Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

June Richmond

June Richmond (July 9, 1915 in Chicago, Illinois – August 14, 1962 in Gothenburg, Sweden) was an American jazz singer and actor. June Richmond is considered the first African-American jazz singer who sang regularly in a white band when she appeared in 1938, Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra. She previously worked at Les Hite in California, and after her time at Dorsey she joined Cab Calloway (1938) and then worked from 1939 to 1942 in Andy Kirk's orchestra. After she left Kirk, she launched a successful career as a soloist; in 1948 she appeared mostly in Europe. She first settled in France, where she sang worked with Henri Renaud, and later in Scandinavia. Her only recordings under her own name originated in 1951 when she recorded four titles in Stockholm with Svend A… more »