1. Margrethe Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist.
20 Facts About Blossom Dearie
1. 2.
Margrethe Blossom Dearie was born on April 28,1924, in East Durham, New York, to a father of Scots Irish descent and a mother of Norwegian descent.
3.
Blossom Dearie reportedly received the name Blossom because of "a neighbor who delivered peach blossoms to her house the day she was born", although she once recalled it was her brothers who brought the flowers to the house.
4.
Blossom Dearie formed a vocal group, the Blue Stars, which included Michel Legrand's sister, Christiane, and Bob Dorough.
5.
Dave Garroway, host of The Today Show and an early fan of Blossom Dearie, featured her on several occasions, increasing her exposure with the popular audience.
6.
In 1962, Blossom Dearie recorded a radio commercial for Hires Root Beer.
7.
Blossom Dearie recorded four albums in the United Kingdom during the 1960s that were released on the Fontana label, including a recording of her 1966 performance at Ronnie Scott's.
8.
In 1970, after a period of inactivity, Blossom Dearie released the album That's Just the Way I Want to Be.
9.
Blossom Dearie received a Grammy nomination in 1973 for Best Recording for Children with the album Multiplication Rock.
10.
The songwriter Johnny Mercer, with whom Blossom Dearie collaborated for her 1975 song "I'm Shadowing You", gave one of his final compositions to her for the title song of her 1976 Daffodil album My New Celebrity is You.
11.
In 1983, Blossom Dearie was awarded the first Mabel Mercer Foundation Award.
12.
Blossom Dearie recorded songs with other singers, including Lyle Lovett.
13.
Blossom Dearie appeared regularly on British television with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, several times as a guest of Jack Paar on his Tonight show, and appeared on The Danny Kaye Show, The David Frost Show, and The Merv Griffin Show.
14.
Blossom Dearie learned piano from the age of five, initially focusing on classical music, and only began focusing on jazz after moving back to East Durham at around ten years of age.
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Blossom Dearie listened to musicians such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington, likely forming her pianistic style from such instrumentalists.
16.
Blossom Dearie said that she considered herself "a jazz musician, learning to be a jazz singer".
17.
Blossom Dearie's style was light and airy and was part of what made Dearie so distinctive.
18.
Blossom Dearie lived in Paris, France, during the early 1950s; here she met and in 1954 married Bobby Jaspar, a Belgian flautist and saxophonist.
19.
On February 7,2009, after a long illness and failing health, Blossom Dearie died in her sleep of natural causes at her apartment in Greenwich Village, according to her representative and manager Donald Schaffer.
20.
Blossom Dearie was cremated, and her ashes were interred at National Memorial Park in Falls Church, Virginia.