Zip a Dee Do Dar - Trudy Kerr

Hailed as ‘one of the country's most polished singers’ by The Times, Trudy moved to London in 1990 from her native Australia and, whilst continuing to gig regularly, as she had done back home, worked during the day as secretary for popular clarinetist Acker Bilk. She took time out to study jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and in 1995 got her musical career break when Ronnie Scott offered her a week at his club: she has performed regularly at the famous Soho jazzerie ever since.

In 1997, Trudy released her first album, Sweet Surprise, on the FMR label, a mixture of lesser-known standards and pop classics arranged in a contemporary jazz style. Her second album, simply entitled Trudy - and featuring her old boss Acker Bilk - came out in 1999. Again, the album is a mixture of standards from the Great American Song Book as well as songs from pop artists such as James Taylor and Carole King. 2000 saw the critically acclaimed release of Day Dream with guest pianist Mulgrew Miller. In 2002 Trudy released her fourth album, My Old Flame: Remembering Chet Baker, a homage to the late great trumpeter and singer. Georgie Fame is a fan of Trudy’s and was delighted to be asked to duet with her on two tracks. Cloudburst, released at the end of 2005, was based on tunes from the instrumental jazz repertoire. Trudy has recently received great reviews for her children’s jazz CD Jazz For Juniors and is currently performing the Jazz For Juniors show in schools. Trudy’s CDs are available on the Jazzizit label. Trudy also hosts BBC Radio Kent’s Jazz Hour on a Tuesday night with Roger Day, where she plays the latest UK releases as well classic jazz recordings. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.