Maxine Daniels (2 November 1930 – 20 October 2003) was a popular, jazz-oriented singer whose name was widely known in cabaret and variety circles, yet who remained very much part of London's East End.
"The public loved her," wrote Humphrey Lyttelton of Maxine Daniels, "and what's more she had the universal respect of musicians for her natural sense of phrasing, perfect pitching, exemplary diction and ability to swing."
That is a pretty fair assessment of a woman who ranked highly amongst the "girl singers" and went on to become perhaps the most tasteful English vocalist of her time. Daniels chose her musicians and her songs with unerring instinct.
Daniels was born Gladys Lynch in the area around Stepney's Victoria Docks. She was one of 13 children of a Caribbean seaman and an English mother of mixed race from Canning Town. She came from the same sturdy background that nurtured such entertainers as the dancers Charlie and Josie Woods, as well as her own youngest brother, the singer and entertainer Kenny Lynch.
When the Second World War broke out, the family was evacuated to Carmarthen; there Gladys sang and took part in an Eisteddfod. On returning to London, they settled in Salmons Lane near Commercial Road, and Gladys started work as a pickle bottler and peanut roaster before graduating to a glass factory, sawing wood. Her first recognition as a singer came from winning a local talent contest, at the age of 14, in a Stepney cinema. Local recognition then lead to a first singing job with a semi-professional band led by a Canning Town grocer.
In the early 1950s she worked with Reg Cavell's band in Romford and became involved briefly with the then unknown actor Sean Connery, who was on tour with Anna Neagle in The Glorious Days. Soon after, she married Charlie Daniels, who was a stoker. She remained in Stepney and was using her married name, Gladys Daniels, when in 1954 she took second place in a competition sponsored by bandleader Ted Heath. She became known in jazz circles, and guested with the West End band of drummer Hugh Lombard, a fellow black Londoner, but her first professional break came when she joined the Denny Boyce dance band and changed her first name and through their regular Radio Luxembourg broadcasts she gained a wider audience and the opportunity to record for the Oriole label. After two years she went solo and sang at most of the capital's leading theatres, including the Palladium.
Signed by the Bernard Delfont agency, she made her début in variety at the Chiswick Empire in 1956 and toured the Moss Empires circuit with appearances in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre, the London Palladium, the Royal Festival Hall, the Savoy, Churchill's, the Astor and the Stork Club. She made innumerable television broadcasts and signed a recording contract with Oriole Records releasing a series of popular singles including Coffee Bar Calypso and Why Should I Care? But in 1958 she retired from music and moved to Southend though she worked frequently with bands in the area.
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| Maxine & Dennis Lotis |
Although she worked so long in dance bands, she never, throughout her life, had much of a grasp of musical theory. If an instrumentalist was taking a solo, she would sing the song to herself throughout so that when the solo finished she would know when it was time for her to come in. This weakness and a retiring nature led her to stage fright that persisted until the end of her career.
When she returned to the fray eight years later, it was to emphasise her jazz credentials. Blessed with what jazz musicians term an infallible ear, she moved into a newly appreciative world. Even though her career was undoubtedly held back by her nervousness, she appeared in many successful stage shows including Evergreen, The Songs of Irving Berlin and, with the trombonist George Chisholm, Swinging Down Memory Lane. She starred in the touring show From Basin Street to Broadway with Terry Lightfoot's band and made a successful 50-week tour with Tony Crombie's band.
A new recording career began in the 1980s with such albums as A Beautiful Friendship, but was interrupted in 1988 when she underwent heart surgery. Despite this, she embarked on a series of recordings for Humphrey Lyttelton's Calligraph label. The most recent of these, The Memory Of Tonight, a collection of standards, emphasized the direct, melodic style that made her an enduring favourite. She appeared at jazz festivals and worked in Holland with the Dutch Swing College Band. Among the Americans she appeared with were Billy Eckstine, Al Cohn and Wild Bill Davison. She found an appropriate niche with touring jazz packages, notably the Pizza Express All Stars, and the Best of British Jazz.
In 1996 she toured with Barbara Jay and Tina May in Ladies of Jazz and she continued to work with the Ella Fitzgerald package until ill-health forced the end of her career. Maxine Daniels died in Romford, Essex on 20 October 2003, aged 72.
(Edited from The Telegraph & The Guardian)