Susannah McCorkle

Susannah McCorkle – born on January 1, 1946 in Berkeley, California – was a critically-acclaimed jazz vocalist. She studied Italian literature and lived in Europe, finally settling in Rome, Italy, where she worked as a translator. It was there that she heard recordings by Billie Holiday and immersed herself in jazz music. She began taking singing lessons and relocated to London, England in 1973. She began performing in pubs accompanied by bandleader John Chilton. She met pianist and arranger Keith Ingham, which led to the two artists collaborating on a variety of projects. Their first album released under Susannah McCorkle’s name, was The Music of Harry Warren (1976). That album was followed in 1977 with The Quality of Mercer. Moving back to the United States in 1978, Susannah McCorkle settled in New York and started performing in clubs in Greenwich Village and Manhattan. She began to attract a lot of attention thanks to her blending of traditional jazz and pop covers. Signing to the Inner City Records label, she released the albums The People That You Never Get to Love and Over the Rainbow: The Songs of E.Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg in 1981. Three years later, she released the album Thanks for the Memory – Songs of Leo Robin in 1984. The album was followed by a series of well-received albums including How Do You Keep the Music Playing? (1985), As Time Goes By (1987), and I’ll Take Romance (1992). Her albums From Bessie to Brazil (1993) – which featured her popular version of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Waters of March” – and From Broadway to Bebop (1994) offered up a wide variety of styles that were linked together by her classic voice. The last album that she released during her lifetime was Hearts and Minds (2000). Susannah McCorkle had battled and beaten breast cancer but suffered from depression since childhood. She ended her own life by leaping from the balcony of her Manhattan apartment on May 19, 2001. Susannah McCorkle was 55 years old.