Mavis Rivers

Jazz vocalist Mavis Rivers cut sides for Reprise, Capitol, and Vee-Jay during the first half of the 1960s, only to stage an unexpected return to performing two decades later. Born in 1929 in Apia, Upolu, Western Samoa, she later relocated to Pago Pago in American Samoa in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. There she sang with her father’s band and performed for stationed troops; after the war the family moved once more, this time to New Zealand, where her vocal work began to attract notice. That momentum prompted a move to the United States. A short period in Salt Lake City, Utah, preceded her arrival in Los Angeles, California, where she balanced secretarial work by day with nightclub engagements by night alongside a Hawaiian ensemble that included her future husband, bassist David Catingub.

A Capitol contract materialized by the close of the 1950s. Her debut album, Take a Number, appeared in 1959 with arrangements and conducting by Nelson Riddle. Subsequent releases included Hooray for Love (1960, Capitol), arranged and conducted by Jack Marshall; The Simple Life (1960, Capitol), arranged and conducted by Dick Reynolds; Mavis (1961, Reprise), arranged and conducted by Marty Paich; Swing Along With Mavis (1961, Reprise), arranged and conducted by Van Alexander; Mavis Meets Shorty Rogers (1961, Reprise), arranged by Chuck Sagle; and We Remember Mildred Bailey (1964, Vee-Jay).

Activity resumed in the early 1980s when she guested on two Sea Breeze albums by her son Matt Catingub: My Mommy and Me (1983) and Hi-Tech Big Band (1984). She also issued her own solo set, It’s a Good Day, on Delos that same year. In 1990 she added vocals to Matt Catingub’s I’m Getting Cement All Over Me before suffering a fatal stroke onstage in 1992.