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Judith Durham

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Judith Durham, OAM (born Judith Mavis Cock on July 3, 1943, in Melbourne, Australia) is a jazz singer who became the lead singer for the Australian popular folk music group The Seekers in 1963. She left the group in mid 1968 to pursue her solo career. In 1993, Durham began to make sporadic recordings and performances with The Seekers, continuing into the 2000s.

Early life

Judith Durham was born July 3, 1943, at Essendon, Victoria, Australia to William Alexander Cock DFC, a Navigator and World War II Pathfinder, and his wife. Durham lived in Hobart, Tasmania where she attended The Fahan School before moving back to Melbourne in 1956. In Melbourne she was educated at Ruyton Girls' School, a following matriculation, enroled at RMIT.[1]

Durham at first planned to be a pianist and she gained the qualification of Associate In Music, Australia (AMusA) in classical piano at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. She had some professional engagements playing piano. However she also had classical vocal training and performed blues, gospels and jazz pieces. Her singing career began at the age of 18 when she asked Nicholas Ribush, leader of the Melbourne University Jazz Band, one night at the Memphis Jazz Club in Malvern, if she could sing with the band. In 1963 she began performing at the same club with Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers, using her mother's maiden name of Durham. In that year she also recorded her first EP, "Judy Durham with Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers" for W&G Records[2].

Durham was working as a secretary at the J Walter Thompson advertising agency where she met an account executive called Athol Guy. Guy was in a folk group called the Seekers which sang on Monday nights a coffee lounge called the 'Treble Clef' on Toorak Road in Melbourne.

The Seekers

The Seekers consisted of Durham, Athol Guy, Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger, an ABC radio producer. It was through Keith Potger's position that the group was able to make a demo tape in their spare time. This was given to W&G Records who wanted another sample of Durhams's voice before agreeing to record a Jazz Preachers album. Instead W&G signed The Seekers for an album, Introducing the Seekers. (Keith Potger does not appear on the album cover because he was not allowed to have a second job.) However Durham recorded two other songs with the Jazz Preachers, "Muddy Water" (which appeared on their album Jazz From the Pulpit) and "Trombone Frankie" (an adapted version of Bessie Smith's "Trombie Cholly").

In early 1964, the Seekers sailed to the United Kingdom on the S.S. Fairsky on which the group provided the musical entertainment. Originally they had planned to return after ten weeks, but they received a steady stream of bookings through the Grade Agency because they had sent the agency a copy of their first album. In November 1964 The Seekers released a "I'll Never Find Another You", composed by Tom Springfield. In February 1965, the record reached number one in England and Australia.

A succession of hits followed over the next three years, including "A World of Our Own", "Georgy Girl", "Morningtown Ride", "Emerald City" and "The Carnival is Over". She co-wrote the songs "Can't make up my mind" and "Colours of my life" for the Seekers final studio album, "Seen in Green". However her desire to settle down and have a solo career led Judith to giving the group six months' notice of her intention to leave in July 1968. Their final performance was for BBC Television on July 10.

In 1993 Durham performed and recorded with The Seekers several times, including their silver jubilee concert tour and fund-raising events for charity. Since 2000, The Seekers have made further tours.

Solo career

Durham returned to Australia in August 1968 and her first solo television special screened on the Nine Network in the September. During her solo career she has released albums titled: "For Christmas With Love", "Gift Of Song" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain". In the 1970s she returned to traditional jazz and recorded Volumes 1 & 2 of "The Hottest Band In Town" and "The Hot Jazz Duo". After this she retired to Queensland though wrote songs occasionally.

Later solo career

In 1994 Durham began recording albums again. including Mona Lisas in 1996 under the direction of producer Gus Dudgeon. This was re-released as Always There in 1998 with the addition of Durham's solo recording of fellow Seeker Bruce Woodley's "I am Australian" (with Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply and Mandaway Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi) and the Smith Family theme song of the title. Her recording of Always There was first released on the 1997 double CD Anthems, which also featured Bruce Woodley's "Common Ground" and the Seekers' version of "Advance Australia Fair."

In 2000 Durham's album Let Me Find Love was re-released as Hold on To Your Dream, with the addition of her song for Australia, "Australia Land of Today". 2001 saw another Australian tour, and in 2003 she toured the UK to celebrate her 60th birthday. Her birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London was filmed and released on DVD in late 2004.

Personal life

On November 21 1969, she married her musical director, British pianist Ron Edgeworth, in Melbourne. They lived in the UK and Switzerland before settling in Australia until the mid 1980s, when they bought a property in Nambour, Queensland.

In 1990 Durham, Edgeworth, and their tour manager Peter Summers were involved in a fatal car accident on the Calder Freeway, The driver of the other car died at the scene and Durham was seriously injured. The response from her fans made Durham consider getting back together with the other Seekers for the silver jubilee show. However this reunion was brief when Edgeworth was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He died on December 10 1994 with Durham by his side.

In 1994, her authorised biography "The Judith Durham Story - Colours Of My Life" by Graham Simpson was first published by Random House. It was updated and reprinted in 1998 and 2000, and in 2003, it was again and updated and published by Virgin Books.

Solo releases

  • 1963 Judy Durham & Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers [EP]
  • 1964 Frank Traynor's Jazz Preachers & Judy Durham - Trombone Frankie [45]
  • 1967 The Olive Tree/The Non-Performing Lion Quickstep [45]
  • 1967 Again and Again/Memories [45]
  • 1969 For Christmas With Love [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1970 Gift of Song [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1971 Climb Every Mountain [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1973 JD & The Hottest Band in Town Vol. 1 [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1974 JD & The Hottest Band in Town Vol. 2 [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1980 The Hot Jazz Duo [Gramophone record|LP]
  • 1992 Australia Land of Today [CD Single]
  • 1994 Let Me Find Love [CD]
  • 1996 Mona Lisas [CD]
  • 1998 Always There [CD]
  • 2002 JD and the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir [CD]
  • 2000 Hold on To Your Dream [CD]
  • 2003 Diamond Night [DVD]
  • With the exception of the Jazz EP, the 1960s singles, Gift of Song and Climb Every Mountain, all of Durham's solo records have been re-released on CD.

She has also contributed to various compilations, including the CD single "Yil Lull", Slowly Gently for the Motor Neurone Disease fundraiser, "One Man's Journey", and most recently an ethnic version of "The Carnival is Over" with Melbourne group Inca Marca for the Melbourne Immigration Museum's compilation CD, "This is the Place For a Song." In 2007 Durham also made a cameo appearance on "English Garden", a bonus track featured only on the digital download version of the new Silverchair album "Young Modern."

References

  1. ^ Suzannah Pearce, ed. (2006-11-17). "DURHAM Judith Mavis". Who's Who in Australia Live!. North Melbourne, Vic: Crown Content Pty Ltd. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ Judith Durham Official Web Site
  • 'The Judith Durham Story - Colours Of My Life' by Graham Simpson (Random House, 1994, 1998, 2000), (Virgin Books, 2004). ISBN 1852270381
  • The Judith Story
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