Ethel Azama
Encyclopedia
Ethel Azama was an American
jazz
and popular singer
and recording artist. She sang regularly in nightclubs and other concert venues between the mid-1950s and 1984. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and was of Okinawan ancestry. She was a Nisei
or second-generation Japanese American
.
singer in U.S. military clubs on Oahu such as The Cannon Club on Diamond Head
. Pianist Paul Conrad usually served as her accompanist for her gigs. Conrad also wrote many of her arrangements. By 1957 she was singing at Waikiki Beach nightclubs as the opening act for headliners
such as popular singer Herb Jeffries and blues
singer and guitarist Josh White
.
With the help of bandleader Martin Denny
, Azama obtained a one-album
deal with Liberty Records
in either 1957 or 1958. She released the album, Exotic Dreams, in 1958. On the album, which Paul Conrad arranged, she sang standards
which included "Speak Low" and "Autumn Leaves
". She also sang a few hapa-haole numbers and a Japanese folk song on the album.
She made had her singing debut on the American mainland in January 1959 when she appeared at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills, California
.
Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers
attended one of her shows and persuaded Liberty Records
executives to allow her to record another LP. The 1959 album, Cool Heat, consists entirely of American standards. Ethel sings a mix of ballads such as "My Ship" (music by Kurt Weill
and lyrics by Ira Gershwin
) and "Like Someone in Love
" (music by James Van Heusen
and lyrics by Johnny Burke
) and rhythmic tunes such as "Johnny One Note
" (music by Richard Rodgers
and lyrics by Lorenz Hart
). Her feeling for jazz is particularly evident on songs such as "Daybreak" (music by Ferde Grofé
and lyrics by Harold Adamson
). Marty Paich
wrote all the arrangements and conducted the orchestra that accompanied Azama on the album. The orchestra consisted of renowned jazz musicians, including alto saxophonist Art Pepper
, pianist Russ Freeman
, and drummer Mel Lewis
. The band is brassy and wailing on the up-tempo numbers and lush with strings on the ballads.
Between 1959 and 1960, Azama sang in nightclubs in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. She also appeared in Las Vegas
casinos on bills with jazz and standards singer Mel Tormé
and with the jazz vocal group The Four Freshmen
. In May 1960, she appeared on a national network variety special titled, Music on Ice. Azama sang several songs on the hour-long special which also featured French figure skater Jacqueline Du Bief
, Japanese dancer Takeuchi Keigo, and singer-host Johnny Desmond
.
She moved to Australia
in the early 1960s and appeared regularly in nightclubs there and also on Australian television and radio. She married her Australia
n piano accompanist Johnny Todd in 1964. They performed together in several nightclubs in Hong Kong
, including the Eagle's Nest at the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel
in the mid-1970s.
in 1984, aged 49.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and popular singer
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
and recording artist. She sang regularly in nightclubs and other concert venues between the mid-1950s and 1984. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and was of Okinawan ancestry. She was a Nisei
Nisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
or second-generation Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
.
Career
She started her professional career in 1955 as an emcee at the Oasis nightclub in Honolulu. The club served as a venue for musical revues from Japan. In 1956, she began working as a standardsTraditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
singer in U.S. military clubs on Oahu such as The Cannon Club on Diamond Head
Diamond Head, Hawaii
Diamond Head is the name of a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēahi, most likely from lae 'browridge, promontory' plus ahi 'tuna' because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin...
. Pianist Paul Conrad usually served as her accompanist for her gigs. Conrad also wrote many of her arrangements. By 1957 she was singing at Waikiki Beach nightclubs as the opening act for headliners
Headliner (performances)
A headliner is the main act in a music, theatre, or comedy performance. Generally, the headliner is the final act in a performance, preceded by the opening act....
such as popular singer Herb Jeffries and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer and guitarist Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
.
With the help of bandleader Martin Denny
Martin Denny
Martin Denny was an American piano-player and composer best known as the "father of exotica." In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and...
, Azama obtained a one-album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
deal with Liberty Records
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...
in either 1957 or 1958. She released the album, Exotic Dreams, in 1958. On the album, which Paul Conrad arranged, she sang standards
Traditional pop music
Traditional pop or classic pop or standards music denotes, in general, Western popular music that either wholly predates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s, or to any popular music which exists concurrently to rock and roll but originated in a time before the appearance of rock and roll,...
which included "Speak Low" and "Autumn Leaves
Autumn Leaves (song)
"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit...
