Joya Sherrill

Throughout his career Duke Ellington counted jazz vocalist Joya Sherrill among his most admired singers, repeatedly lauding her precise diction and articulation while maintaining an active partnership with her across the 1940s. Sherrill sustained those ties by joining former Ellington sidemen such as Rex Stewart and Ray Nance on dates that extended into the 1960s, a link underscored when her 1965 album Sings Duke again paired her with the bandleader’s repertoire and musicians. At age 67 in 1994 she confirmed that her voice remained undiminished half a century after her earliest work with Ellington, issuing the further collection of his material titled Black Beauty: The Duke in Mind. Joya Sherrill died of leukemia on June 28, 2010, at her home in Great Neck, NY, aged 85.