Teri Thornton

Jazz singer Teri Thornton earned strong praise from critics during the 1960s, then stepped away from the stage for three decades before resuming performances in the 1990s to renewed acclaim. Her signature performance remains the vocal on “Somewhere in the Night,” the theme for the detective series The Naked City that starred Paul Burke.

Detroit, Michigan, was her birthplace, and she launched her career singing in neighborhood jazz clubs throughout the 1950s. After relocating to New York in the 1960s, she began recording national advertising jingles and cut sides for several labels. The personnel on her Devil May Care LP featured trumpeter Clark Terry, guitarists Freddie Green and Sam Herman, saxophonists Earl Warren and Seldon Powell, trombonist Britt Woodman, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Sam Jones, drummer Jimmy Cobb, and arranger Norman Simmons. Seeking additional opportunities, Thornton headed to Los Angeles. Her return to New York in 1983 brought regular engagements in jazz venues.

In 1998 she captured first place in the vocal division of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition by delivering “I’ll Be Easy To Find,” and a cancer diagnosis followed the same year. The victory revived her profile and yielded the album I’ll Be Easy To Find, her first recording in more than thirty years. Thornton died at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, NJ, on May 2, 2000, at age 65 from complications of bladder cancer.