Teri Thornton
Teri Thornton (born September 1, 1934 in Detroit as Shirley Enid Avery , † May 2, 2000 in Englewood , New Jersey ) was an American jazz singer.
Live and act
Against initial opposition from her mother, a gospel choir leader and singer who had her own radio show in Detroit (and wanted to push her more towards classical music), she turned to jazz and won several local competitions. Although she was divorced when she was 19 and had two children, she continued her career and began singing professionally in a jazz club (Ebony Club) in Cleveland in 1956 . In Chicago, where she moved afterwards (and played piano at times in a strip club), she caught the attention of Cannonball Adderley and Johnny Griffin , who convinced Orrin Keepnews to release her first album "Devil May Care" on Riverside Records in 1961, on the Starring Clark Terry , Freddie Green and Wynton Kelly . An additional career push was the title song of the TV series "Naked City" ("Somewhere in the Night"), which she recorded in 1962; he brought her some appearances on television shows such as the Johnny Carson Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1963 she recorded "Open Highway" for Columbia Records. In 1964 she made a big appearance on the side of Ella Fitzgerald (whom she called her favorite singer on Down Beat at the time ) and Duke Ellington in a television tribute for the 40th anniversary of Ellington's stage.
After that, her career was sluggish, partly due to the dominance of rock and pop music in the late 1960s, partly due to her alcohol problems and poor management. She moved to Los Angeles and wrote songs. It was not until 1979 that she began performing again in bars, where she accompanied herself on the piano, first in Los Angeles, and from 1983 back in New York. After surviving cancer surgery in 1997, she surprisingly won the prestigious Thelonious Monk singing competition in 1998 (which she contested at the urging of her manager). This earned her a contract with Verve Records , where she was able to release an album for the first time ("I'll be easy to find" 1999). In January 2000 she was still engaged in Village Vanguard , but then died of the consequences of her cancer.
Web links
- Teri Thornton at Allmusic (English)
- Teri Thornton at Discogs (English)
- Obituary on jazzhouse.org
- Obituary in the Los Angeles Times
Remarks
- ↑ In the jury sat u. a. Diana Krall , Dianne Reeves and Joe Williams . For the first time, older participants were also admitted
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thornton, Teri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Avery, Shirley Enid (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 1, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 2, 2000 |
| Place of death | Englewood |