Song of the Day: June Richmond, “47th Street Jive”

Jazz singer June Richmond was born in Chicago on this day in 1915. She is considered to be the first African Amercan singer to sing with an all-white orchestra, singing with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and recording several songs in 1938. She went on to sing with Cab Calloway’s and ndy Kirk’s Orchestras before moving first to France, then to Scandinavia in the 1940’s. She was only 47 when she died of a heart attack. Here, she sings with Roy Milton and his Solid Senders.