Susannah McCorkle

蘇姍娜于1946年出生于美國加州柏克萊，71年她搬到英國從事寫作與翻譯。在巴黎時，蘇姍娜聽到比莉．哈樂黛（Billie Holiday）的唱片，深受感動，便決定投身爵士歌唱事業(yè)。剛開始她是在一些Pub演唱，并曾經與Ben Webster、Dexter Gordon等爵士大師合作。接著在76年，蘇姍娜出版了首張專輯「The Songs of Harry Warren」，之后又陸續(xù)發(fā)行了Johnny Mercer、E.Y. Yip Harburg、Leo Robin等作曲家的歌曲集。1988年蘇姍娜與Concord Jazz唱片公司簽約，發(fā)行了專輯「No More Blues」，然后出版了包括巴西、百老匯等多元化內容的爵士唱片。蘇姍娜對歌詞的詮釋有其獨到之處，她認為歌曲的內涵是很重要的，而經由她的歌聲傳達出來的，則是充滿生命力的悸動。她曾三度獲得Stereo Review年度專輯大獎，其演唱功力深受評論界肯定。可惜的是天妒英才，蘇姍娜．麥可可已于今年五月逝于紐約，享年65歲。
 
by  Scott Yanow
One of the finest interpreters of lyrics active in the jazz world during the 1980s and 90s, Susannah McCorkle did not improvise all that much, but she brought the proper emotional intensity to the words she sang; a lyricists dream. She moved to England in 1971 where she worked with Dick Sudhalter and Keith Ingham, among others, performing at concerts with such visiting Americans as Bobby Hackett, Ben Webster, and Dexter Gordon. McCorkle sang at the Riverboat jazz room in Manhattan during 1975 (gaining a lot of attention) and recorded two albums in England (tributes to Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer) that were released domestically by Inner City. By 1980, she was back in the U.S., recording a Yip Harburg set and a fourth album for Inner City. After that label folded, McCorkle switched over to Pausa but by the late 80s was recording regularly for Concord. She expanded her pre-bop repertoire to include Brazilian songs and blues and, by the mid-90s, Susannah McCorkle was at the top of her field. Tragically, career disappointments exacerbated her chronic depression (a condition she kept well-hidden), resulting in her suicide in May of 2001 in New York City.