greatest australian singers...

[CRAZY-HORSE]

number 42: JUDITH DUHRAM




Judith Durham, OAM (born Judith Mavis Cock, 3 July 1943, Essendon, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian jazz singer and musician who became the lead vocalist 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.
The SeekersThe Seekers consisted of Durham, Athol Guy, Bruce Woodley and Keith Potger, the last being an ABC radio producer. It was through Potger's position that the three were able to make a demo tape in their spare time. This was given to W&G Records, which wanted another sample of Durham's voice before agreeing to record a Jazz Preachers' album. W&G instead signed the Seekers for an album, Introducing the Seekers, in 1963. (Potger does not appear on the album cover because he was not allowed to have a second job.) Durham, however, 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 "I'll Never Find Another You" composed by Tom Springfield. In February 1965 the record reached number one in the UK and Australia, while their 1966 recording of Springfield and Jim Dale's "Georgy Girl" (from the film of the same name) reached number two in the United States.
solo

Durham returned to Australia in August 1968 and her first solo television special screened on the Nine Network in September. During her solo career she has released albums titled For Christmas With Love, Gift Of Song and Climb Ev'ry Mountain. In 1970 she made the television special Meet Judith Durham in London, ending with her rendition of "When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862–1946).[SUP][3][/SUP] In the 1970s she returned to traditional jazz and recorded Volumes 1 and 2 of The Hottest Band In Town and The Hot Jazz Duo. She then moved to Queensland and focused on her songwriting.
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 1997 with the addition of Durham's solo recording of fellow Seeker Bruce Woodley's "I am Australian" (with Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply and Mandawuy 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' "Advance Australia Fair" arrangement.
In 2000, Durham's album Let Me Find Love, a top ten hit on the Australian album charts, was re-released as Hold on to Your Dream, with the addition of "Australia Land of Today" (which she had written). In 2001, she did 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.
In 2006, the Seekers were awarded the "Key to the City" of Melbourne by Lord Mayor John So. As part of the ceremony, Durham sang part of her song "Seldom Melbourne Leaves My Mind" and was later invited by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund to record the song, as a fund-raiser, with Orchestra Victoria. The decision was then made to record Durham's entire Australian Cities Suite with all proceeds from the sale of the CD to go to the charitable sector. The album was released in October 2008. The project was to benefit charities such as the Motor Neurone Disease Association of Australia (Durham is national patron) and Orchestra Victoria, in addition to other charities which benefit from the Lord Mayor's Charitable Fund or its national affiliated network United Way.
By 2009, Durham's rendition of "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond achieved more hits on YouTube than even the version by Paul Robeson but was withdrawn from availability because of questions involving access to intellectual property.

The Seekers Albums

• Introducing the Seekers (1963)
  
• The Seekers (also known as Roving with the Seekers) (1964)
  
• Hide & Seekers (also known as The Four And Only Seekers) (1964)
  
• A World of Our Own (1965)
  
• The Seekers Sing Their Big Hits (1965) W&G 25/2512
  
• Come the Day (1966)
  
• Georgy Girl (1966) (U.S.A. release ...an abridged version of Come the Day)
  
• Seekers Seen in Green (1967)
  
• The Seekers' Greatest Hits (1968) Columbia SCXO 7830
  
• The Seekers Live at the Talk of the Town (1968)
  
• The Seekers Again — 1968 BBC Farewell Spectacular
  
• The Best of the Seekers (1968)
  
• The Seekers (with Louisa Wisseling) (1975)
  
• Giving and Taking (with Louisa Wisseling) (1976)
  
• Live On (with Julie Anthony) (1989)
  
• Future Road (1997)
  
• Morningtown Ride to Christmas (2001)
  
• Night of Nights... Live! (2002)
  
• The Silver Jubilee Album
  
• 25 Year Reunion ... Live in Concert
  

solo albums:

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] – UK #33[SUP][8][/SUP]
1967 "Again and Again"/"Memories" [45]
1968 For Christmas With Love [Gramophone record|LP]
1970 Gift of Song LP
1971 Climb Every Mountain LP
1973 JD & The Hottest Band in Town Vol. 1 LP
1974 JD & The Hottest Band in Town Vol. 2 LP
1980 The Hot Jazz Duo LP
1992 "Australia Land of Today" [CD single]
1994 Let Me Find Love [CD] – AUS #8[SUP][9][/SUP]
1996 Mona Lisas [CD] – UK #46[SUP][8][/SUP]
1997 Always There [CD]
2000 Hold on To Your Dream [CD]
2002 JD and the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir [CD]
2003 Diamond Night [DVD]
2009 Judith Durham Up Close & Personal – Volume 1 [CD][SUP][10][/SUP]
2009 Judith Durham’s Advance Australia Fair ... A Lyric For Contemporary Australia [CD][SUP][11][/SUP]
2011 Epiphany [CD]
2011 Colours of My Life – AUS #44[SUP][9][/SUP]
2012 The Australian Cities Suite – AUS #81 (debut)
With the exception of the Jazz EP and the 1971 album Climb Every Mountain, all of Durham's solo records have been re-released on CD.