". She also sang a few hapa-haole numbers and a Japanese folk song on the album.
She made had her singing debut on the American mainland in January 1959 when she appeared at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
.
Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer)
James Frederick "Jimmie" Rodgers is an American singer. He is not related to the country singer of the same name.-Career:...
attended one of her shows and persuaded Liberty Records
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a United States-based record label. It was started by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revivals.-1950s:...
executives to allow her to record another LP. The 1959 album, Cool Heat, consists entirely of American standards. Ethel sings a mix of ballads such as "My Ship" (music by Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
) and "Like Someone in Love
Like Someone in Love
Like Someone in Love is an album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with a studio orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol...
" (music by James Van Heusen
James Van Heusen
Jimmy Van Heusen , was an American composer. He wrote songs mainly for films and television , and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song.-Life and career:...
and lyrics by Johnny Burke
Johnny Burke
Johnny Burke was a Newfoundland songwriter and musician. He was nicknamed the 'Bard of Prescott Street'. He wrote many popular songs that artists in the 1930s and 1940s released.Popular songs by Burke include:* The Night Paddy Murphy Died...
) and rhythmic tunes such as "Johnny One Note
Johnny One Note
"Johnny One Note" is a 1937 show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, where it was introduced by Wynn Murrary. Judy Garland sang it in the film version, released in 1939.-Notable recordings:...
" (music by Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Lorenz Hart
Lorenz "Larry" Milton Hart was the lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart...
). Her feeling for jazz is particularly evident on songs such as "Daybreak" (music by Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé was a prominent American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.-Early life:...
and lyrics by Harold Adamson
Harold Adamson
For the Toronto Police Chief see Harold Adamson Harold Adamson was an American lyricist during the 1930s and 1940s.- Biography :...
). Marty Paich
Marty Paich
Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
wrote all the arrangements and conducted the orchestra that accompanied Azama on the album. The orchestra consisted of renowned jazz musicians, including alto saxophonist Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
, pianist Russ Freeman
Russ Freeman (pianist)
Russell Donald Freeman was a bebop and cool jazz pianist and composer.Initially, Freeman was classically trained...
, and drummer Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....
. The band is brassy and wailing on the up-tempo numbers and lush with strings on the ballads.
Between 1959 and 1960, Azama sang in nightclubs in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago. She also appeared in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
casinos on bills with jazz and standards singer Mel Tormé
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
and with the jazz vocal group The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen
The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...
. In May 1960, she appeared on a national network variety special titled, Music on Ice. Azama sang several songs on the hour-long special which also featured French figure skater Jacqueline Du Bief
Jacqueline du Bief
Jacqueline du Bief is a French figure skater who competed in single skating and pair skating. As a single skater, she is the 1952 World Champion, the 1952 Olympic bronze medalist, the 1950-1952 European silver medalist, and the 1947-1952 French national champion.As a pair skater, she competed with...
, Japanese dancer Takeuchi Keigo, and singer-host Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond , born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone, was a popular American singer.-Early years:...
.
She moved to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in the early 1960s and appeared regularly in nightclubs there and also on Australian television and radio. She married her Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n piano accompanist Johnny Todd in 1964. They performed together in several nightclubs in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, including the Eagle's Nest at the Hong Kong Hilton Hotel
Hong Kong Hilton
Hong Kong Hilton was a hotel in Central, Hong Kong. Built in 1963, the 26 storey hotel was initially the only 5-star hotel on the island side of the territory...
Family
During the late 1960s, Ethel and Johnny Todd settled permanently in Honolulu where Ethel gave birth to their two children. She resumed singing in Waikiki Beach nightclubs as a soloist and occasionally paired with local standards singer Jimmy Borges. She had minor acting roles on several episodes of the television series Hawaii Five-OHawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
in the mid-1970s.
Death
She continued to sing on a regular basis in nightclubs and other public venues on Oahu until her sudden death from a cerebral aneurysmCerebral aneurysm
A cerebral or brain aneurysm is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel.- Signs and symptoms :...
in 1984, aged 49.