Maxine Sullivan

One of the great American jazz vocalists, born Marietta Williams in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Maxine's precocious talent led to early jobs on radio broadcasts in Pittsburgh and gigs with a local group led by her Uncle Harry, the Red Hot Peppers. After being introduced to the proprietor, she was hired as the featured singer at a speakeasy for $14 a week, a place known euphemistically as the Benjamin Harrison Literary Club. Pianiste Gladys Mosier (who played with the all-girl band of movie star Betty's sister Ina Ray Hutton) heard her perform and arranged a recording date at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street with band leader Claude Thornhill (who prompted her change of name, simply, because there were too many musicians named Williams on the scene already). By 1937, Maxine had developed her own intimate, swinging style, which blended with perfect diction and intonation for several famous recordings with Thornhill's orchestra, including "Gone With the Wind" and the best-selling up-tempo folk songs "Loch Lomond" and "Annie Laurie". By the end of the decade, the "Pint-Sized Songstress" was at the peak of her popularity. Her face had hit the cover of Life magazine and she commuted regularly for sessions between the West Coast and New York. Her rendition of "Summertime" at a 1938 memorial concert for George Gershwin was a showstopper. In the Paramount musical St. Louis Blues (1939), Maxine can be heard singing the title track. Between 1940 and 1941, she cut several more hit records with bassist John Kirby (to whom she was married at the time) and his 'biggest little band in the land'. She also joined Kirby for two seasons on the CBS show "Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm", in the process setting a landmark for African-American women being showcased on radio for any length of time. In the summer of 1941, she went on tour with Benny Carter's orchestra, then left showbiz for several years. Back in New York in the mid- 40's, Maxine went on pursuing a successful career as a soloist, enjoying long residencies at famous venues like Le Ruban Bleu, Village Vanguard and Penthouse. In addition to singing, she had also added the valve trombone, pocket trumpet and the flügelhorn to her repertoire. After touring Europe in 1948 and 1954, she retired from performing a second time to take up nursing, physical therapy and and health counselling at schools in the Bronx. Her final comeback began in 1958. In the course of the succeeding two decades, Maxine worked with second husband Cliff Jackson (an ex-Chick Webb alumnus), the brilliant clarinettist Bob Wilber, as well as performing with the World's Greatest Jazz Band, at the Half Note in New York and at a number of international jazz festivals. In the 80's, she added three Grammy Award nominations to her Tony nomination for a 1979 Broadway role in the musical "My Old Friends".