Helen Merrill (bornJelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1929)[2] is an Americanjazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recordingHelen Merrill (withClifford Brown onEmArcy), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation ofbebop jazz musicians.[3] After an active 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent time recording and touring in Europe and Japan,[4] falling into obscurity in the United States. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was recorded by EmArcy,JVC andVerve, and her performances in America revived her profile.[3][5]
Jelena Ana Milcetic was born inNew York toCroatian immigrant parents[6] Frano and Antonija Marija. Frano was born inVantačići, and Antonija Marija inMalinska; unusually, both were born Milčetić.[7] She began singing in jazz clubs inthe Bronx in 1944 when she was fourteen.[8] She had three sisters and a brother who died before she was born. By the time she was sixteen, Merrill had taken up music full-time.[9] In 1952, Merrill made her recording debut when she was asked to sing "A Cigarette for Company" withEarl Hines; the song was released on the D'Oro label, created specifically to record Hines' band with Merrill.Etta Jones[10] was in Hines' band at the time and she, too, sang on this session, which was reissued on theXanadu label in 1985.
Merrill's follow-up was the 1956 LPDream of You, which was arranged and conducted byGil Evans. His arrangements for Merrill laid the foundation for his work withMiles Davis.[14]
After recording sporadically through the late 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent much of her time touring Europe, where she enjoyed more commercial success than she had in the United States. She settled for a time in Italy, recording an album there and doing concerts with jazz musiciansPiero Umiliani, best known to Americanbaby boomers for his songMah Nà Mah Nà,[15]Chet Baker,[16]Romano Mussolini,[17] andStan Getz. In 1960, arranger and film composerEnnio Morricone worked with Merrill on an EP,Helen Merrill Sings Italian Songs, on the RCA Italiana label.
Parole e Musica: Words and Music was recorded in Italy with Umiliani's orchestra in the early 1960s while Merrill was living there. Merrill sings in English, but each song is preceded by an Italian translation of its lyrics, spoken by Fernando Caiati.[18]
She returned to the U.S. in the 1960s but moved to Japan in 1966, staying after touring there and marrying Donald J. Brydon, Tokyo-based Asia Bureau Chief ofUnited Press International, in April 1967.[19] She developed a following in Japan that remains strong decades later. In addition to recording while in Japan, Merrill became involved in other aspects of the music industry, producing albums for Trio Records[20] and co-hosting a show on FEN (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) with Bud Widom in Tokyo.[21]
Merrill returned to the U.S. in 1972. She recorded abossa nova album, a Christmas album,[22] and aRodgers and Hammerstein album.[23] In 1987, she and Gil Evans recorded fresh arrangements ofDream of You, which they released under the titleCollaboration. It was the best received of Merrill's 1980s albums.[24]
In hisBiographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, jazz criticWill Friedwald writes that Merrill "improved with age," and that her "albums of the nineties and aughts represent a dramatic improvement over her vintage work."[27]
Merrill has been married three times, first to musicianAaron Sachs (1948–1956),[28] then to UPI vice president Donald J. Brydon (1967–1992),[19] and finally to arranger-conductorTorrie Zito, a marriage that lasted until his death in 2009.[29]
She is the mother of one child, Allan Preston Sachs, born inNew York in 1951 from her first marriage to Aaron Sachs. He was later known professionally asAlan Merrill, and was a successful singer and songwriter who wrote and recorded the original (1975) version of the rock classic "I Love Rock N Roll" as lead vocalist of the British bandArrows. He died in 2020.[30][31]
