Norman Mapp, b. John Norman Mapp, (1928–1988) was a 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...

 vocalist, composer and recording artists, born and raised in Corona/East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York. He was married to Marilyn Patricia Folk Lewis Mapp, and the father of four sons, one daughter and one stepson, David, John, Brian, Eric, Robin and Norman respectively. He started his music career as a singer with the U.S. Army band, while serving in unform during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 wile he was stationed in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and continued his music career, once he returned home with his honorable discharge.

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...

, after an evening of performing, went into a Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

 night club to hear Norman sing at his debut, and she adopted him as her protege, encouraged him to continue singing and song writing; and helped him launch his career as a soloist and big band musician.

Norman Mapp's Noted Songs

• Jazz Ain't Nothin' But Soul (Title song of his album recorded for Epic Records)
• I Worry 'Bout You
• Mr. Ugly
• In The Night
• Free Spirits
• Foul Play

In February 1988, Anthony Scaduto

Anthony Scaduto

Anthony Scaduto is a journalist and biographer of rock musicians. His most famous work is Dylan, a biography of Bob Dylan, first published in 1972...

 wrote Norman's obituary for New York Newsday, quoted his best friend and fellow musician Jazz Trumpeter Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

 saying "He was the warmest human being who ever lived. Very beautiful, very talented." In the same Obituary, Norman Mapp was quoted from a previous Newsday interview in 1986 as saying he "never regretted making music his career,...because it brought him a wealth of experience, plus the opportunity to know and work with people such as Count Basie, Dinah Washington, Sy Oliver." On learning of his passing, Arthur Prysock

Arthur Prysock

Arthur Prysock was an American jazz singer best known for his live shows and his baritone influenced by Billy Eckstine....

said, "I thought he was a great fellow. He's going to be missed."(New York Newsday, 1988)

Artists Performing Norman Mapp's Songs

• Arthur Prysock
• Marvin Gaye
• Peggy Lee
• Count Basie
• Betty Carter