen Merrill also lived in Europe for a number of years, recording albums in Italy, France and Norway. In 1963 she toured with George Gruntz in Japan ( Helen Merrill in Tokyo ), where she also lived for a while. In 1972 she settled in New York; since the 1970s she has mostly worked on her albums with her husband, the pianist and arranger Torrie Zito , for example on the bossa nova album Casa Forte in 1980 or on her Clifford Brown homage Brownie and her album Carousel (1996 ) with songs by the Finnish composer Heikki Sarmanto . But she also recorded with John Lewis , Stéphane Grappelli / Steve Lacy / Gordon Beck (1986) and Wayne Shorter (1992). In 2000 the CD Jelena Ana Milčetić AKA Helen Merrill was released . The last album of their long discography for the time being is Lilac Wine (2004).

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In other sources the year of birth 1929 is given.
  2. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/casa-forte-mw0000924047
personal data
SURNAME Merrill, Helen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Milčetić, Jelena Ana (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City