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Teri Thornton

Teri Thornton, born Shirley Enid Avery was an American jazz singer. Thornton first performed in local Detroit clubs in the 1950s. She moved to New York City in the 1960s, where she found work singing for television advertisements, and recorded for several different labels. Late in the 1960s Thornton faded from public view, and only decades later was discovered to have been singing on various song poem records in Los Angeles on the Preview label as "Teri Summers." She played clubs in New York after moving back there from Los Angeles in 1983, and in the 1990s she fully revived her career. She was a resident of the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. In 1998, she won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Vocal Competition in Washington, DC. (Singers Jane Monheit, Tierney Sutton and Roberta Gambarini were runners-up in the same competition.) Thornton signed withVerve, which released I'll Be Easy to Find. That same year, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer and died of the disease in 2000. Source: Wikipedia

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Radio & Podcasts

Labor Day at Coney Island

Read "Labor Day at Coney Island" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


The Labor Day weekend broadcast included new releases from vocalists Audrey Silver, Deb Bowman, Barb Jungr, Tracey Coryell, a single from pianist Lauren Lee, plus a collaboration of Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller, with birthday shout outs to Dinah Washington, Alice Coltrane, Teri Thornton, Valerie Simpson and Charlie Parker, among others and a nod to the passing of trumpeter Clora Bryant. Playlist Adrienne Fenemor “ Mo' Puddin'" from Mo' Puddin' (Self released) 00:00 Audrey Silver “Can't We Be ...

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Album Review

Teri Thornton: I'll Be Easy To Find

Read "I'll Be Easy To Find" reviewed by John Sharpe


Vocalist and pianist Teri Thornton recorded a number of albums in the early 60s and then virtually disappeared from the scene. I'll Be Easy To Find finds Ms. Thornton, now 64-years-old, in fine form, her voice still strong. Thornton’s vocal interpretations display the kind of maturity and sincerity often born of hard times. The opening track, her signature Somewhere In The Night, evokes memories of Carmen and Sarah. Thornton swings gently through I Believe In You and then scats Ella-like ...

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Album Review

Teri Thornton: I'll Be Easy to Find

Read "I'll Be Easy to Find" reviewed by David Adler


Singer Teri Thornton gained fairly wide recognition in the early 1960s but then fell into prolonged obscurity. Recently “rediscovered" by manager/producer Suzi Reynolds, the talented Thornton, now 65 years old and battling cancer, placed in the 1998 Thelonius Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, played the Village Vanguard, and got signed to Verve. I’ll Be Easy to Find is her emotionally charged comeback.Thornton’s wide, swooping vibrato suggests Sarah Vaughan, but her somewhat dry timbre is closer to Carmen McRae. ...

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Album Review

Teri Thornton: Devil May Care

Read "Devil May Care" reviewed by AAJ Staff


“This girl has got to make it. If she doesn’t, something’s very wrong.” This was Freddie Green, speaking of Teri Thornton when this album was made. For the longest time, the prediction seemed amiss: dropped by Riverside after two albums, decades of obscurity, cancer – many things got in the way of the dream. But it never ended: in September of 1998, with Norman Simmons at the keys, Teri Thornton won the vocal competition of the Thelonious Monk Institute, at ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

I'll Be Easy to Find

Verve Music Group
2000

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Devil May Care

Fantasy Jazz
1999

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Devil May Care

Unknown label
1976

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Somewhere In The...

Unknown label
1963

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Somewhere In The...

Unknown label
1963

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