Maxine Sullivan
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Maxine Sullivan (May 13, 1911 — April 7, 1987[1]) was an American blues and jazz singer.
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[edit] Career
Sullivan was born Marietta Williams in Homestead, Pennsylvania. After moving to New York, Sullivan sang during intermissions at the Onyx Club and was discovered by the pianist, Claude Thornhill. Thornhill recorded her with a sympathetic septet singing a couple of standards and two Scottish folk songs performed in swinging fashion — "Annie Laurie" and "Loch Lomond" The latter became a hit record and Sullivan's signature song for the rest of her career.[1]
Future sessions found her singing vintage folk tunes such as "I Dream of Jeanie," "Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes" and "If I Had a Ribbon Bow." From 1940 to 1942, Sullivan often sang with her husband, bassist John Kirby's sextet. She starred for two years on a radio series, Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm; she had a reasonably successful solo career, and then in the mid 1950s (similar to Alberta Hunter) became a trained nurse. In 1968, she began making a comeback, performing at music festivals and even playing trombone and flugelhorn. Now married to pianist Cliff Jackson, Sullivan sometimes appeared with the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and recorded frequently. During her later period, she often sang with mainstream jazz groups, including Scott Hamilton's. Quite fittingly, the last song that she ever recorded in concert was the same as her first record, "Loch Lomond."[1]
Sullivan died in 1987 in New York.[1][2] She was an inductee in the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
[edit] Film credits
- 1938 - Going Places
- 1939 - St. Louis Blues
[edit] Theater credits
- 1939 - Swingin' the Dream
- 1979 - My Old Friends
