|
姬‧李 / 黑咖啡, 永遠
Norma Deloris Egstrom was born on May 26, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota. She practices singing
in college and church. Her talents recognized by all, allow her to consider a professional career. In
1938, at the end of her studies, she goes to Los Angeles. She gets a first commitment to the Jade
Room, a small Hollywood restaurant & club. For lack of better she is obliged to work as a waitress.
Back in Dakota, she is engaged in Fargo as a singer on WDAY radio. Ken Kennedy, director of the
station, renamed her Peggy Lee. After a three-month tour with Will Osborne's Band, she
goes back to California for a contract at the Doll House in Palm Spring. Her club-restaurant practice,
where her voice competes with the noisy buzz of conversations or the sounds of dinnerware, leads
her to develop a soft and relaxed vocal style, which forces the audience to be silent to hear it. She is
hired at the Buttery Room, a Chicago nightclub attended by Benny Goodman who offers her, in July
1941, to replace Helen Forrest as the singer of his orchestra. In 1943, their version of Why do not you
do right, so beautifully created by Lil Green on April 23, 1941, reaches the first place in sales. The
disc will run over a million copies and will contribute to the international reputation of Peggy Lee.
In 1944 she signs a contract with Capitol Records. Peggy Lee is now part of the American vocalist
elite. From 1948, she is omnipresent on radio and television of local and national audience. Most
of her songs reaches the first places of the charts, but it's with her cover versions of Black Coffee,
created by Sarah Vaughan in January 1949, and Fever, popularized by Little Willie John in May 1956,
that Peggy produces respectively in 1953 and 1958 her two most emblematic titles. In 1954, with
Victor Young, she writes the song for movies Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray) and About Mrs. Leslie
(Daniel Mann). Her ability to evolve in all styles and registers brings Walt Disney Studios to use her
talents in Lady and The Tramp. Peggy Lee embodies the character of Darling, owner of "Lady" and
lends her voice to Si & Am the Siamese cats. In this film, she plays two songs from her composition
He's a Tramp and The Siamese Cat Song. Too absorbed in her work as a singer, Peggy Lee will
neglect the career of actress that is offered to her. One can however see her in the remake of the
first film of the talking cinema The Jazz Singer (Michael Curtiz, 1952), that the press sees as "a very
promising start on a movie career". Then in Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955). Her performance
as a disillusioned and alcoholic blues singer earned her a nomination from the Academy of Arts
and Film Science. On Duke Ellignton's music she writes the lyrics of I'm Gonna Go Fishin' for the
movie Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959). A relentless worker, precise at the limit of
perfectionism, her obsession with leaving nothing to chance, moving her away from the world of
jazz, which feeds on spontaneity and improvisation. In July 1958, Peggy Lee is first hospitalized for
infectious pneumonia. A second affection in November 1961 will keep her away from most of her
artistic commitments. Diabetes and a heart attack will overcome her incomparable energy. She dies
on January 21, 2002 at the age of 81.
|
