Life

Peggy O'Keefe was born on a farm near the city of Warrnambool, three hours from Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, 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...

. After a good education, both musical and academic, at a convent boarding school, she attended the Melbourne University Music Conservatorium, where she studied violin, piano, singing and harp. Whilst there she was a classmate of Douglas Gamely, who also travelled to Britain and found great fame as a pianist, orchestra leader and arranger, most notably arranging the bulk of Dame Joan Sutherland's lighter repertoire.

Peggy married briefly in Australia, but on the breakdown of the marriage in 1960, she travelled to London, as has remained a British citizen ever since.

In 1971 she met and married a second husband and - although mature - gave birth to her only two sons. The marriage ended in 1979.

Works

Before departing Melbourne in 1960, Peggy O'Keefe had already built up a solid reputation as a pianist, appearing on radio broadcasts and working as accompanist to artistes in nightclub cabaret.

After her arrival in London, she picked up where she had left off back in Australia. She had not been in London long before she was playing in jazz trios and quartets in establishments such as The Stork Rooms and The Riverside Club. It was during this spell that she played for - and rubbed shoulders with - artistes like Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

, Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

, Dame Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

, Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...

, and renewed an old and rather special friendship with legendary bass player, Ray Brown

Ray Brown (musician)

Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...

.

In 1962 she signed a contract with the Reo Stakis hotel empire and travelled to Glasgow to commence her residency for six months in the Chevalier Casino. That six months eventually became six years, and during this time she presented many series of live music programmes from the casino with guests from the aforementioned list of stars and others, such as Dick Haymes

Dick Haymes

Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....

 and Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy (singer)

Mark Murphy is an American jazz singer based in New York. He is most noted for his definitive and unique vocalese and vocal improvisations with both melody and lyrics...

.

At this time, Peggy had also been discovered by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and Scottish Television

Scottish Television

Scottish Television is Scotland's largest ITV franchisee, and has held the ITV franchise for Central Scotland since 31 August 1957. It is the second oldest ITV franchisee still active...

 and she went on to present a long list of music programmes both on television and radio right through until the 1980s. She was probably one of the busiest pianists used by the BBC and STV, since - as well as her own programmes - she was acting as a staff pianist, taking responsibility for accompanying auditions, recitals, singers and musicians on entertainment programmes as well as playing piano within most of the BBC's ensembles - from jazz trios, through chamber groups and big bands to the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. It was often said that you could hardly put on a BBC programme which included musicians and not see Peggy O'Keefe among them.

In the later years of her career - after the demise of live musicians and music departments in broadcasting, Peggy kept working in theatre, recital and concert as and accompanist to artistes like Moira Anderson

Moira Anderson

Moira Anderson, OBE is a Scottish singer.- Life and career :Following an education at Lenzie Academy, Anderson quickly established herself at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow before getting her big break in the media after a successful audition at the BBC.She landed her...

 and Kenneth McKellar

Kenneth McKellar (singer)

Kenneth McKellar was a Scottish tenor.-Career:McKellar studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, after graduation working for the Scottish Forestry Commission. He later trained at the Royal College of Music as an opera singer...

, as well as keeping her jazz trio going and being involved playing piano and celeste for light music and film music programmes by larger orchestras, such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is Scotland's national symphony orchestra. Based in Glasgow, the 89-member professional orchestra also regularly performs in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, and abroad. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company has performed full-time since 1950,...

 and the Gordon Cree

Gordon Cree

Gordon Cree is a Scottish arranger, orchestrator, conductor and composer.- Life :Gordon Cree was classically trained in piano and singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, before studying orchestral scoring and arranging with Brian Fahey.- Works :As well as a notable...

Concert Orchestra.

External links

• Peggy O'Keefe's Credits at the IMDB