Artist: Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic is an American jazz vocalist.
Merrill was signed by Mercury Records to their EmArcy label. In 1954, Merrill recorded an eponymous LP; her first issued album featured trumpeter Clifford Brown and bassist Oscar Pettiford. The album was produced and arranged by Quincy Jones, who was twenty-one years old. The success of Helen Merrill prompted Mercury to sign her for an additional four-album contract.
Merrill's follow-up' was the 1956 LP, Dream of You, which was arranged by arranger and pianist Gil Evans. His arrangements for Merrill laid the foundation for his work with Miles Davis.
After recording sporadically through the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent much of her time touring Europe, where she enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States. She settled for a time in Italy, recording an album there and doing concerts with jazz musicians Piero Umiliani, Chet Baker, Romano Mussolini, and Stan Getz. In 1960, arranger and film composer Ennio Morricone worked with Merrill on an EP, Helen Merrill Sings Italian Songs, on the RCA Italiana label.
She returned to the U.S. in the 1960s, but moved to Japan in 1966. She developed a following in Japan that remains strong decades later. In addition to recording while in Japan, Merrill became involved in other aspects of the music industry, producing albums for Trio Records and co-hosting a show on FEN (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) with Bud Widom in Tokyo.
Merrill returned to the U.S. in 1972. She recorded a bossa nova album, a Christmas album, and a Rodgers and Hammerstein album. In 1987, she and Gil Evans recorded fresh arrangements of Dream of You released under the title Collaboration, becoming the best received of Merrill's 1980s albums.
In 1987, she co-produced Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter. In 1995, she recorded Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown. Jelena Ana Milcetic a.k.a. Helen Merrill (2000) draws from her Croatian heritage as well as her American upbringing. The album combines jazz, pop, and blues songs with traditional Croatian songs sung in Croatian. She released the album Lilac Wine in 2003.
Further information about Helen Merrill is found at HelenMerrill.com.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Merrill, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Helen Merrill - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To - live 1960
Helen Merrill: Videos
Helen Merrill Live In Japan 1990
HELEN MERRILL Live 1986 Kyoto: "Summer Time/My Funny Valentine/You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" &