Susannah McCorkle (1946-2001) was an influential American jazz and pop singer, who also was an accomplished writer.
Born in Berkeley, California, McCorkle was the daughter of an anthropologist who often switched jobs and whose family moved regularly. After receiving a degree in Italian literature in 1969 from the University of California at Berkeley, she moved to Europe, first to Paris, then to Rome, where she worked as a translator. While in Paris, a friend had played McCorkle a Billie Holiday record, and from that point on she committed to becoming a singer. She briefly studied voice in Rome and began sitting in with local musicians. McCorkle moved to London in 1973, where she immediately found work with musicians impressed by her knowledge of songs and her authentic Holiday-inspired sound. She eventually returned to the United States and established a career based in the cabaret circuit, but her style was more jazz-based than most cabaret artists. Settling in New York by the late 1970s, McCorkle performed at many venues, but she was most often associated with the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. She usually performed live with a piano trio. For her recordings, however, she frequently engaged larger groups. McCorkle released ten albums on Concord Records and her arrangers and music directors included Allen Farnham and Rich De Rosa. A talented writer as well as a singer, McCorkle's short stories were published in magazines and she won the 1975 O. Henry Award for short fiction for Ramona by the Sea (1973). She had an ongoing relationship with American Heritage, producing three profiles of musicians for the magazine in the 1990s, and, for two years prior to her death, she was at work on a memoir of her early singing career in Rome, which had a working title of Secrets in Piazza Navona. McCorkle, who struggled with many personal issues in her life, including an eating disorder, breast cancer, and manic depression, committed suicide on May 19, 2001.
From the description of Susannah McCorkle papers, 1946-2001. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 85221555
