Biography
In 1993 the Smithsonian Museum of American History singled out the jazz singer later known as Dolores Parker Morgan as one of five surviving female vocalists who had worked with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Right after finishing high school she turned professional by capturing first place in a 1939 amateur contest staged at Chicago’s Regal Theatre. Although she had intended to enroll at Howard University, she instead joined Fletcher Henderson’s organization as part of the vocal trio the Rhythm Debs and set out on tour, much to her mother’s dismay. By then the bandleader had already etched his place in jazz alongside Louis Armstrong, Ben Webster, and Coleman Hawkins, yet her mother still viewed the move as an association with unsavory characters. Parker remained with the unit for three years, discovering that the experience amounted to steady employment rather than the moral peril that had been feared. In 1945 she married trumpeter Vernon Smith, entered the Earl Hines Orchestra, gave birth to the couple’s first child, and left the road for Los Angeles, where she expected to settle into domestic life. That plan changed when Smith returned with word that Duke Ellington needed a vocalist. At the audition pianist, arranger, and composer Billy Strayhorn—often described as Tonto to the Duke’s Lone Ranger—handed her his own demanding ballad “Lush Life,” one of the most difficult in the jazz repertoire. After she performed it for Strayhorn he telephoned Ellington so she could repeat the number over the line; having never encountered the piece before, she sight-read it successfully and secured the position, departing almost at once on a tour with the relentlessly traveling band. She has stated that she never sang “Lush Life” again after the 1947 audition. Among her section-mates during that period were violinist and vocalist Ray Nance, trombonist Lawrence Brown, reed players Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, and Al Sears, plus guitarist Freddy Guy, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Sonny Greer. Far from being overpowered by such company, she delivered a poised reading of “Take Love Easy” that year, holding her own against Hodges’s lyrical solo work and honeyed tone. Life on the road with the large ensemble proved exhausting, sometimes demanding six shows in a single day. Ellington himself faced headwinds: shrinking salaries, soaring travel expenses, the recording ban, and the rising popularity of crooners whose polished presentation seemed at odds with big-band vitality. Approaching fifty, he nevertheless pursued ambitious projects such as Broadway productions and early television ventures, many of which fell short, while he continued to insist on impeccable presentation from the musicians. After leaving the orchestra Parker appeared in several films, recorded with flutist and bandleader Herbie Mann, and entered her second marriage, this time to physician Gates Morgan. The couple moved to Akron, Ohio, when he became medical director at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Much of her subsequent activity centered on her adopted state, especially Cleveland’s jazz community; in 1985 she endowed the Kent State University School of Music and received a local arts award. While most of Ellington’s vocalists retired early, she continued performing and has spoken only positively of the Duke. In 1999 she served as featured soloist on the album Traditions, recorded with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and including a medley of ballads drawn from her Ellington repertoire.
Albums
