Etta Jones, 72; Had Long Career in Jazz

Etta Jones, a jazz singer whose sinuous, after-midnight style could be heard on about 25 albums and at countless club dates and who was best known for her 1960 recording of “Don’t Go to Strangers,” has died. She was 72.

Jones died of complications from cancer Tuesday at her home in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

“Don’t Go to Strangers” earned more than $1 million for the Prestige label. Since then, Jones became a respected interpreter of standards like “Stormy Weather,” “Say It Isn’t So,” “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” and “But Not for Me.”

She received Grammy Award nominations for “Save Your Love For Me” (Muse, 1981) and “My Buddy: The Songs of Buddy Johnson” (HighNote Records, 1998).

She died on the day her most recent album was released, “Etta Jones Sings Lady Day” (HighNote), a tribute to Billie Holiday.

Of all those with whom she performed, including saxophonist Illinois Jacquet at Carnegie Hall, her most recognizable partner was tenor saxophonist Houston Person.

They were first booked together in 1968 at Jimmy McPhail’s Gold Room in Washington, and until their final date together three weeks ago, their interaction was often likened to the fruitful pairing of Holiday and saxophonist Lester Young in the 1930s.

Despite her long career, Jones never achieved household name recognition and was considered a hidden treasure to her fans.

“All I want to do is work, make a decent salary and have friends,” she once told an interviewer. “What’s so good about this singing business is that I have friends all over the world. And without singing, I wouldn’t have that.”

A native of Aiken, S.C., Jones grew up in New York, where her parents encouraged her singing. At 15, she lost a talent contest, but pianist-bandleader Buddy Johnson hired her anyway. In 1944, she made her first recording, for composer-critic Leonard Feather.

Through the 1940s, she recorded with clarinetist Barney Bigard, guitarist Kenny Burrell and vibraphonist Milt Jackson, among others. She became a vocalist for three years with legendary pianist Earl “Fatha” Hines.

Beginning in 1952, she tried to carve a solo career but had to work as an elevator operator, a seamstress and an album stuffer to make ends meet. Then came “Don’t Go to Strangers.”

She worked for the Prestige label during the next five years and then toured Japan with drummer-bandleader Art Blakey in 1970. She made many recordings for the Muse label from the mid-1970s to mid-1990s, when she became affiliated with its successor firm, HighNote.

During the last decade, she performed with pianist Benny Green and blues pianist and singer Charles Brown.

She received the Eubie Blake Jazz Award and the International Women in Jazz Foundation’s lifetime achievement award.

Survivors include her husband, John Medlock of Washington; two sisters; and a granddaughter.