Pinky Winters

Pinky Winters (actually Phyllis Wozniak , born February 1, 1930 in Michigan City , Indiana ) is an American jazz singer .

Live and act

Winters had taken piano lessons since she was four and performed early on at public concerts in northwestern Indiana. After graduating from high school, she worked briefly in an office and then moved to Denver, where she performed with pianist Dick Grove. In 1953 she moved to Los Angeles and performed on Western Avenue at the Starlight nightclub (accompanied by pianist Bud Lavin and drummer Stan Levey, and her then-husband, bassist Jim Wolf); In 1954 she presented a self-titled debut album. Pinky Winters was from Sarah Vaughan influenced vocal style since she was 15 years old. More jazz albums followed by 1958, accompanied by musicians such as Zoot Sims , Lou Levy , Gerald Wiggins , Howard Roberts and Chico Hamilton . Her repertoire mainly included standards such as "Polka Dots & Moonbeams", " Cheek to Cheek ", " It Never Entered My Mind ", "Easy Living", " Jeepers Creepers " or " Pennies from Heaven ". The couple separated in the late 1950s; Winters raised their daughter and worked in an office. After marrying Bob Hardaway (a studio musician with NBC ), she had another daughter and lived in Hollywood Hills. It wasn't until 1979 that she began performing again in nightclubs like Donte’s . From that time until 2010 a number of other albums were created; In 1994 there was also a recording in the Netherlands with Metropole Orkest and Lou Levy ( As Long As There's Music ), and later recordings in Japan, where she last toured in 2016. In the field of jazz, she was involved in 12 recording sessions between 1954 and 2010.

Discographic notes

• Pinky (Vantage Records 1954), with Bud Lavin, Jim Wolf, Stan Levey
• Pinky & Zoot (Vantaga, 1954), with Zoot Sims, Mary Hale , John Darman , Ternig Inocencio , Jim Wolf, Gerry Hales
• Lonely One ( Argo , 1958), with Gerald Wiggins, Howard Roberts, Jim Wolf, Chico Hamilton
• The Shadow of Your Smile - (Pinky Winters Sings Johnny Mandel) (Cellar Door, 1983), with Lou Levy, Bill Takas
• Speak Low (Cellar Door, 1983)
• Let's Be Buddies (Jacqueline, 1985), with Lou Levy, Monty Budwig
• As Long as There's Music ( Koch Jazz 1994)
• This Happy Madness ( Verve 1994), with Pete Christlieb , Lou Levy, Eric Von Essen , Joe LaBarbera
• Rain Sometimes (2001), with Bob Maize , Richard Rodney Bennett
• World on a String: Pinky Winters Sings Sinatra - Live in Tokyo (SSJ, 2007), with Kiyoshi Morita , Masahiko Taniguchi
• Winters in Summer (SSJ 2010), with Pete Christlieb, Jim Cox , Ron Anthony , Tom Warrington , Ralph Penland

Web links

• Web presence
• Pinky Winters at Allmusic (English)
• Pinky Winters at Discogs (English)
• Zan Stewart: Doing It Her Way: Early in her career, Pinky Winters was inspired to approach singing in a modern manner, putting her own spin on a tune's melody and rhythm. Los Angeles Times , September 2, 1994, accessed January 10, 2018 . 
• Marc Myers: Pinky Winters: Lonely One. Jazzwax, January 9, 2018, accessed January 10, 2018 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed January 11, 2018)