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All Music Guide:
A subtle and lightly swinging jazz singer, Maxine Sullivan's delivery was very likable, and she did justice to all of the lyrics she sang during her long career. After moving to New York, Sullivan sang during intermissions at the Onyx Club and was discovered by pianist Claude Thornhill. Thornhill recorded her with a sympathetic septet singing a couple of standards and two Scottish folk songs performed in swinging fashion -- "Annie Laurie" and "Loch Lomond." The latter became a big hit and Sullivan's signature song for the rest of her career.
Future sessions found her singing vintage folk tunes such as "Darling Nellie Gray," "I Dream of Jeanie," "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" and "If I Had a Ribbon Bow." Even if lightning did not strike twice, she was now a popular attraction. She appeared briefly in the movie Going Places opposite Louis Armstrong and in the Broadway show Swingin' the Dream. From 1940-1942, Sullivan often sang with her husband, bassist John Kirby's Sextet, a perfect outlet for her cool sound. She starred for two years on a radio series, Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm; she had a reasonably successful solo career, and then in the mid-'50s (similar to Alberta Hunter) became a trained nurse. In 1968, the singer began making a comeback, performing at festivals and even playing a little bit of valve trombone and flügelhorn. Now married to pianist Cliff Jackson, Sullivan (whose style and appealing voice were unchanged from earlier years) sometimes appeared with the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and she recorded frequently. During her later period, she often sang with mainstream jazz groups, including Scott Hamilton's. Quite fittingly, the last song that she ever recorded in concert was the same as her first record, "Loch Lomond." Maxine Sullivan's earliest recordings are available on a Classics CD. A Tono LP has some of her mid-period recordings, and from 1969 on, she recorded for Monmouth Evergreen (reissued on Audiophile), Fat Cat Jazz, Riff, Kenneth, Stash, Atlantic, and Concord.
Wikipedia:
Maxine Sullivan (May 13, 1911 – April 7, 1987), born Marietta Williams, was an American jazz vocalist and performer.
As a vocalist, Maxine Sullivan was active for half a century from the mid-1930s to just before her death in 1987. She is best known for her 1937 recording of a swing version of the Scottish folk song "Loch Lomond". Throughout her career, Sullivan also appeared as a performer on film as well as on stage. A precursor to more famous later vocalists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan, Maxine Sullivan is considered one of the best jazz vocalists of the 1930s.
Biography
Maxine Sullivan was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Sullivan began her music career singing in her uncle's band, The Red Hot Peppers, in her native Pennsylvania, in which she occasionally played the flugelhorn and the valve trombone, in addition to singing. In the mid-1930s she was discovered by Gladys Mosier (then working in Ina Rae Hutton's big band. Mosier introduced her to Claude Thornhill which lead to her first recordings made in June of 1937. Shorty thereafter, Sullivan became a feature vocalist at the Onyx Club in New York. During this period, she began forming a professional and close personal relationship with bassist John Kirby to whom she was married from 1938 to 1941.
Early recording sessions with Kirby in 1937 yielded a hit recording of a swing version of the Scottish folk song "Loch Lomond" featuring Sullivan on vocals. This early success lead "branded" Sullivan's style, leading her to sing similar swing arrangements of traditional folk tunes mostly arranged by pianist Claude Thornhill, such as "Darling Nellie Gray", "I Dream of Jeanie", "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes", and "If I Had a Ribbon Bow". Her early popularity also lead to a brief appearance in the moving "Going Places" opposite Louis Armstrong. In 1940, Sullivan and Kirby were featured on the radio program "Flow Gently Sweet Rhythm", making them the first black jazz stars to have their own weekly radio series. From 1940-1942, Sullivan often performed with her Kirby's sextet. During the 1940s Sullivan performed with a wide range of bands from that of Teddy Wilson, Benny Carter, and Jimmie Lunceford. Sullivan also performed at many of New York's hottest jazz spots such as the Ruban Bleu, the Village Vanguard, the Blue Angel, and the Penthouse.
In 1956, Sullivan shifted away from her earlier style and recorded the most exciting material since her early 1937 sessions with the album "A Tribute to Andy Razaf". Originally on the Period Label, "A Tribute to Andy Razaf" features Sullivan's interpretations of a dozen tunes featuring the lyrics of the poet and lyricist Andy Razaf. The album also largely highlights the music of Fats Waller, including versions of "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now", "How Can you Face Me?", "My Fate is in Your Hands", "Honeysuckle Rose", "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "Blue Turning Grey Over You". Sullivan is joined by a sextet that was reminiscent of John Kirby's Group of 15 years prior, including trumpeter Charlie Shavers and clarinetist Buster Bailey. In 1953 Sullivan starred in the play "Take a Giant Step". From 1958 to 1966 Sullivan began working as a nurse, which largely consumed most of her time. He music career did not reemerge until 1966 when she began performing in jazz festivals along side her new husband pianist Cliff Jackson, who can be heard on 1966 live recording of Sullivan's performance at the Manassas Jazz Festival.
Sullivan continued to perform throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and produced an impressive output of recordings during the 1980s despite being over 70 years old. She was nominated for the 1979 Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in "My Old Friends". She participated in a documentary film portrait, Maxine Sullivan: Love to Be in Love, shortly before her death.
Maxine Sullivan died in 1987 in New York. She was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1998.
