{{short description|British singer (born 1939)|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Elaine Delmar | image = Elaine Delmar (1962).jpg | caption = Delmar in 1962 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1 September 1939}} | birth_place = Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England }} '''Elaine Delmar''' (born '''Elaine Pamela Hutchinson'''; 1 September 1939)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women's Jazz Archive/Women In Jazz - National Library of Wales Archives and Manuscripts |url=https://archives.library.wales/index.php/womens-jazz-archive-oral-history |access-date=2026-01-29 |website=archives.library.wales}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=54550 |date=14 October 1996 |page=13664}}</ref> is a British singer and actress, whose career has encompassed stage acting, music recording and concert performances. Born in Harpenden, she is the daughter of Jamaican jazz trumpeter Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson. After learning the piano as a child, Delmar became a singer and toured with her father's band from the age of sixteen.
In 1952, she appeared in ''Finian's Rainbow'' in Liverpool. She sang with Coleridge Goode's group The Dominoes for a month in Germany in the mid-1950s,<ref>Coleridge Goode and Roger Cotterrell, ''Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz''. London: Northway Publications (2002) p.106. </ref> before going solo. Delmar also appeared in the Ken Russell film ''Mahler'' (1974).
== Early life == Elaine Delmar was born on 1 September 1939 in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Her parents were father Jiver Hutchinson, a jazz trumpeter born in Jamaica,<ref name="Encyclo">{{cite book |page=842 |title=Encyclopedia of popular music |edition=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gkKAQAAMAAJ |author=Colin Larkin |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195313734 |year=2000}}</ref> and mother Phyllis, both of whom moved to the UK in the 1930s. She spent her childhood with her younger brother and sister living in North London, where she attended the Trinity Grammar School in Wood Green (now known as Woodside High School).<ref name="AllAboutJazz">{{cite web |url=https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/elainedelmar |work=All About Jazz |title=Elaine Delmar |accessdate=12 March 2020}}</ref> Delmar began learning the piano when she was six, going on to play the instrument on the radio during the BBC's ''Children's Hour'' when she was thirteen.<ref name="Encyclo"/> She began touring with her father at the age of sixteen, singing with his band at performances in venues such as US Air Force bases. Delmar was on tour with him when he was killed in a road accident in 1959.<ref name="AllAboutJazz"/>
==Career== ===Singer=== Delmar's professional singing career began in the mid-1950s when she was selected by bassist Coleridge Goode and Lauderic Caton to sing with their quartet, ''The Dominoes''. She spent a month with them at the ''Club Ecstase'' in Bad Harzburg, Germany. Goode later said in his autobiography that "I think it's fair to say that we started off her career".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cm_NBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT85 |chapter=Chapter 2 |title=Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz |author1=Coleridge Goode |author2=Roger Cotterrell |publisher=Northway Publications |year=2014 |isbn=9780992822217}}</ref> Delmar left the Dominoes after her spell with them in Germany and launched a solo career, including playing at clubs and carrying out overseas tours.<ref name="Encyclo"/>
In 2010, she featured in concert with Wynton Marsalis's Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.<ref>{{cite news|title =Wynton Marsalis: Barbican, London |first=John|last=Fordham |newspaper=The Guardian| url =https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jun/20/wynton-marsalis-lincoln-center-jazz |date =2010-06-20 |accessdate =2010-11-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Roots and rites of swing from Wynton Marsalis |first=Jack |last=Massarik |work=This is London |url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/review-23846690-roots-and-rites-of-swing-from-wynton-marsalis.do |date=2010-06-18 |accessdate=2010-11-28 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100726071714/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/review-23846690-roots-and-rites-of-swing-from-wynton-marsalis.do |archivedate=26 July 2010 |df=dmy }}</ref>
===Acting=== Delmar made her first stage appearance in the late 1950s when she was cast in the play ''Finian's Rainbow'' in a revival production in Liverpool.<ref name="AllAboutJazz"/> She then joined the cast of the Richard Rodgers musical drama ''No Strings'' in London's West End, as an understudy for Beverly Todd.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kw0_AQAAIAAJ |page=39 |volume=60 |publisher=Iliffe Specialist Publications, Limited |year=1964 |title=Theatre World}}</ref> In 1972 she was part of the original London cast of the musical ''Cowardy Custard'' at the Mermaid Theatre, which was based on the songs of Noël Coward.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_K9Z0Jp0LFoC&pg=PA231 |page=231 |title=Little Musicals for Little Theatres: A Reference Guide to the Musicals that Don't Need Chandeliers Or Helicopters to Succeed |author=Denny Martin Flinn |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |year=2006|isbn=9780879103217 }}</ref> In 1977 she took on her biggest stage position, a starring role in ''Bubbling Brown Sugar'', and then went on to appear in both the London and Broadway versions of ''Jerome Kern in Hollywood''.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=13 March 2020 |work=Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club |url=https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/artists/sunday-jazz-lunch-elaine-delmar?performance=4492-sunday-jazz-lunch-elaine-delmar |title=SUNDAY JAZZ LUNCH: Elaine Delmar}}</ref> Another role, in which she was cast purely as an actress, was ''A Map Of The World'' at the Royal National Theatre. She was also cast as the Bohemian Princess in the Ken Russell film ''Mahler''.<ref name="Bio">{{cite web |accessdate=13 March 2020 |work=ElaineDelmar.com |title=Bio |url=https://www.elainedelmar.com/bio}}</ref>
== Personal life == As of 2009, Delmar was living in the north London suburb of Hadley Wood.<ref>{{cite news |author=Francine Wolfisz |title=Stars line-up for Mill Hill Music Festival |work=Time Series |url=https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/4448610.stars-line-up-for-mill-hill-music-festival/ |accessdate=13 March 2020}}</ref>
==Discography== * ''A Swinging Chick''<ref name="MichaelV"/> * ''But Beautiful''<ref name="MichaelV">{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelvalentinestudio.com/jazz_gallery/jazz_voice_ljf2015/index.php |work=Michael Valentine Studio |accessdate=13 March 2020 |title=Elaine Delmar biography}}</ref> * ''Elaine Delmar and Friends''<ref name="MichaelV"/> * ''Nobody Else But Me''<ref name="MichaelV"/> * ''S'Wonderful''<ref name="MichaelV"/>
==Theatre appearances== * ''Finian's Rainbow'' (1952/1953) * ''No Strings'' (1961)... at Her Majesty's Theatre * ''Cowardy Custard'' (1972)... at the Mermaid Theatre * ''Bubbling Brown Sugar'' (1977)... at the Royalty Theatre<ref name="Bio"/> * ''Map of the World''... at the Royal National Theatre * ''Jerome Kern in Hollywood''... in London and New York
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.elainedelmar.com Elaine Delmar official website] *{{IMDb name|0217554}} *{{IBDB name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delmar, Elaine}} Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:People from Hadley Wood Category:Actors from Harpenden Category:English women singers Category:English jazz singers Category:Musicians from Hertfordshire Category:British women jazz singers Category:Actresses from Hertfordshire Category:Actors from the London Borough of Enfield Category:Actresses from London