Found 2 collections related to Swing (Music)

The Maxine Sullivan Papers document her career as a jazz performer. The papers contain correspondence from both professional and personal contacts, legal contracts, newspaper clippings, performance flyers, posters, and programs, sheet music, and some financial and organizational membership records. Some materials pertain to her third husband, Cliff Jackson. less

African American jazz soloist Maxine Sullivan was known for her cool and arresting "whispering voice," soothing style, gentle rhythmic phrasing, and intricate swing delivery. She became well known in the late 1930s for her swing performance of the Scottish traditional ballad "Loch Lomond". The song became her signature piece and catapulted her career. During this period, Sullivan performed as the main act at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street in New York City, alongside bassist John Kirby and his band. The two married in 1938 but were divorced three years later. In 1950, Sullivan married pianist Cliff Jackson. Excluding a ten-year break she took from show-business in 1957, Sullivan's career spanned four decades. Sullivan was also popular with jazz enthusiasts outside of the United States and she toured internationally several times. The collection contains a photocopied transcript of an interview with Maxine Sullivan conducted as part of Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies Oral History Project. The transcript is particularly rich in its detail of Sullivan's recording career and collaboration with other artists. Eleven tapes were transcribed, totaling 750 pages. less