Dolores Parker was born on 25 October 1919 and started her singing career after winning an amateur contest in
Chicago. She performed with the orchestras under the direction of
Earl Hines,
Duke Ellington, and appeared in a number of movies, which included
House of Strangers. "Miss Parker sings [both songs] engagingly," wrote
The New Yorker in 1949 reviewing that
single (Columbia 38519,
coupled with "I Could Get a Man"). She was a protege of boxer
Joe Louis who signed her to a "personal management contract" in 1952. Louis was credited for "boost[ing] [her] singing career" and was quoted to say: "She is the greatest singer since the
sewing machine". In 1955, she starred in a "revitalized edition" of the
Broadway musical titled
Sugar Hill. She recorded with
Herbie Mann for
Atlantic, together with
Maya Angelou being credited for vocals on his 1960 album
The Common Ground. According to her
Apple Music profile, in 1993 she was honored by the
Smithsonian Museum as one of the "five surviving vocalists of the Duke Ellington Orchestra" and later recorded, as a featured soloist on a Duke Ellington medley, with the
Cleveland Jazz Orchestra for their 1999 album titled
Traditions. Parker died on 17 December 2018, aged 99. == References ==