Myra Taylor

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Myra Jardine Taylor (born February 24, 1917 in Bonner Springs , Kansas , † December 9, 2011 in Kansas City , Missouri ) was an American jazz singer , songwriter and actress .

Live and act

Taylor grew up in Kansas City in the historic 18th and Vine-Downtown East neighborhood. At the age of 14 she started working as a cleaner; she also performed as a dancer in the Sunset and Reno clubs on 12th Street. Not yet of legal age, she got into some clubs through a side window and eventually became better known through her singing.

In the 1930s she toured the Midwest with the Clarence Loves Band. In 1937 she moved to Chicago and worked at Baby Dodds , Lonnie Johnson , Roy Eldridge and Lil Hardin Armstrong . In 1940 she returned to Kansas City and became a band singer in Harlan Leonard's new band Harlan Leonard and His Rockets , which had a long engagement in the Harlem dance hall Golden Gate Ballroom . The band recorded I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire for the RCA label Bluebird Records . Taylor wrote the song Dig It , and Leonard claimed credits to co-wrote, later removed her name and stripped of royalties.

After leaving Leonard, she went on a USO tour with Eubie Blake , then returned to Kansas City to sing with Jimmy Keith . In 1946 she had a hit with Spider and the Fly on Mercury Records , but the royalties from the publisher Blasco Music were withheld from her.

Frustrated with the American music business, she lived in Juarez, Mexico for most of the 1950s. Taylor then began performing in Europe, moving to Frankfurt am Main in 1965 and opening a club called Down by the Riverside . She also appeared in USO shows in the Korean and Vietnam wars , as well as 32 other countries.

In 1977 she returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles to work in the film and television studios. In 1994 she returned to Kansas City again. In 2000 she recorded the album My Night to Dream for the Analogue Production Originals label , which was released on September 11, 2001. In 2010 it was re-released as SACD . Taylor continued her singing career, performing with the formation Wild Women of Kansas City and celebrating her 94th birthday with a concert at Knuckleheads Saloon with Samantha Fish and Mike Zito .

On July 24, 2011, she made her final appearance with the Wild Women of Kansas City at Jardine's nightclub in Kansas City, Missouri. In the second half of 2011, her health deteriorated; she lived in a nursing home, the Swope Ridge Geriatric Center in Kansas City , until her death in December .

Career as an actress

Taylor played the role of Pearl in three episodes of the US television series The Jeffersons , and in 1979 she had a leading role in the basketball comedy Scoring . She had supporting roles in the thriller Suspect (1987), Crossing Delancey (1988), A Charming Disgust (1991) and Ron Howard's Headlines (1994)

Discographic notes

  • Kansas City Jump: Swingin Small Combos Kansas City Style, Vol. 3 (2007)
  • My Night to Dream (2001)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Obituary at Kansascity.com
  2. ↑ Historic 18th and Vine District ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / 18thandvinedistrict.org
  3. ^ Frank Driggs: Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop-- A History Oxford University Press 2006, in Google Books
  4. ↑ a b c Now in her 90s, Kansas City jazz singer Myra Taylor has had a life of ups and downs in the music industry ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pitch.com
  5. ^ Delia Gillis, Kansas City (MO) (Black America Series) Arcadia Publishing ISBN = 978-0738534480 at Google Books
  6. ↑ Wild Women of Kansas City booked at Corbin Theater Liberty Tribune ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2011 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kccommunitynews.com
  7. ↑ My Night to Dream on Allmusic
  8. ↑ The Wild Women of Kansas City booking information ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mcquittymusic.com
  9. ↑ KC's oldest and youngest women musicians jam out at Knuckleheads tonight ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blogs.pitch.com
  10. ^ The Kansas City Star, November 2011
  11. ↑ Myra Taylor in the Internet Movie Database (English)
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Myra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taylor, Myra Jardine (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer, songwriter and actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonner Springs , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2011
Place of death Kansas City (Missouri)