If you see someone standing outside of 41 West 86th Street in Manhattan looking up at one of the balconies that person's possibly recalling where, 24 years ago today, May 19, singer Susannah McCorkle committed suicide by jumping from the balcony to her death on the sidewalk below. Unlike Chet Baker who took a similar way out there was no debate as to whether anyone else was involved and the suicide verdict wasn't questioned.
McCorkle was outstanding, not just as a jazz singer but also as a published writer and professional linguist.
Although American by birth her recording career began in London and she toured the UK with trumpet player and Bixologist Dick Sudhalter. I actually heard her with the band at the People's Theatre in Newcastle circa 1974.
I'd like to say that this was a Eureka! moment rather like when I first heard Ella in concert 20 years earlier but it wasn't and, over time, my vague recollections were of a pleasant singer who could hold a tune.
It was some years further down the line when I jumped out of the bath shouting Eureka! It's said that everyone remembers the moment they heard the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I can also remember the afternoon when, sitting in the Ben Lomond pub, I read the report in the Guardian of Susannah McCorkle's tragic end.
Nobody in the pub had heard of her and they weren't impressed when I told them that I'd seen her in Newcastle 27 years previous. It became my mission to learn more and where better to start than with her records. Fast forward a couple of months ...
I'd been staying at a downmarket hotel near Covent Garden and was perusing the books and records, as is my wont, in an Oxfam shop nearby on Drury Lane when, lo and behold, there it was - an LP: Susannah McCorkle, The Quality of Mercer. Susannah McCorkle singing the songs of Johnny Mercer! All of a sudden, the British Museum had lost its charm and I couldn't wait to get home and play what looked to be the biz.
I wasn't disappointed. Accompanied by a stellar group of musicians - Digby Fairweather (trumpet); Danny Moss, Duncan Lamont (tenor sax); Ron Rubin (bass); Derek Hogg (drums) and, on piano, Keith Ingham who became, or already was, the first of her two husbands, I became (at least in my eyes) her number one fan.
Susannah recorded 22 albums and I have acquired ten of them - the last one from that Aladdin's Cave next to the Newcastle Arts Centre as recently as Friday gone - No Mo Blues.
The above YouTube clip of PS I Love You, although by Johnny Mercer wasn't on that early album but this version from No Mo Blues is possibly the greatest version ever of this classic song. Susannah's husky voice, Emily Remler's chordal backing and the purity of Ken Peplowski's tone on clarinet send shivers up my spine.
Had she not done what she did, and only she knows why she did what she done, Susannah would now be 79-years-old. Never to be forgotten. Lance
3 comments :
I'm glad someone is keeping the name of this underated singer alive. I too heard her live at Ronnies during an interval spot and liked what she did with a tune. Wish I could recall who the main act was- maybe Woody Shaw's Band?
The class just oozed out of her voice.
I was also at the People's Theatre concert in 1974. Like you, I can remember little about the music, only some bits and pieces about the band.
It was called Commodore (after the record label) and was led by Dick Sudhalter. He rivalled Scott Hamilton in his eagerness to dismantle and reassemble his instrument on stage. Behind him was a folding card table holding valve oil bottles, dusters and other paraphernalia which were brought
into use at any opportunity - all very distracting for the audience and possibly
for the other musicians as well!
I remember Susannah McCorkle as a statuesque figure in a long green dress,
but have no recollection of her singing although I have accumulated and enjoyed a number of her albums since.
The trombonist was Keith Nichols who also played a Scott Joplin rag at the
piano. I can't remember which one (probably 'Maple Leaf'), but this was during the ragtime mini-boom and he had a recent LP release on EMI.
The briefly displaced pianist was Keith Ingham, at that time Susannah McCorkle's either current or future first husband.
The clarinetist was Paul Nossiter who played in a Pee Wee-is style.
He was a journalist friend and colleague of Dick Sudhalter from Boston,
who also worked for George Wein in the production of the Newport and Nice Festivals. I had a brief chat with him after the concert which cumulated in a difference of opinion when he maintained that a piano had no place in a jazz
band because it is a 'tempered' instrument. Rather like Chris Barber I suppose!
The bass player was Peter Ind, already a veteran of all sorts of jazz
situations, and the drummer was John Cox, who I remember was billed as "Fat John" when he appeared with his own band.
I don't think that Commodore did very much after this , as Dick Sudhalter became more involved with his Bix-related activities. I think they did do a
short tour with Bobby Hackett which unfortunately came nowhere near our region.
As a final sobering thought, I suppose only Keith Ingham and possibly John Cox are the only survivors...
Post a Comment