Janet Thurlow

Janet Lorraine Cleveland (nee Thurlow) (May 21, 1926 – October 4, 2022) was an American jazz singer. She was most known for her work on Seattle's Jackson Street and with the Lionel Hampton and Charles Mingus orchestras.

Early life Thurlow was born on May 21, 1926, in Seattle, Washington, the oldest of five children. She took violin, piano, and singing lessons as a teenager. She attended Broadway High School in Seattle, but had to drop out after ninth grade to care for her siblings after her parents' divorce. A few years later, Thurlow moved into her own apartment after her mother's death, befriended musician Ray Charles, and began cultivating an appreciation of jazz, as well as jazz singing. which at that time had Quincy Jones as arranger and trumpet player and Ray Charles, then known as "R.C.", playing piano and alto sax.

Lionel Hampton Orchestra In 1950, Lionel Hampton hired her to play with his band. In the April 1951, Thurlow recorded the song "I Can't Believe You're in Love with Me" with Hampton's orchestra for Decca Records. Mike Barnes wrote that this recording made "her perhaps the first white singer to front an all-Black big band." Later that month, they performed at the Trianon Ballroom in Seattle that featured Jones and Thurlow as the "Two Seattleites". By April 1953, Thurlow had left Hampton's orchestra and was performing solo in Chicago. During this time, she began to volunteer as a violinist at Jehovah's Witnesses' regional conventions at New York's Yankee Stadium, Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium, and Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium. They married on April 2, 1953 in Chicago. In 1967, the couple moved from New York City to Lynwood, California. She was buried beside her husband at Riverside National Cemetery.

Discography Albums/EP's

Charles Mingus Octet (October 27, 1953): tracks "Blue Tide", "Eclipse", "Pink Topsy", "Miss Bliss"

Singles

I Can't Believe You're in Love with Me (1951, with Lionel Hampton and his orchestra) Cool Train (with Lionel Hampton and his orchestra) Gladysee Bounce (with Lionel Hampton and his orchestra) Airmail Special (with Lionel Hampton and his orchestra)