Anita Moore; Sang With Duke Ellington’s Band

Anita Moore, 51, a singer who performed with Duke Ellington, died April 28 in Houston of congestive heart failure.

A native of Houston, Moore was singing in a Texas Southern University jazz ensemble at a pizza parlor when two of Ellington’s players--Harry Carney and Cootie Williams--wandered in and heard her perform Ellington’s tune “I’m Beginning to See the Light.” They told Ellington of their find, and he offered Moore a job after an impromptu audition.

Moore stayed with the Ellington orchestra from 1972 until the late 1980s. When Ellington died in 1974, his son Mercer Ellington took over direction of the orchestra.

During the early 1980s, she was in the cast of the Broadway musical “Sophisticated Ladies,” as an understudy to featured vocalist Phyllis Hyman. After returning to Houston in 1988, Moore taught at an elementary school.