Dakota Staton, Jazz Singer

[Gordo]

Vocalist Dakota Staton, 76, Dies
>
> by Nate Guidry
> Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 2007
>
> Dakota Staton, an iconic Pittsburgh jazz vocalist who achieved
> international fame, died Tuesday at Isabella Geriatric Center in New York
> after a lengthy illness. Ms. Staton was 76.
>
> Sharynn Harper, a spokesperson for Ms. Staton's brother, Fred Staton, said
> Ms. Staton had been in declining health after suffering a triple aneurysm
> several years ago.
>
> Ms. Staton's last major performance in Pittsburgh was in 1996 when she
> performed at the Hill House Auditorium as part of the Mellon Jazz
> Festival.
>
> Born and raised in Homewood, Ms. Staton attended Westinghouse High School
> and was a member of the famed Kadets, a swing band that played music
> ranging from "String of Pearls" to Coleman Hawkins' "Body and Soul."
>
> After cutting her teeth working with the Joe Westry Orchestra at several
> of the bigger nightclubs in the Hill District, Ms. Staton moved to Detroit
> in search of other musical opportunities.
>
> In 1954, Ms. Staton recorded a single for Capitol Records and began a
> series of highly visible concerts on the East Coast. Two years later, she
> was named "the most promising jazz vocalist of the year" by the critics at
> Downbeat Magazine. When her first album, "Late Late Show," appeared the
> following year, it was hailed a classic.
>
> In the mid 1960s, Ms. Staton moved to England.
>
> "From England I ventured all around the world," Ms. Staton told the
> Post-Gazette in a 1996 interview. "Most of the venues I played there were
> for international audiences that spoke and understood English, like the
> Intercontinental hotel chains and other places I worked. Many of those
> people had never heard the blues, and I was an oasis for them. I imagine
> some of them have never heard it since."
>

[Hyfler/Rosner]

"Gordo" <gord...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:FICdnTFN3by0OIPb...@comcast.com...

Vocalist Dakota Staton, 76, Dies
>
> by Nate Guidry
> Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 2007
>
> Dakota Staton, an iconic Pittsburgh jazz vocalist who
> achieved
> international fame, died Tuesday at Isabella Geriatric
> Center in New York
> after a lengthy illness. Ms. Staton was 76.

I saw her probably 20 years ago at a jazz club that was in a
loft downtown somewhere. And that's the sum total of what I
remember about it. Loved her name.