June Richmond

JUNE RICHMOND d1962. American jazz singer and actor. She is considered the first African-American jazz singer who sang regularly in a white band when she appeared in 1938 (with Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra) with whom she recorded several sides for Decca Records. Her first recordings under her own name originated in 1945 when she signed with Mercury Records, releasing several singles, including two songs from her Broadway musical "Are You With It?". She then moved to Europe where she recorded six titles in Stockholm with Svend Asmussen. In 1957, in Paris, she recorded another four numbers with the orchestra of Quincy Jones ; "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" / "Sleep" / "Everybody's Doing It" and "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea". She appeared in several films in the 1940s and 1950s including ; Murder in Swingtime (1937) / Carolina Blues (1944) / Reet Petite and Gone (1947) / The Dreamer (1948) / Tour of the Grand Dukes (France 1953) and Liebe Jazz und Übermut (Germany 1957). She died of a heart attack in Sweden on August 14th 1962 at the age of 47