A cantora e pianista de jazz Helen Merrill nasceu com o nome Jelena Ana Milcetic no 21 de julho de 1930, em Nova York, numa familia de imigrantes da Croácia. Tornou-se figura de renome internacional. Começou cantando em clubes de jazz no bairro Bronx, com a idade de 14 anos. Com 16 anos ocupava a maior parte de seu tempo com música. Fez a estréia musical gravando “A Cigarrette for Company” com a banda de Earl Hines no disco “Xanadu”. A cantora Etta Jones também fez sua estréia neste disco. A carreira de Helen se estendeu por seis décadas.Morou por um tempo na Itália, onde fez mais sucesso do que no seu proprio país. Gravou um disco por lá e apresentou-se em concertos com os monstros sagrados Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini e Stan Getz. Em 1967 fixou-se no Japão onde constituiu uma legião de fãs, que perdura até os nossos dias.
Em 1972 voltou para os Estados Unidos e desde então grava e se apresenta esporadicamente. Incursionou por outros gêneros. Gravou um disco de bossa nova, outro de canções natalinas e tributo a dupla de compositores Richard Rogers & Hammerstein.
Clic para ve-la cantando "I'm a Fool to Want You" de Frank Sinatra
Jazz singer Helen Merrilll was born Jelena Ana Milcetic on July 21,1930 to Croatian immigrants parents in New York City, is internationally known. She began singing in jazz clubs in the Bronx at the age of fourteen. By the time she was sixteen, Merrill had taken up music full time. In 1952, Merrill made her recording debut when she was asked to sing "A Cigarette For Company" with the Earl Hines band; the song was released on their Xanadu album. Etta Jones made her debut on the same album.
Merrill’s recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy (where she lived for many years and enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States)) as well as in her native United States.
In 1954, Merrill recorded her first (and to date most acclaimed)LP, an eponymous record featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford among others. It was to be one of Brown's last recordings, as he was killed in a car accident just two years later. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones who was then just twenty-one years old. The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her for an additional four-album contract.
Merrill's follow-up to Helen Merrill was the 1956 LP, Dream of You, which was produced and arranged by bebop arranger and pianist Gil Evans. Evans' work on Dream of You was his first in many years. His arrangements on Merrill's laid the musical foundations for his work in following years with Miles Davis.
She settled for a time in Italia recording an album there, and doing live concerts with jazz notables Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz. Merrill returned to the U.S. in the 1960s, but moved to Japan in 1967 after touring there. Merrill developed a following in Japan that remains strong to this day.
Merrill returned to the US in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres. She has recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album and a record's worth of Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others.
One of Merrill's millennium released recordings draws from her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing. Jelena Ana Milcetic, also known as Helen Merrill (2000), combines jazz, pop and blues songs with several traditional Croatian songs sung in Croatian.
Merrill’s recording career has spanned six decades and she is popular with fans of jazz in Japan and Italy (where she lived for many years and enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States)) as well as in her native United States.
In 1954, Merrill recorded her first (and to date most acclaimed)LP, an eponymous record featuring legendary jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford among others. It was to be one of Brown's last recordings, as he was killed in a car accident just two years later. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones who was then just twenty-one years old. The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her for an additional four-album contract.
Merrill's follow-up to Helen Merrill was the 1956 LP, Dream of You, which was produced and arranged by bebop arranger and pianist Gil Evans. Evans' work on Dream of You was his first in many years. His arrangements on Merrill's laid the musical foundations for his work in following years with Miles Davis.
She settled for a time in Italia recording an album there, and doing live concerts with jazz notables Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz. Merrill returned to the U.S. in the 1960s, but moved to Japan in 1967 after touring there. Merrill developed a following in Japan that remains strong to this day.
Merrill returned to the US in 1972 and has continued recording and regular touring since then. Her later career has seen her experiment in different music genres. She has recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album and a record's worth of Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others.
One of Merrill's millennium released recordings draws from her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing. Jelena Ana Milcetic, also known as Helen Merrill (2000), combines jazz, pop and blues songs with several traditional Croatian songs sung in Croatian.
Click to watch her singing "I'm a Fool to Want You"
Reference - Wikipédia
Tradução - Humberto Amorim
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