Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra with June Richmond—”The Darktown Strutters’ Ball”
In the 1930s, June Richmond became the first African-American songstress to join an all white band when she was asked by reedman/bandleader Jimmy Dorsey to join his Orchestra. One of her feature numbers with this band was Shelton Brooks’ 1917 composition “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball,” recorded for Brunswick in New York on April 29, 1938.
Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra: Ralph Muzillo and Shorty Sherock-trumpets; Bobby Byrne, Sonny Lee and Don Mattison-trombones; Jimmy Dorsey-clarinet/alto saxophone; Milt Yaner and Sam Rubinowich-alto saxophones; Charles Frazier and Herbie Hamer-tenor saxophonses; Freddy Slack-piano; Roc Hillman-guitar; Jack Ryan-string bass; Ray McKinley-drums; and June Richmond-vocal.
Singer/actress June Richmond (1915-1962) was born in Chicago, Illinois, as Beatrice Louise Gachan. Before joining Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra, June had worked with another saxophonist, Les Hite, and his “great Band of 14 sepia stars” in Los Angeles, California.
In August 1937, the Pittsburg Courier described the new singer with Dorsey’s band as "a buxom Negro lass, brimful of pep, who sets a snappy pace for the show."
A month later this Pennsylvania newspaper reported: “Sepia Sensation -- June Richmond, whom we knew as Beatrice, is now the sensational little singing comedian with Jimmy Dorsey, and she is as funny and as original as Martha Raye.
So you know she is a riot of fun. Cab Calloway could take lessons from her in "Pecking." If he did I don’t know, however, during the latter part of 1938 June Richmond did actually join Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.
The following year June teamed up with the group led by saxophonist Andy Kirk, with whom she remained until 1942. This collaboration was followed by June’s solo career as a rhythm and blues singer, and in 1947 she appeared in the movies “Ebony Parade” and “Reet, Petite, and Gone.”
During her solo career, June Richmond was a real song-belter, and she ignited a song with the same zest she had for living. Her’s was a contagious quality which rocked a theater or night club and was her main forte when she went off to Europe before rock and roll erupted into universal acceptance.
It was manager Joe Glaser who booked June Richmond abroad in 1948, and she was so successful she never came back to the United States. After a while she even stopped writing the folks along Broadway.
While in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1951 June made several records with Danish jazz violinist Svend Asmussen.
Since 1956 June Richmond was living in Paris, France where she made several recording for the Barclay label. And there, the following year she recorded another four numbers with the orchestra of Quincy Jones. While she lived in Paris, June sang in various European capitals.
June Richmond's final curtain call was made in Göteburg, where she had gone to fulfill an engagement at the plush restaurant Lorensberg in this West Coast port of Sweden. Before her Swedish tour she had given performances in Tivoli in Copenhagen, Denmark. June had been staying in Göteborg for a week, scheduled to stay during August, when she was found stricken by a heart ailment in her hotel room.
When June Richmond was death on arrival at the Göteburg hospital, she had been away from America so long only the veterans of the profession remembered how this woman, heavy of both body and talent, had reached noticeable fame in the good old days. Yet in 47 years June carved a niche in the well-niched annals of show business.
So all those who remember when, must remember June Richmond, who gave jazz a hefty meaning.
A tribute to June Richmond, including many photographs, newspaper stories from the Thirties and Windows Media Player audio selections can be found at:
